Birthday Weekend

Julia turned 11 February 27, Sunday. I made her cake Saturday. She chose this owl cake from Family Fun magazine. Didn't it turn out cute?! It was kind of a job to make. Not hard, just a lot of prep steps. I can never find plain chocolate wafers for cakes that need them, so always end up buying Oreos and scraping the frosting off. Then they had to be cut in half. The orange slices had to be cut. We were supposed to use circus peanuts, but I also couldn't find those at WalMart, Target or Vons. Crazy! Anyway. Julia and Austin decorated the baby owls. Cute, cute!!


I took pictures of Julia after church, on her birthday. Every day she chooses just the right earrings to complement her outfit. :)

I wanted a picture of all 4, since the last one was at Christmas. This is what happens: Julia was saying, "Mmmmm...I love my brother...!" and squeezed him tightly. Austin kind of liked that. Lauren tried to do the same to Caroline, who didn't like it!

Not sure what's going on here?? Caroline's sucking her Smartie [bribe!]. Austin is Muscle Man?

Awww...what a cute little bunch of kids. ;) Love their hands folded so sweetly. But you saw the first two pics above and know that doesn't always happen!

Julia with her presents

Brian and me with the birthday girl--Eleven years old already, wow! Brian's mom came for a couple days, and she took this picture.

Julia got lots of books, some clothes for Spring, Apples to Apples Bible Edition game. She'd played it at Awana and requested it. We played it that night together, and it was fun! She says it's her favorite game. She also got an outfit for her Felicity doll, and Elizabeth's accessories. She was surprised, and said, "How did you get those? I thought they were discontinued!" Hee hee--I have my ways. And told her as much. We did have some warning before Felicity and Elizabeth went into the American Girl archives last year. ;)

Sunday after lunch, we rushed Julia to Awana Bible Quiz practice, and Austin to Sparks-a-Rama games practice. Brian, his mom, and I went to the park next to church with the little girls. Lauren was practicing the monkey bars, and both girls liked Brian helping them across.

Grandma with the little girls.

Saturday night we went out for dinner to Olive Garden, as it's Julia's favorite restaurant. So Sunday we ate leftovers from there, for dinner. Julia blew out her candles when we sang, and then we ate that yummy owl! Lauren made the crown for the birthday girl, and watched closely to make sure it stayed on during the song. It did, but fell off shortly thereafter. :)

Happy birthday, Julia!

Don't Smile

Almost every day after school Lauren wants to get the mail. She likes seeing what we get and sorting it out. :)


Tonight Lauren told me, "L is such a nice letter. No bad words, like 'mad', start with L. Only lovely words. Like love. And light." Oh, and let's not forget Lauren... ;)

She also told me that all the girls in her class want to marry Justin 'Beaver'. I asked her if she did, and she nodded in agreement! I asked why, and she said, "Because all the girls in my class do!" Oh my! Here she's working on the cover of a book she wants to make about Caroline. She wrote the title a little later: Caroline and the Gumballs.

The other day we started this collage, the idea from my new art book. Lauren cut and glued the background pieces on Monday. Then we finished it this afternoon. I helped her with the curvier pieces, but she cut all the straight pieces and glued everything down.

She chose all the papers and colors herself, and I have to say, this is a good way to make quick work of scrapbook paper scraps!! She had no second thoughts about cutting wherever, and if she cut too big or too small, oh well, just grab another paper and cut some more!! That made me cringe a little. ;) {Kept reminding self: They're only scraps. They're only scraps. You haven't used them yet...} She was soooo proud of her work! And went to hang it in her bedroom right after she'd shown Brian.

Caroline joined us outside, of course, not wanting to be left out of anything Lauren's up to. Sometimes I tell them, "Don't smile" to get them to, well, smile. :)

Don't smile...

See! It works. I asked Caroline tonight if she was a little child. She said, "No, I not. I Sweetheart. And a baby, and a girl." She talks like any little kid now, but still has some toddler talk: when I put her to bet tonight: "I want the fowler pillow!" (flower)

Caroline also tells me almost every day, "You're my BEST, Mom!" Or, "You're my best thing EVER!" Awwww.... She consistently calls Brian and me 'Dad' and 'Mom'. All three older kids still call us Daddy and Mommy!

Don't smile....

A couple other Caroline things I recorded earlier:

Dec. 30: Brian and Austin were egging eachother on, cheering for opposing football teams. Brian said, "New York Jets! New York Jets!" Caroline joined right in, "Do Your Pits! Do Your Pits!"

When I put her down for a nap or to bed at night, she asks me, "Can I wake up?" I always tell her she can wake up in the afternoon. Or morning. :)

Our cat, Bailey, has been gone since the morning of Feb. 12. We don't think he's coming back. The first few mornings he was missing, I'd say to Caroline as we walked home from school, "I wonder where our Bailey went..."

Caroline: "You still have your Pongo, Mom."

4-Day Weekend

Last week, the kids had a half day Thursday, then a 4-day weekend. It rained a lot! Our power went off several times, but the longest stretch was about 2 hours. Another stretch lasted several minutes, but the others were just long enough to mess up the microwave and oven clocks I'd reset...

Austin and Lauren ran around in the rain on Friday. They love playing with the umbrellas.


Julia had her friend Elizabeth over in the afternoon. The power was out when Elizabeth arrived, and she, Julia, and Austin played the game of Life by candlelight until the lights came back on.

Austin also tried to rig something up with some of his pipes and the gutter downspout. Not sure what exactly, but the pile of pipes is still sitting in the grass!

Saturday Julia helped at a bake sale for 4-H. It was a benefit for a local girl with cancer, who is now 20. The girl had been in Julia's 4-H club from the time she was 9 through her Sr. year of high school. We don't know her, but the club encouraged everyone to help out. Brian picked Julia up when her shift was done, and bought tri tip sandwiches someone was selling to help this girl. Yum!

In the morning Brian took Austin to Santa Maria so he could buy his own playground ball. Every day at recess Austin plays handball with lots of other boys. He comes home excited to tell me about the "Hardy" or "Baby" he hit that day. :) There are other terms too, and it makes me smile to hear him talk about it so seriously!

Anyway, he's been trying to play handball at home with his little superballs, and they just don't work quite the same. Brian also bought a Dora ball for the girls, but mostly Austin's been using both balls. When one rolls away, he gets the other! Brian also set a sheet of plywood up outside for Austin to hit against, but most of the weekend he was using our front door as his court. Believe it or not, it works well. And we've had no broken lamps or plants or windows. ;)

Sunday was church, but we only went to Sunday School, as Brian had started getting sick with a cold. He probably would have just stayed home all day, but it was the last week of a special 6-week marriage class we'd been attending. We didn't want to miss the last week!

Lauren wore these 3 braids in her hair. I thought it was a pretty hair style. :)

The kids had watched the Sandlot movie, and one of the girls in it wore her hair like this. Saturday, Lauren wore her hair like this and said she was going to ask the Sandlot boys to play with her. She said I could talk to them, but only she could see them!!

Sunday night Julia spent the night at her friend Emmaline's house. The next morning Emmaline's mom drove Julia to the girls T&T (Awana) director's house. Julia was one of the top share-earners this trimester (?), so got to help organize the store items. The top 2 earners from 5th and 6th grades get to do this before the store night, which was yesterday. They also get to see all the items, and see what they want first. :) Then on Awana store night, these 4 got to go early and set up all the store items at church, shop first, and eat pizza. :) Fun!

Julia bought a diary with a lock (very important to her!) and some glow-in-the-dark stars for her ceiling. Austin and Lauren said they're going to be sneaky and read her diary--which is why Julia likes the lock. ;) This picture is her playing paper dolls Monday night.

Brian didn't feel well most of the weekend, but is gradually getting better. Now Austin is croaky again. But says he isn't sick (cough, cough).

Since the Last Post

It seems like not much has been going on this month, but yet we've been doing a lot of things. Caroline's been sick pretty much all of February. I took her to the dr. Feb. 7 b/c her eyes had been oozing green gunk for 3 days, and were all red and puffy. She had a cold leading up to that. Dr. said she had a sinus and eye infection and prescribed Amoxicillin. It was Caroline's first time having an antibiotic! She was a stinker about taking her meds the first few times, but then got to liking it.


These little girls play school almost daily. Lauren tries to do crafts with Caroline, and says she wants to teach her to count to 100, and also that she wants to teach Caroline everything she (L) knows. The other day Lauren pondered aloud, "I wonder if she'll remember what I taught her when she goes to Kindergarten..." :)


One of the kids' jobs is to distribute toilet paper to the bathrooms. They like to play with it first... Building towers. Building walls, then kicking them down...


Lauren asked me to take her picture in these PJs the other night. She likes the sparkles on them and wanted to make sure we had pictures of them! She came up with these poses herself.

I peeked in the big girls' room one morning and saw Caroline reading Lauren's Bible. She'd sat Panda right next to her.

Valentines Julia and Lauren made. Julia made all the cat cards; I helped Lauren with the caterpillars.

So. Caroline was on Amoxicillin a week, when I noticed tiny red dots on her tummy and leg. The dr. said to stop giving it to her. The pharmacist said the rash might get worse before it got better. It did. This was Tuesday, Feb. 15, after the pharmacist said to take pictures of the reaction.

Julia had a reaction to Amoxicillin when she was 5. Brian's allergic to penicillin. Austin, Lauren, and I are ok with it.

The rash got much worse! This was Wednesday morning after a shower with Daddy. Her face, back and belly looked as bad as her legs. :( Meanwhile, she caught a cold, right as she quit the Amoxicillin. Lovely. At least the goopy eyes are behind us [for now], but she's had a runny nose every since. Poor baby. :(

On a happier note: these books arrived from Amazon last week. I hardly every buy books. Love books, but hate clutter! I do buy kids' picture books now and then, but they read them over and over and over, and are almost like toys in our home.

I've been wanting to order the 8 Great Dates book since I read Bringing Up Girls last summer, and Dr. Dobson recommended it. One thing leads to another, and you see on Amazon, "People who bought 8 Great Dates also bought these other books:" So that is how the other Dannah Gresh book and the Vicki Courtney books got added to my cart. Hee! Julia saw the stack of books on the counter and right away started looking through them. I told her, "Stop it!" LOL She got a big smile, and said Mrs. B, her friend Lorin's mom, has those books...(Dannah Gresh's). I've caught her a couple other times trying to peek in those "mom" books and told her I have to read them first! ;)

Art Treasury book: saw this on someone's blog, and thought it looked neat. Lauren and I are going to make one of the projects today. Also saw Expressive Photography on another blog. Had that in my cart a couple months and decided just to buy it. :)

The Hymns book: my kids like hymns. They like new CDs. I thought it'd be good for them to learn stories behind some of them. We've listened to the CD several times already, and they like it.

One Thousand Gifts: Came across this book on several sites. Read the excerpt on Amazon and was intrigued. Started reading the author's blog, and thought I should have the book.

The only ones I've started reading is the Little book. It's good so far! We've read one of the hymn stories, and Lauren, Julia, and I looked through the entire art book. Looking forward to the rest!

These are the cute Valentine's chocolates I gave the kids. Brian made each of them a Valentine, and a bunch of coupons for me. They get creativity from their Daddy, too!

And, Caroline's rash is much better. She'll lift her shirt now and then, showing her belly, and say, "My dots are gone." ;)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

Valentine's Day! All the big kids are having Valentine parties at school. Austin was eager to start working on his as soon as his teacher sent the name list home.


One day at Vons I grabbed these Hot Wheels cards for him, and Tinkerbell cards for Lauren. They were a hit!


Julia and Lauren wanted to make this Valentine heart garland from the Family Fun magazine. Last Friday I decided we'd saved enough toilet paper tubes and one wax paper tube (yay, a long one!), and the girls could start their work. They were busy busy painting all those hearts.

They both helped shape the tube pieces into hearts. Julia and I punched and poked holes for threading the string through. Both girls did some stringing. Though it was a little difficult for Lauren, and I ended up finishing her chain.

Lauren sorted the beads--a job she could easily do, that she liked.

I hung Lauren's garland on the chandelier.

Julia's is pinned up over the French doors. They look cute. :)

One more thing, this is my 500th post! Wow!

Butterflies

Last Friday night, Julia had her Awana T&T halfway party. It was for girls who have finished at least half of their book for the year. After the party, her friend Elizabeth came home with Julia for a sleepover. Of course all our other kids were very excited to have a new kid here. All the kids stayed up late playing. Finally we made everyone go to bed except Julia and Elizabeth. They played the Game of Life until 11:30-ish, with Elizabeth winning.

The next morning the kids played more, until we left to see the Monarch butterflies in Pismo Beach. It was foggy and chilly, and the butterflies were pretty still. A few were moving around in a few areas.


All the kids liked looking through Brian's binoculars. Austin also brought his own binoculars he got when he and Brian went camping last October.


Elizabeth showed Julia and Lauren how to sign "butterfly".


We walked along the path through the butterfly grove, then continued along through the campground, till we got to the beach, kind of the edge of the beach, actually. There's a lot of driftwood and white, weathered trees in the sand. I think that was all the kids' favorite part of the day: climbing and swinging and bouncing on the driftwood and trees!

Lauren ripped her pants climbing on the wood. Uh oh. These two bounced on this branch for quite awhile. Lauren joined them, too. They rode it like a horse. :)

We turned around to walk back through the campground when we got hungry. The butterflies were much more active and fluttering around as we left the grove. The sun had come out and warmed things up. :) We went out for lunch at McDonald's and then took Elizabeth home.