Watching birds use the airplane toy as a bird bath.
Gus loving his dog.
Aaron took the kids to the playground… twice.
And, I finally cleaned up the Christmas decorations.
Tag Archives: winter
Happy Birthday, Claire!
Yesterday was the kids’ cousin’s first birthday. She is on the only cousin on Aaron’s side of the family.
Today, we went to her birthday party.
She is adorable.
It’s cute to see Lena play with someone smaller than her. When we got home, Lena said that she likes Claire because she is like Lena. “What do you mean?”, I asked. “We… both have hair.”
We tried to get a picture of the 4 of them together. Gus was ready for a nap at this point.
Reed thought watching her dig into the cake was hilarious.
I declined her offer to share the blue frosting.
After the cake clean-up, she snuggled into her daddy’s shoulder. So cute.
When we got home, we were surprised to see a package from my sister at the door– belated Christmas gifts.
Lena had been feeling really bummed that her birthday and Christmas had past, so she was particularly excited about this surprise.
Legos, a train for Gus and a Llama llama book. Spot on.
Sledding
We were all going a bit stir crazy. Reed and Lena started school again today, but none of us, dogs included, had spent much time outside recently. Something had to happen.
So, we went sledding. Someplace where the dogs could run around.
I have one child who LOVES sledding.
One child who approaches it cautiously, but does enjoy it.
And one child who thinks spending any length of time in snow is totally horrible.
We did (mostly) have a good time and someone was glad to be towed back to the car.
Seven
It wasn’t Pinterest worthy. It won’t win me any supermom awards. But, it was 7-year-old-PERFECT.
Admiring gifts from grandparents.
We had a taco bar. Everyone was pleased. Reed’s taco was HUGE.
And of course, there was cake. He was so happy– everyone singing, candles, cake and his birthday.
He tried to take a HUGE bite of cake and this happened…
But, littlest brother still takes the cake for messiest cake eater.
Happy Birthday, Reed! It’s hard to believe that he has been home for four birthdays now.
Birthday Eve
Today was the day before Reed’s birthday. I have to admit, I will be relieved when this birthday season is over. We try to keep it simple– a few small gifts, a fun activity, a dinner and cake of their choice, treats for their class and a birthday shirt. It suppose I like to think it’s simple, because we’ve avoided big parties so far, but it’s really not so simple.
I spent my entire day on birthday prep! Running around, baking, then making his birthday shirt.
The baking– one cake and 24 cupcakes is done. Not the most beautiful, but hopefully it will be acceptable by 7 year old’s standards.
The birthday shirt. Why I started this, I don’t know. I was hoping Reed would tell me he was too old for it, but no, he wanted one. They all love their shirts and wear them all year, so I must do it.
But, I’m in a transition with my screenprinting equipment, so I had nothing quick and ready to go to make him a shirt. The other option was to dig out my sewing machine, but all of the work of finding the materials would have taken me awhile.
So, I went with the tracing and painting method.
I feared that this might look amateur. It does. The ink is on too thick and many of the lines are shaky and smudged.
But, I think he’ll like it.
Still left to do: Wrap Presents and Make Birthday dinner
Reed: “Tomorrow is my birthday?”
Me: “Yes, that is correct.”
Lena: “Oh, yeah. Reed’s birthday IS tomorrow. Hmm… I still haven’t decided what I’m going to get him…”
a moose in moscow 