Marilla with Tori and Saucy, the bottle-fed lamb at Grandma and Grandpa's farm. (Saucy was the name Orianna chose-- not sure where she got it!)
Saucy was definitely a source of entertainment last weekend!
Mom with a lapful of grandkids. All five kids were sick, so they were more amenable to snuggling.
Evan and Marilla both had cakes. Evan had just a few more candles! (We didn't have enough for 30, so there's only 23 candles on Evan's cake.)
Orianna and Elliott enjoying the "Happy Birthday" song.
Helping blow out candles!
And Daddy helps Marilla.
Evan laughing about something.
Marilla with a smile and a face full of chocolate. I wonder if those two things are related? They usually are, in my case!
Dirty face and hands!
Cody and Owen, my weird brothers. Very nice to have Cody home again. And just as exciting to have Owen visit, of course!
Lily got into the cake, too!
Getting into the spirit of things.
Cheyenne. (Watching something in Aunt Bet's hand? Appealing to a Higher Power for more cake? Not sure...)
"Think I'm done with this cake. Let's see how the fern tastes."
Thoroughly covered.
Dad mixing up lamb replacement for Saucy.
Cheyenne "helping". Not sure how the lamb swallowed with those hands around his neck!
Cheyenne is a Farm Girl!
When I think how scared she was just a year ago around animals, I'm so glad she's made progress!
Slicing lots of onions for spaghetti sauce. Everyone thinks I'm weird because I brought my cool new knife with me. I like it, okay?
Evan brought his "business" laptop with him. Now if he had only actually worked on his business books while he spent a week up north...
Orianna with a shiny purse from Aunt Julia's collection of purses!
Lily and Livvie. (Or Livy, or Livvee, or something. I'm forgetting her preferred spelling. Sorry, Olivia!)
This is a rare sight. Cheyenne is looking at the toys IN the cupboard, instead of stepping over them all after the Evil Twins and their helpers, Lily and Rilla, have strewn them all over the living room. Evan left early Monday morning to fly to Denver to help Tyler and Julie remodel their new townhouse. Marilyn took him to the airport, so I was spared the 4:30 taxi service! Evan being away is certainly much easier this week, now that I have a Grandma here to help! (Grandpa came Wednesday night, and is already hard at work painting my pantry shelves for me!) Cheyenne's cough and cold was pretty bad the beginning of this week. She missed school Monday, but I thought she could go to school Tuesday. By the time I got her dressed, though, I realized she was still coughing too much to go mingle with 17 other kids. (Good thing, too... When I opened her backpack Wednesday morning, I realized I had never read the papers the teacher sent home Friday! Tuesday was Pajama Day, so she'd have been devastated when her clueless Mommy sent her to school in a jeanskirt and turtleneck.) To mitigate the sadness of not getting to go to school, I promised we could dye some eggs.
Fortified by leftover vinegar cake from Daddy and Marilla's birthdays, of course!
Elliott watching the green egg.
Cheyenne being patient with the pink egg.
Elliott holding the green egg. I was trying not to have the screaming heebie-jeebies over the thought of all the green dye spilling.
Stirring the egg around a bit.
Elliott holding the green egg, thoughtfully decorated with stickers. It was a good experience for Marilyn and I to bite our tongues as the tasteful pastel eggs were decorated with cheesy stickers. Now I want to dye my own eggs all pretty-like!
Funny faced-kiddo.
Holding the egg with "Elliott" on it.
Cheyenne's egg had a "C"-- and a sticker carefully placed in the middle of the "C".
Posing with their efforts.
This is quite the egg-decorating kit that I shelled out $1.44 for at Wal-Mart. (I went with the brand name, which is why it's so pricey.) For that money, I received "96 Easter Stickers, 9 Food Coloring Tablets, 9 Piece Egg Drying Kit, 9 Silly Circles, 8 Egg Stands, 6 Egg-Arounds, 2 Egg Dippers, 1 Magic Crayon and 1 Memory Game." Phew! That's a hardworking buck and a half! I was looking for the egg-drying rack, and Marilyn found it-- you punch the 9 Silly Circles out of the back of the package and plop the eggs in there! You can then take the Silly Circles and "Decorate with crayons and string together to create a necklace or bracelet or fold and flick for tabletop tennis." Whoever managed to make this much hype over a cardboard box definitely needs a promotion! It worked, though, so it was money well-spent on the kids!
These eggs are pretty even when they crack (inevitable with toddlers around). Then the cracks turn a pretty blue color.
All dried and in a blue bowl. (If I wasn't so lazy and busy, I could SO get into tinting eggs and making beautiful little arrangements with my pottery bowls.)
Our backyard/deck as of Wednesday. There's a little less snow now, but it's still a pretty unbroken expanse of snow on that yard. I'm torn between wanting to shovel the deck off so the kids have the opportunity to drive their scooters there on the (all-too-infrequent) warm days, and wanting to leave the snow there so I can say, "Well, WE still have SNOW on our deck" in April.
Our yummy Ginger Steak Salad. Okay, I'm a little obssessed with Pioneer Woman recipes lately-- I've had them three nights in a row now. The ginger steak salad was Tuesday night, Wednesday night was Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich and tonight was Crispy Yogurt Chicken. Yummmmm...
Rilla partaking in her favorite activity-- pulling all the mixing bowls and cereal out of the cupboard. (There's lots of colored pencils on the floor on the left there, too. They kept her happy through the last five minutes of supper prep.) This is the one cupboard I cannot keep her out of. She can bypass the lock just by jiggling the door, and I haven't found a lock that will work on a single cabinet door. I have one for under the sink, but it's only for double doors. Ergo, I spend lots of time with my spiffy birthday vacumm vacuuming up Life cereal off the floor.
Happy 30th birthday today, Evan Joe! Your family is missing you, but hope you're enjoying being with another branch of your family!
All dried and in a blue bowl. (If I wasn't so lazy and busy, I could SO get into tinting eggs and making beautiful little arrangements with my pottery bowls.)
Our backyard/deck as of Wednesday. There's a little less snow now, but it's still a pretty unbroken expanse of snow on that yard. I'm torn between wanting to shovel the deck off so the kids have the opportunity to drive their scooters there on the (all-too-infrequent) warm days, and wanting to leave the snow there so I can say, "Well, WE still have SNOW on our deck" in April.
Our yummy Ginger Steak Salad. Okay, I'm a little obssessed with Pioneer Woman recipes lately-- I've had them three nights in a row now. The ginger steak salad was Tuesday night, Wednesday night was Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich and tonight was Crispy Yogurt Chicken. Yummmmm...
Rilla partaking in her favorite activity-- pulling all the mixing bowls and cereal out of the cupboard. (There's lots of colored pencils on the floor on the left there, too. They kept her happy through the last five minutes of supper prep.) This is the one cupboard I cannot keep her out of. She can bypass the lock just by jiggling the door, and I haven't found a lock that will work on a single cabinet door. I have one for under the sink, but it's only for double doors. Ergo, I spend lots of time with my spiffy birthday vacumm vacuuming up Life cereal off the floor.Happy 30th birthday today, Evan Joe! Your family is missing you, but hope you're enjoying being with another branch of your family!
1 comment:
Good marketing skills on the easter egg box. Pretty eggs too:)
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