Stephen's Party

The kids were not ready to celebrate their Daddy's birthday the day we went out for his and Papa's dinner.  They really wanted to do a ACTUAL party on his ACTUAL birthday.

Well, his birthday rolled around and all I was able to muster up was the energy to watch Lucy bake the cake.  I was supposed to help Iris make frosting and frost the cake, and help Clyde make up an equation and write it on the cake.  But all that I actually did was feel my blood-pressure bottom out, and there I was...on the couch.

Stephen said he was fine not having a party, or postponing it.

But while he ran an errand and I was out cold on the couch, my consciousness would kind-of drift in and out.  I vaguely was aware of hearing things...like the kids talking to each other as they decorated the kitchen with streamers.  And I thought I heard Lucy pulling the mixer out and walking Iris through how to make frosting.  Then I heard her telling her how to frost the cake.  Clyde was practicing different equations to find one that equaled 35.  Finally, I pulled myself off the couch, checked Clyde's calculations and watched him "write" the equation on the cake.  Then I watched and occasionally added my two cents as they cooked spaghetti for dinner.

The finished cake, which was done without my help!!!

Finally, party time...

Stephen doing the math...it was correct...

Cards...

The kids each bought Stephen a present and put them all in one box for him to open.  Lucy got him his "superior writing instruments", Clyde got him chocolate, and Iris got him a jar in which to keep his "pins."

I bought him a knife sharpener and an itunes gift card :)  I forget which child took this picture...but I may have cropped it ;)

We love the Daddy!!!

Birthday Boys!

We had a combined birthday dinner for Stephen and Papa. 

Papa said Stephen could pick the restaurant, Stephen said Lucy could pick...soooo....Outback, it was.

Here's Papa with Iris...

Papa with Clyde...

and Papa with Lucy...

Papa opening his present from everybody...

Stephen holding up a copy of the cover of the book Sherry & David ordered for him....

And somehow I didn't get a pic of Stephen with the totally awesome backpack that Mom and Paul got him :(  Oh well.

After that we had dessert at Menchie's!!

Much fun!  Happiest Birthday, guys!!!

Lego Vendor

Lucy surprised her father and I one day by spending the entire day in the basement designing and building vending machines.  We were shocked because they were so cleverly designed and to my knowledge she's never seen anything like them. 

The first one that she showed us was disassembled before I could get a picture :(  When you spun a knob on the side of it, little bitty legos came out of the dispenser.

This is the second one she built....

The point was that you could pick what color legos it would dispense by lifting the lever with that your desired color fastened on top of it.

Here I am lifting the blue lever...

And here are the blue legos that came tumbling out...

The last one had a slot for a quarter...

Here's Lucy showing Daddy how when you put the quarter in the slot, tiny legos tumble out.

I was floored.  I'm sure I'm biased, but I think she's a little genius :)

Bubble-gum Portraits

The spring/early summer saw me feeling rather light-headed a good bit of the time.  I have seen improvement though and I wanted to seize the opportunity and finally plan a project with the kids.

I saw this neat idea on Pinterest (again!) and decided to go for it.  (Plus, Hobby Lobby had their canvases and acrylic paints on sale.)

Here the kids are looking in a mirror I set up so they can draw, then paint their self-portrait....

I told them to paint everything but the mouth, and before we started I had them each paint a wooden ball pink.

When they were all done, we put the wooden ball where their mouths should be and....voila!
You have a bubble-gum portrait!

They loved this and I LOVE the finished product :)

And to give credit where it is due, here is a link to the original blog entry that inspired me!
http://jennihorne.blogspot.com/2012/02/musings-from-art-room.html

My Mini-Gardners

Lucy doesn't beg.  She never has....unlike her sister.  She is very good at being typically female and drops hints.

This winter she dropped LOTS of hints to her Daddy that she would REALLY enjoy gardening again.  When he talked about how much work it was for him and how she can't really stay outside in the sunshine long anyway, she would just look at him and take a gardening book to bed.  The next morning she would have a garden planned on graph paper.  This happened a few times.

So....he saw me pinning some things to Pinterest (he doesn't normally pay much attention to my pins) and happened to observe some tiny gardens made of cinderblocks.

One Sunday when Lucy returned from a weekend with her Nena & Papa, she found these....

Daddy had come through! :)  The kids were SO excited!!  They each chose his/her mini-garden then planned the layout.  Lucy ran straight away to find the old garden decorations and pass them out.

Lucy's planted sugar-snap peas, green beans, lima beans, lettuce, peppermint, lemon-thyme, curry, and she acquired some butterfly mix seeds from her brother.  Note the small peppermint plant that Nena bought her...you'll be seeing it again.

Clyde's garden was soley meant to be a flower garden to benefit our flying friends.  In the center he planted a hummingbird mix and jasmine, while on the edges he planted a butterfly mix.

Iris planted Morning Glories, baby carrots, corn, begonias and some of Clyde's butterfly mix.

Here are some photo's of their rewards...

Lucy wanted her sugar-snap peas to be cooked in their pods, but her Momma stir fried them a little TOO well and she ended up just opening them and eating the peas.

These are Iris's prized "pink flowers."  She loved them so well, we saved their seeds.  I need to identify them, the came from one of Clyde's mixes.

Here is Lucy's peppermint!  And it has actually gotten even bigger and produced some little purplish cone-shaped flowers.  She lets me use the leaves to make fresh peppermint tea!  It is FABULOUS!

This is Lucy's lettuce!  I have NEVER had lettuce grow and was very excited for her that her did!!  Looks scrumptious!  Lucy thought she grew it for US to eat.

But she was mistaken.  She actually grew it for this little guy.

One of Clyde's flowers...I took several pics of these...they're quite photogenic :)

Iris holding one of her prized baby carrots.

Iris's corn!  She's most proud of it.  Only two stalks produced corn cobs, but she was deliciously excited when she got to pick and eat them!!

And her morning glories.  They TOOK OVER!!  Stephen and I both would go out at various times just for fun and unwind them from all the other plants to try to keep them in contained in their own heap.

Lucy displaying one of her green beans.  We cooked a batch of her green beans along with some of her limas and they were SO good!

 The three gardeners with their mature gardens.

 Lucy's lima beans.

Clyde's garden....

 ...and then again several days later.  Note the new purples and yellows and the increase in the oranges and pinks.

If you walk to the other side there are several of these little blossoms kind of hiding...

One of his visitors.

...and another.

I finally got a better picture (not so good with the camera) when one flew over to one of Lu's flowers.

Not too shabby for itty-bitty gardens, huh?  I was quite surprised with how well they turned out and I thought the kids, and Stephen ;), did a great job.  They LOVE their gardens and want to go look at them every chance they get.  They've been quite a blessing!