High 5 for derby birthdays!

Lauren turned 5 in Feb.

I took it upon my self to make it a 'Roller Derby' skating party.

It was so cool to be using REAL skates-

Like from the era of skates!

No joke,

They were refurbished from the 70's

So I tried to dress her to the part:

(Happy to act her new age, and help a friend out.)

And bought some glowing accessories,

chili dogs

(authentic Texan chili from Eian- minus the heat for the kids)
So delicious!

Then I basically sat back and let the party throw itself.

Of course Grandma's always there to help.

Most of the following pictures contain images that resemble

'Flying lice'
That would be the worthless disco ball I decided to rent.
Lauren and one of her favorite friends Julia.
Seriously, all her dolls and babies are named Julia.
This girl is a keeper.


Of course, Claire got plenty of attention too:
Monica was her best friend.
Even good enough to sport some glowing shades.


Grandma love:
Extremely BIG girl!

Cruising the rink with G-pa.

Four was such a fun age.

I was sad to see it go.

Definitely interested in this new 5 thing though...

Lauren sweets,

You are the most caring daughter

And a loving friend.

Shopping buddy,

dress-wearing extraordinaire,

Strong willed when you are crossed

Compassionate to the hurting.

Seeking out to bring comfort to the lonely.

God has given you so many unique and creative dimensions that make up the mystery of you.

You are so loved by your close family,

and missed by the faraway family.

Every person that has a bit of your life in it, has received the blessed gift of you.

I am so thankful that the Lord has shared this small part of your life with me.

Cake for a four year old.

While it has been a couple of weeks,

In some ways, it feels as though a couple of days.

Lauren is four and I still can't get over it.

The real purpose of this post is to show off

Grandma's mad pancake skills.

Lauren wanted it, and I loved the idea.

Plus,

it was cheap!

PLUS,

It doubled as her birthday cake!

PLUS PLUS,

I didn't have to make it!

I do NOT have good pancake pourin' skills.

Ask anybody.

So in between lovin' on my Peeps,

And cleaning my house,

vacuuming out my car,

cleaning my Father In Laws house (making room for my other company),

She made this beauty:

So Lauren,

Do you know how much your Grandma loves you?

Enough to be in the kitchen throughout the whole party,
Building you a masterpiece cake,

busing the tables,

wiping your face,

making your day.

The only good thing that I can claim out of this whole ordeal,
is the pancake recipe.
So, here it is:

Pancakes

2 c. flour
(any will do, I've even fared well with a whole wheat version)
5 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. honey
1 egg
1 1/2 c. milk or buttermilk
1/3 c. butter
(or bacon grease- my preference)


mix all ingredients.
Heat griddle on medium high heat.
brown on both sides.

All of the different kinds of sweetener add the best flavor and texture. If you have other forms of sweetener, definitely give it a whirl!

Babe to toddling

As of Saturday,

My nest is empty of Babe's.

That's a hard one to swallow.

My dear sweet little love turned one.

Maybe that's why I have put this post off for a few days.

I really could have put this one off for another six months or so..

Her birthday that is.

The party was cute

And Fantastic,

It hosted many good friends,

And not nearly enough family.
But its all understood.

The price of growing up and moving away.

Well,

Now that the blubbering is out of the way,

Party details are as such:

My Good good good good

good good friend Alicia

hand made for me

a forever keepsake:

The pictures just don't do it any justice.
The banner has Velcro letters

(yay for interchangeable!)

It was the belle that made the ball.

My friend Jennifer hand made labels

for food,

fish, etc.
Basically anything that needed labeling.

A handy creation.

Claire had her first cake

Ever

Really, ever.

We all paid the price for it later.
Poor thing screamed all afternoon.

Her pot belly just wasn't made for sweets.

It was good going down though.

The place was super cute..

I usually don't do a party twice in the same place,

But this one might be an exception.

Hope I don't sound too snobby bout that one.

Cupcake love.


You can't see it in their hands,
but the cutest idea I have had yet....
goldfish for party favors...
Real goldfish.
I kind of impressed myself on that one.
I thought that one up.
Straight from the old brain box.

10 cent goldfish,
Dollar store glasses.
1 per family.
60 goldfish total.
3 fish in a pot.

All adds up to
Way too many leftovers.
Each favor cost about $1.30-$1.40


It's finally Claire's turn for her first apron.
Thanks again to my great friend Heather.

I scavenged up every pic of Claire

in my possession.

My mom hung them from miniature wooden clothes pins

on Beautiful ribbon.

It was delightful.

I even included an ultrasound picture of her.

I ended up throwing all the games out the window.

I polished off Claire's birthday cake instead.

After all, It was just too big for a one year old.

Aren't they cute?

That's it!

I wish I had more to share,

Maybe I'll get off my can

And take more pictures next time.

Great kitchen gossip.

Look at the expression on my face.

Must have been a doozy.

The fish:

My Claire:

I need you to know,

that you help keep your momma sane.

Your smile

Your eyes.

Your stubby chubby toes.

Your four rolls from knee to hip.
your piggy tails and baby waves "ba!" (bye)

The hugs you give when the days been too long.

I miss you when your sleeping.

I love you on my hip.

rolley polley fingers clapping

The sweetest sound a hand could ever make.

You're such a good sport with your siblings.

They cart you and drop you all over the place.

Silas is your keeper,

Lauren is your fashion expert

and Mommy practice.

Mommy loves and takes care of you,

Your go-to when you get hurt.

Daddy is your first love.

You'll never know what that noble man

would do to make you happy.

The perfect addition to this family of four.

So much more complete

now that we're five.

This last year feels like a lifetime,

I can't imagine or remember

what life was like without you.

We love you.

We need you.

I am asking for comments to Claire on this post.

A way to document this in a place that won't get misplaced

And read them to her when she comes of age.

A birthday blessing if you will.

Toot Sweet.

My Mom,

Alicia,

and I.

Picture us all together in my new cottage kitchen.

From 10 AM to 4:30

Messying it up again.

It wouldn't have taken so long to make everything if

I WERE MORE ORGANIZED!

But I'm not,

so it did (take that long).

First batch of cupcakes:

mixed it all together,

A triple batch.

baked the first batch.

remove from muffin tins.

load second batch,

realized that the batter was so thick

because I had forgotten to add the last ingredient:

WATER.

To the store for an unplanned purchase of more ingredients.

Peeps occupied themselves today.
Iced a few cupcakes.

sugared some icing here and there.

But mostly it was a movie day.

The reason for the season.

The tootsie rolls are the stems of the apple cupcakes.

The rock hard green

Dollar store look-a-like

were the leaves.

The leaves were a bear to manipulate.
I think, total absorption of candy

through our finger tips,

Added up

could have resulted the full days portion of food.

Our fingers feel like they've

been crocheting

All the life long

I have finally realized that there is nothing

to do to ever re-pay Alicia for the things she does for me.

She is just too bloomin' good to me.
She has removed stitches from my body for goodness sake.

Some of the finished product.
78 cupcakes to be exact.

Plus a cute little birthday ditty

Made especially for Claire's indulging pleasure.

My Mom.
She works out,
And can ice a mean cupcake.


The goldfish favors.

The last picture of Claire as a baby.

Because tomorrow,

She is a toddler.

Be still my aching heart.

Success with the first bite.

Last Friday, friend turned thirty six.

Without thinking, I offered to make her a Birthday cake of her choice.

I should have specified

A chocolate, yellow white, or even cheesecake

She chose angel food cake.

I choked.

Never made that one before.

Don't even really like the stuff,

But my pride would not let me tell her that I was scared.

Angel food cake it is.

I searched the Internet for about an hour

reading and re-reading recipe's

And got up the courage to choose one.

Went grocery shopping,

and put the Peeps down for nap,

and got to work.

after a few glitches smoothed over,

I came up with this:

It looked good,

and tasted better.

I thought it was easier to make than a white or yellow cake.
Here's the link.

Let me know if it doesn't work.

I think they're going to use my pic. to display on the site.

The finished product

and my Betty Crocker pose.

For the frosting,

I made whipped cream,

and mixed in chocolate powder (for baking).

The birthday girl.

Slappin' the bass

Rock BandDaddies wrestling.

Seriously,

even if you think you don't like angel food cake,

try this recipe.

You'll be glad you did!

Birthday post numba 2

It has taken me so incredibly long to put these posts together.

I am not naive enough to think that everyone will be interested and eagerly awaits the next post about the times we celebrated my boy turning five.

I just have this pressing need to document this thoroughly and precisely

You see this boy of mine is a gift. He is not in my possession for long and

I want so desperately to remember and cherish these times.

Soon he will no longer be just a gift of Mine and his Dad's',

He will be a gift to the world

and we will have to share his time.

So without further ado,

Last weekend's camping trip

And the celebration on Silas' actual birthday:

We started out Silas' birthday morning off right.

Ice cream for breakfast,

Because its the true way to win his love.

A cuddle and a little frozen sugared cream.

I actually suggested the idea to the boy

and he laughed like I was joking.

Ice cream fro breakfast?
Is that even possible?

Pretty Felicia
The Man himself.
Aside from the endless crazy-loud partiers down the river,
This was the best camping site ever.
We were literally on the river bed.
Our 'kitchen was less than 50 feet from the water.
We boiled river water to wash dishes.
We walked in nice soft sand.
It was goodness to the extreme.
The second night, someone had it with the partiers,
and made a call to the neighborhood sheriff.
They got busted, we got sleep.
Smooth sailing for night #2




Introducing our newest home.
Its the first one so far that we have owned 'outright'
About 20 square feet,
Spacious enough to sleep us-
any any a few more Peeps down the road!
Is anyone laughing with me on this one?
Ragamuffins escaping the tent

We got creative with out time spent
Tomahawk throwing was requested by Silas' friend Alex.
It's on.
My first throw was a bulls eye.
I later learned that there is a science to it.
It takes 7 steps,
That's it.
Jake measured it out, told me where to stand,
And successfully set me up for glory.
And I felt like Lady Davey Crockett.

So in case you're wondering the science behind it,
here you go:
Apparently some mountain men measured out how many revolutions it takes
for a tomahawk to successfully stick.
It takes 7 leisurely adult steps,
a good eye, and a steady hand.

Try it out.
Its a kick!
My first blood.
(From Harry and the Hendersons)


Our good friend Esque went into town and bought a huge
crab/craw fish/salmon fest.
It was a feast for sure.
A delicacy for camping indeed!
Jake did not go wading with the inner tube
That would have been a great time though.
I'd do it.

FYI: the inner tube is a heavy duty, super thick
used tire from Les schwab.
ingenious idea from my Father-in-Law

Please don't remember me this chubalub.

If it weren't for my Joey pouch, this pic would have been perfect .
I plan on ditching the baggage post haste.
I still enjoy the pic because of the memory it invokes when I look at it

I will remember surfing a kayak

with my little danger seeking
Man-child



For his birthday, he also wanted to go shooting at the range,

So we loaded up and hit the dusty trail.

Mama: Whats that light on the dash for?

Daddy: "Oh shoot that means our rear tire is low"

Mama's Brain "Oh Yeah, Silas said something about a flat tire! He wasn't joking?!"

Note to self: Listen to the little spastic ninja when he says

(in between erratic kicks and karate chops)

"Hey lady, I think your car has a problem with the tire.....

Hi-ya Boom Pow"

Instead, I say:

"You can call me Mom, Pal!"

And we end up with this:

The first time we have ever been too far from good Uncle

Les Schwab to come fix us up.
Jake's first tire change since high school.

My brother was driving in the snow and got a flat.

Jake saved him from having to call home and admit that

he may or may not have been going too fast in a parking lot and hit the curb.

Anyway.......

Thanks for staying with me on that one.

Felicia caught grasshoppers... and we waited.

Sat in the middle of the road,

In the middle of nowhere,

And waited.

Waited, waited,

Used bushes as the out house

while Felicia sang her heart out to scare the Bears away......

Waited some more................

Then Finally we were moving again!

The gun range was scorching hot,

but the kids forgot to even notice!

The safety line I used out of used up shells.

Even a Doll baby can learn to shoot.

Back to camp.

Out of the heat.

grandpa came to visit.

And took a nap in the sand.

So thankful for that rope!

Jake was pretty impressive.

I was impressed
Every night, he disappeared into the woods

And came out with enough

dead trees to build an ark.

We never brought fire wood.

We never Bought firewood.

He provided.

Sometimes with help,

Sometimes not.

This is how close we camped from the river.

Really.

Believe it.

Guess what else?
We just happened to choose the nation-wide free camping weekend.

I guess its an annual thing for federal campgrounds, and we just happened to choose the right weekend.

Don't tell Silas though, He thinks it was his birthday present from the woods.

After three days and two nights,

We were wiped out,

Coming down with colds,

Smelled like camp smoke,

definitely were not lacking on food

( I am a chronic over-packer, Its a syndrome)
And sad to come home.

But the depressing reality was that Daddy had to go to work the next day,

and we had to pack up.

But the party wasn't over yet.
Showers, naps, rest,

then Dinner at

Panchos!!!!!!!!!

Hibbetty-Hip,

Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!

On his birthday, he gets to wear his Sunday tie.

This video is out of order, But it is Felicia singing

to scare off the bears

While Lauren finds the nearest bush.

Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page and pause my music selection

so you can hear this in all it's glory!

Once again, to all those who stayed with me 'til the end,

Thanks.

I hope you have time to take a nap now.

I don't suspect all of my 11 readers stayed tuned for the whole show.

I know you Grandma's did,

And now its here.

For all of you.

Join me in remembering this summer of 2010 and all the Peep-tacular adventures!

Love,

Holly