Silly Celebrations

We celebrated Leap Day by making a Leap Year time capsule, having a jumping contest and taking silly pictures, of course! We were also bound by tradition to have "end of winter" blizzards on the last day of winter . . . but since we were equally bound by budget, we made them in our ice cream maker (almost better than the real thing!) ~ yum, yum, yum!! Anna's pink streaked hair was leftover from "Crazy Hair Day" at enrichment.

Levi is an 11 year old!

Levi has officially joined the ranks of pre-teen and we enjoyed celebrating his birthday recently. For several months he told us that all he wanted (to do to celebrate his birthday . . . ) was to have 3 particular friends over for a sleepover. We were able to get everyone's schedules to cooperate and enjoyed a very relaxed "party" - he didn't even want a cake!

A highly unstructured event, it was filled with laser tag at the park, stomp rocket and trampoline fun in the backyard, a lively game of "Big Cookie" and a movie that Levi set up to project onto the living room wall during the sleepover. We also were thrilled to have "Auntie Penny" join us before she moved out of state.

Levi's actual birthday was about a week after our celebration and happened to fall on a Friday, so after assembling his "robot duck" (and enjoying some other gifts that he opened that morning) we were able to sneak away for a little bowling adventure too!

The journals of Emily . . .

I am so proud of our Emily girl! Over 20 years ago I decided I loved journaling -- and I've spent most of the past two decades being WOEFULLY inconsistent at keeping one. Our 12 year old (Emily) was given a journal 4 years ago (on March 14th to be exact!) and has consistently, faithfully and passionately filled 36 of them since then! I don't think she's missed more than a handful of nights writing in her journal in the past four years . . . happy "journal-versary" sweet girl, what I've lacked in consistency you have more than made up for!

Emily's half birthday

Emily talked us into going roller skating for her half birthday celebration this year. We had to be creative with the scheduling of her special time . . . so, it ended up being a "wrap around" time (while the other 4 kids were at a sleepover) starting in the evening and finishing the following morning.

Emily managed to convince Kevin to see a "heartwarming, triumphant" movie (a favorite genre for both of us, but not so much for Kevin . . . a definite sacrifice of love on his part!). Of course, we "had" to sneak in a stop at Baskin Robbins afterward as well! In the morning, we stopped by the Krispy Kreme donut shop and had fun following a few of the little doughnut forms around the baking process as they bobbed along through a sea of grease, up and down the maze of oven racks, under the water fall of sugar glaze and into the waiting boxes. Emily enjoyed several of the delightful treats before we headed to Skate City for the main adventure!

Neither of the "old folks" had been on roller skates for quite some time, so we weren't sure how well the adventure was going to turn out. We needn't have worried, it was actually quite fun and we escaped unscathed . . . and it was even fun!

Loved the special time with our growing up too fast girl!

Super Samuel ~ Seven Year Old!

Our silly Samuel turned a super seven years old on Feb 26th. He was delighted that we were able to arrange for a couple of his favorite friends to come over and celebrate with a "Cars 2" party. He desperately wanted an ice cream cake with a "hot rod in the desert" on the top of it . . . we got close!

Nerf gun wars, a lively game of Sardines, abundant Hot Wheels races, general goofiness and plenty of food made for a fun and memorable time. Sam's birthday was finished off with a family trip to the "cheap theater" to see "Chipwrecked" (again!)