A Four Year Old Girlie

My older girlie turned four last week!

(Birthday balloon in bed tradition)

A special breakfast setting…

So thankful to be with family to celebrate. Birthday pancakes are so much more fun with cousins!

Deeply involved in “Go Fish.”

Girl cousins to church in matching outfits… thanks to Grammi!!!!! Also, the whole congregation sang to her… must have been so embarrassing but she held it together!

Then to Chuck E. Cheese’s for a little special fun…

We had the joy of celebrating with our families at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in the evening.

I whipped up this simple little beauty for her…

And she might have spit on it as she was blowing out the candles. Woops!

She has been SO much fun lately.

One of her middle names means “Cheerful bringer of joy” and that is definitely who she is! She skips half the places she goes, makes goofy faces, sings made-up songs and just bubbles over with happiness (most of the time). She adores her baby sister and helps me take care of her and watch out for her. She loves to write her name. And paint. And do craft projects. One of her favorite things is making cards and delivering them. She loves to give things away, both as gifts and things she doesn’t need anymore. She has the best giggle in the world and will ask to be tickled again and again and again when we tuck her into bed at night.

Three was great. Four is going to be greater!

She is such a gift to me.

Happy Birthday Sweet N!

A Special Evening

Earlier in the month a friend and I had the pleasure of throwing a dinner party to celebrate our (almost shared) birthdays. We invited mutual friends to celebrate with us and it was a MOST special evening!

Silke and I spent a good two months planning this night. We have busy lives and 5.5 kids between us and we needed that long to make it happen! Once we decided on our five course menu, we did most of the food preparation ahead of time. The night of, these handsome husband helpers did all the last minute preparations, plating and serving on that evening. 

It was a busy night for them in the kitchen… they worked hard and had fun doing it together.

H’orderves served were…

Baba ganoush on cucumber slices.

Quark with nuts on bread.

Bruschetta on toast.

Then we moved to the table…

… and enjoyed:

A most impressive salad plate.

Delicious pumpkin soup.

Chicken fricassee with puff pastry and garlic green beans.

Coffee.

And homemade tiramisu, chocolate and vanilla mousses and fresh strawberry sauce to finish it off.

It was very possibly the most beautiful meal I have ever eaten.

And it was a beautiful evening. One we will not forget for a long long time.

LEGO Party

As you know, my boy turned 5 earlier this month. We threw a lil’ party for him and several friends soon after. I have such fun planning parties like this. I have to do it in baby steps over a few months to make it happen, but it’s my joy!

I canNOT take credit for most of these ideas. I got them off of this great post at Delia Creates. She made the planning very easy.

The kids played outside for awhile and then my activity coordinator took over (my wonderful husband!).  They built a tall tower altogether, which they thought was great fun.

They colored LEGO coloring sheets.

And they took turns hiding the ‘LEGO’ guy around the house and racing around to see who could spot him first.

Fun!

This was lunch. I loooove the African way of loading a plate up with various foods and handing it over. I did it for Sweet N’s First Birthday party and other parties too.  It’s much simpler than doing a buffet and it’s much easier with kids then having them try to fill their own plates.

Grilled cheese sandwich, fruit kebab, popcorn, cucumber with yogurt dip and lime Kool-Aid. Delicious.

And the LEGO cake. Not my best cake, but fun, nonetheless.  It’s easy to see that on top are Oreo cookies covered in icing to make the LEGO bumps.

After cake they were sent off with the goodie bags that H had tons of fun filling with me. A small LEGO set (thanks Grammi!), a pencil and a pack of gummies from South Africa. Simple and fun.

My favorite part about the party? How special it made my boy feel. He IS a most special boy and I love doing special things for him!

Showering Baby Braxton

About a month ago Baby Braxton got to be the guest of honor at his own shower! Usually these things happen when the babe is still in the belly, but this shower was different and that meant I could be a part of it!



These four sisters (don't they look beautiful?!) threw the party. But I wanted to help too. So they agreed. Yay for me!

My gig was the decorations! Perfect!

Wanna see?

No?

Too bad!



I made approximately 25 yards of cute baby bunting. It was so simple and makes such a great impact in the room. And can I just take a moment and state for the record that I made bunting for my boy's nursery four years ago before EVERYONE and their sister was making it? In fact I could hardly find directions online cause no one was doing it yet. But I persevered and have been enjoying the fruits of my bunting (?) for four years and now I can call myself a trend-setter. Ha!

Well, maybe I could be a trend-setter if anyone knew about me or cared what I did. So maybe I won't ever be a trend-setter, but I do feel happy that I saw the potential in bunting before the rest of the (female North American) population did.

K, I'm stepping back on track now.

The decorations!!



Table displays were squares and rectangles of the same fabrics, combined with vintage white lace trimmed napkins, white doilies and Ball jars (thanks cousin Lori!) with tea lights, twine and more strips of fabric.

Easy peazy.



The jars were my fav.



Can you tell?



So sweet. Wait, um... I mean handsome?! It was a shower for a boy and this isn't very boy-ish. But the shower was attended entirely by females (and one other cute little male cuz) so how's a girl to decorate?



Lori also did the cupcakes. She's pretty much a cupcake master. And they tasted amazing. I asked her "How do ya make 'em taste so good?" and she said "Butter." And I thought "Duh."

Then I asked for another.

Ha!

Actually I'm not sure if I actually did ask for another. But if I didn't, I totally regret it now.



Baby Braxton got introduced to many ladies for the first time, including Great Grandma.



The sole game was "Mold a Baby". I made some playdough, gave a handful to each woman and told them to "Mold a baby." (The game is pretty straight-forward, I know.) I think it was a great game cause it gave us all something to do with our hands while we visited. It was also a great game because no one had to stand up and sing a solo or get wrapped in TP or re-enact their birth experiences on top of the table.

Oh my.

What a terrible thought.

An awful thought.

That awful idea is not a real shower game (at least I HOPE it's not), but I admit my awful-shower game brainstorming session got a bit carried away...

Pretend I never mentioned it.



The molding results were impressive! Including this cute little guy sleeping soundly on his belly.



And this baby? Maybe this is a re-enactment of the birth? Not sure.



And there are these two. Possibly worthy of a participation ribbon? I appreciate the effort.



This happy little fellow was the winner. Blue ribbon baby!



I totally see the resemblance.



Present time!!



Go ahead... say it with me...



"Aaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwww"...