2, 3 year olds!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday Alma and Bobby!
Happy Birthday to you!

We celebrated for 3 big reasons yesterday! A 3-year birthday, a 4-year birthday and Blake's 2-year Metcha Day anniversary!
So the grandma's and grandpa's, great grandma's and grandpa, aunt and uncle, and friends all came over to join the festivities...
The kids opened presents (my kids are spoiled)...played with the toys, tossed aside the clothes, and tore through the cards.  They ate cake, ice cream, veggies and dip, fruit, ham and cheese, crackers, cake pops, and suckers.  Drank some cherry 7-up and played and played and played.

October 2011...hard to believe how little this guy was when we first met him!

Still one of  my all-time favorite pics from Blake's orphanage!

And look at him today!  What a difference 2 years makes!

Leah even got a few presents...she must be pretty special!

Autum got her sucker...all she wanted for her birthday in one lick!

Blake and all his motorized, noisy toys!

Autum and her new bicycle

Blake and his new bike and shark helmet!

Riding away..

Wheeee!

Blake and his rocket launcher from Uncle Chad

Stomp on it!

Watch it fly!

And cheer!  He did this for a solid 30 minutes, over and over...

Night-time snack, in all our pajamas, wearing our fairy wings, still eating cake...

Trying on our new clothes..

Posing before church!

 

No Pinterest

I am NOT crafty.
I try to convince myself I am at each of my children's birthday parties.  So, this weekend we plan to celebrate Blake and Autum's birthday parties with family.  Autum keeps saying she only wants a sucker for her birthday.  No presents, she says, only "guckers." So I know she means business...

So I got the great idea that I could make cake pops to look like lollipops to go along with the lollipop theme of the party.  She would love it!  And so did I...in the planning stages.

I decided yesterday to give the cake pop recipe a trial run just to make sure I knew what I was doing...

I had the girls help me because I just wanted to destroy the kitchen, for some reason, and I thought I had enough patience in my tank, to give it a try.

Wrong.

We had cake flying everywhere, frosting smeared on the fridge, cabinet, and every door in the whole kitchen.  Sprinkles coated the floor enough to be considered a risk for anyone that entered.  Every time I turned around one of the girls was licking the frosting or the cake batter.

We got it all baked, mixed, crumbled, reformed into balls, sticks shoved in, and set-up...
And then everyone starts offering their opinions on why they did not look anywhere close to the picture we were trying to mimic.

Autum, "MMMMM....more frosting? No cake..."
Leah, "Mom, those look gross, but don't taste too bad..."

Jerad, (who had been out back with Blake this whole entire time, decides to re-enter the house while I'm looking over the recipe again trying to figure out where I went wrong) and says, "We are having meatballs for dinner tonight?  Why did you put sticks in them?"

AHHHHH!!!!

Now to call the Cake Lady.  I am flying my white flag.  Done.

Someone please remind me of this in May...

Halloween Costumes

I always start out excited coming up with Halloween costume ideas for us and the kids in early October.  Then the 31st rolls around and I am scrambling to throw something together from the chest of dress-up clothes we have accumulated through the years.

Poor Blake, he could choose about any type of princess costume he wanted...we have Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella, Belle (minus a few jewels), a pirate princess...

But of course Jerad won't have his only son wearing that...so last year he was a football player for one event and a baseball player for the next.  Thank God for jerseys!

Leah has been every possible red-headed character there is...Pippy Longstocking, Raggedy Ann, Strawberry Shortcake, and Arial...last year she and Autum were olympic gymnasts with their metals and leotards.  Thank God for leotards from gymnastics class.

We have been invited to several Halloween costumes as adults too...but Jerad never is too excited about dressing up in anything other than camoflauge this time of year.  He has enough for all of us to dress up as a camo family, probably.  Fit with the doe urine smell and face paint.  Maybe a set of duck calls to hand around our necks.  Some deer sheds to rub together and the deer feeder pulling behind us in the wagon.  Sorry kids, you have to walk!

So this year I'm vowing to come up with something early, buying or making it and not stressing the few hours before we trick or treat because Leah swears she has been Princess Aurora the last 5 years...even though she'd probably be more accurate to say she's dressed up as a cheerleader the past 5 years.  Her request to be a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader this year, was met with a unison "no" by her daddy and mommy.

She has in mind some Dracula's daughter costume.  Which I swear she only wants because the costume includes a pair of high-heeled boots.  Which stems from an argument in Walmart last weekend when I wouldn't let her buy a pair of black, 2" high heeled boots from the women's shoe section, with some of her money.  My argument that they were too big, didn't seem to matter as much as me saying she couldn't even walk in them.  I let her try and she took off in a bent-knee, ankle-shaking, foot shuffle, with her arms locked straight out to the side...trying to convince me that this is how I always walk!"

So that costume is still pending in my book.

I really want to dress Blake and Autum up as Miss Piggy and Kermit.  But $30 a piece for an ugly costume is not my idea of fun!  So I may have to get creative.  I asked Autum if she would wear a blonde curly wig and she said "no, only a bwack one, like Wweah!"  (translate: No, only a black one like Leah.) Not sure if she means red or black...we obviously need to work on our color wheel again.

And I just think Blake's skinny little bow legs scream "frog!"

As for Jerad and I...I have lots of good ideas.  But so far he is a no-go!

Like:
Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons...for our CrossFit Pathos workout Halloween costume party.  He absolutely refuses short running shorts with slits up the sides...


Or this one...
Couples Plug and Socket

That one speaks for itself...

Or the Incredibles family...but again, black speedo's are out for him..

Last year we dressed as the Veggie Tales for a 5K, but he said he was NOT doing that again.

My BFF Business Woman

So I have apparently been underestimating the smarts of my firstborn, red-headed child.

I decided to dive into the dark hole of papers that make up her book bag last weekend to see what all I have probably missed as far as parent reminders, meetings, special events, fundraisers, and homework.  What I found instead were some trinkets that I KNOW did not belong to us: a snow globe with a bear in it, some jewelry, a small coin purse, Leah's wallet with a large sum of cash and coins in it, some candy, and a few other knick knack things.  I also found a notebook filled with people's names, and some sort of scribbly writing I didn't understand.  Kid code or something. 

At the top was written, "BFF Club."

Now my curiosity was killing me. I brought the subject up as we were driving to the grocery store that evening, just her and I.  I said, "so what is BFF Club?" 

She turns her head quickly and gives me this stair like "oh crap!"

She thinks on it a bit and says "It's my club."

I ask her what it means to be in her club...to which she thinks again for awhile.  As if to carefully word what she says in order to protect her club members or something..

My curiosity peaks even more...

She says, "Well, I'm the boss of my club.  And people sign up to be my BFF's..."

I listen some more.

I say, "That's interesting.  And people sign up just to be YOUR BFF? You must be special...what do you do in your club?"

She replies, "Weeelllllll...to be in my club they have to give me gifts..."

Silence.  As I sort out my careful response, without laughing...and also in complete amazement with her sales skills...this girl has a gift!

I finally say, "So let me get this straight, to be your BFF, people have to sign up on your list and give you gifts?"

"Yeah, kinda...or money."

I can't take it any longer. I gently tell her that she has to return the gifts and money, that to be a true friend means you care for that person no matter what.  That you show them God's love by our words, actions, and heart.  It should not involve lists and gifts.  That is is a feeling and connection a relationship, not gift-giving...

(all the while thinking she could have a career in politics)

And also realizing this explains why a neighbor girl in Leah's class brought over a basket of Starbursts the night before with a note for Leah...for no reason...according to Leah...

Ha!

She assures me she returned all the gifts and money and I think we are back on track with friendships.  Feeling pretty proud of the lesson she learned, I forget about it.

Until this week, when I check her bag out again and see another "BFF List" and a few trinkets in the bottom of her bag.   

I stomp up the stairs to her room to find out what this new list involves.  And to get an explanation for more gifts...

She says, "Oh mom! Don't worry about it!  Now, my BFF's just rent me their gifts for a night, so they can be in my BFF Club!  I'm not accepting them to keep, just to borrow.  It's all good!"

Oh my word...

Leah at CrossFit Kids