Bekah: Double Digits!

Bekah's birthday was last Saturday, and I am still getting over the fact that I have offically been a parent for TEN YEARS now. I remember so many details about being pregnant with her:

Being desperate to wear maternity clothes

Not telling any of my college-class-mates that I was pregnant until I was 20 weeks along and had already found out we were having a girl. I was the only married girl in all my interior design classes and I remember that the other girls were pretty shocked.

Walking miles and miles with my mom and Rus, trying to make my baby girl COME OUT!

Telling my mom that in ten years I would have four kids and be done. She didn't seem to believe me.

Having some of my male coworkers at Lumbermen's turn surprisingly mushy as my belly got bigger and bigger - and having them ask to rub it. (Still weird.)

Anyway, I'm being incredibly self-centered. This is supposed to be about BEKAH. 

This year, Bekah wanted to have a birthday party, and as we researched themes, we decided to go with a TEN theme. We sent out an invite that said this:

TEN IS MAGICAL

TEN IS COOL

TEN IS DOUBLE DIGITS

TEN RULES!

TEN IS FANTASTIC

TEN IS SUPERCALAFRAJALISTICEXPIALLADOCIOUS

TEN IS ON THE CLOCK

TEN IS EXTRA INNINGS

TEN IS A SAWBUCK

TEN IS METRIC

NOW YOU HAVE TEN REASONS TO COME TO 

BEKAH’S 10TH BIRTHDAY PARTY!

DINNER, CAKE, 10 FAVORITE THINGS, OF COURSE

(LIKE SWEETS AND GLOW IN THE DARK GAMES!)

Sadly, quite a few of her friends were out of town, but the girls that came had a great time! We had Libby and Emma (cousins), a friend from church and a friend from school.

Rus took the other three kids and my mom came up to help me. Us girls had a blast! So here are the ten things we did that night:

Um...first, before the girls came, Bekah and I had a little photo shoot:

Isn't she so pretty?

We took the shoot to the trampoline:

Bekah cracks up every time she sees this picture:

Okay, now the ten things we did that night...
1. Pizza
2. Red Velvet cake and vanilla ice cream

3. Eat Watermelon
4. Whipped Cream Fight! We took it outside for this one. Good thing, because those four cans of whipped cream made more than a little mess...on us and on the ground!

Yep, someone tagged me in the head. At this point I started double squirting the stuff. If I could add sound to this picture it would be the sound of five girls giggling!

There was only one way to clean up a mess like this: Some sprinkler-trampoline jumping!

5. Next we did a DANCE PARTY! This included some silly-fun glowstick glasses...which were still fun even though it wasn't dark yet. The girls went wild for Black Eyed Peas "I've Got a Feeling" and Katy Perry's "Roar!"

6. Open Gifts! Bekah was thrilled to get some money for her nook, Phase 10 and some gel pens, a sweet little Lalaloopsey, and some cash in a piggy bank from Cutesy.

7. Face Painting! Bekah started this off with some rainbow eyes, and the rainbow theme was carried out by the rest of the girls...including a rainbow cat, rainbow tiger, and rainbow butterfly.

8. Don't Eat Pete! Bekah loves this game. We usually play it with m&ms but used smarties this time. Some of these girls were wickedly good at eating all of the candy except for Pete!

9. Games at the park! We had hoped for a cover of darkness, but it turns out that the sun doesn't really set until after 9 right now. The girls enjoyed playing hide and seek and toilet tag and throwing glow in the dark frisbee things (like the pink thing Emma is holding in the picture). We also lucked into a beautiful sunset.

10. FRIENDS! At the end of the night we gave the girls a little party favor "thank you" gift and sent off balloons and exactly 8:56 pm - which was when Bekah was born.

It was a really fun night! I'm so grateful for Bekah. Some things I love about her:
*She is really good at asking for help or advice, and she always says thank you when you reply. Even if you tell her she has mud on her face she'll say, "oh. thank you!"
*She is an avid reader. In the last two and a half weeks she has read two and a half novels (Septimus Heap series), each of them with no less than 500 pages. She has also read the whole Series of Unfortunate Events, most of the Little House on the Prairie, the Sisters Grimm, Kim Little's Flight of the Butterfly...
*She is a wonderful helper with the other kids. She is great at getting all of the kids to play the same thing, distracting Marianne from sadness if she is having a hard time, and negotiating with Beau and Jacob if there's a disagreement. We've had some hard times this year with her attitude and temper, but I can honestly say that Bekah has been a huge blessing this summer with her calm and helpful attitude!
*Bekah is super responsible. She had a dog-sitting job for three weeks this summer and she never forgot to go take care of Bailey and she never complained. (She was thrilled to be earning money!)
*Bekah is always there to ask, "should we bless the food?" or "Should we say a prayer before we go?" She is a great help at keeping our family on track!
*Bekah loves to serve others. A few weeks ago her Sunday school teacher had his appendix out, and she wanted to make him some cookies. So she did, from scratch, by herself.

Bekah, I love you and I'm so proud of you and the beautiful young lady you are, inside and out. I'm blessed to be your Momma!

Beau's Birthday!

I got one and only one good thing from attending cub scout day camp with Jacob - and that was an awesome presentation from a 17-year old kid about reptiles. Imagine sitting in a gym with over a hundred little boys for an hour and none of them making a peep. Those kids were fascinated.

So when Beau said he wanted to have a birthday party with his friends, inspiration struck and I found myself calling Lonny, aka the 17-year-old reptile expert who had captured the attention of all of the kids at day camp. He said he'd love to come and bring his reptiles and amphibians for a presentation for Beau's party.

I was so stinkin' excited. I was probably more excited than Beau.

On the day of the party (July 5th), Lonny came with his awesome sidekick mother. I want to be her when I grow up. Lonny started showing an interest in reptiles when he was 13, specifically bearded dragons. His mother made him research bearded dragons for years before she would allow him to buy one. She insisted on the same kind of informed approach to pet adoption before he could acquire his four different varieties of turtles, salamanders, and bullfrogs. She said she draws the line at snakes, though. No snakes. 

I think I'd be okay with snakes...

Here was the set up in my backyard: We had eight guests and then my own four children. Emily and Chip were in town for the weekend, so they came too.

Lonny started by telling the kids about the four different classifications of reptiles. If I remember right, those were lizards, snakes, turtles, and ??? Anyway, here he is with his bearded dragon Rosie. Rosie is actually a boy, but when he named him, he thought he was a girl, and when he found out later (it's hard to tell a reptile's sex until they are at least 6 months old), he decided it was easier to just keep the name Rosie.

Here is his mom letting the kids pet Rosie. They were instructed to only use their first two fingers, and they were very careful to do exactly as he said.

After the bearded dragons Rosie and Luna, he then showed off his turtles, salamander, and bullfrog. At the end of the presentation he let each of the kids pose for pictures with Luna the bearded dragon.

Yes. Bekah was the first to insist that Luna sit on top of her head. She is fearless. And slightly goofy.

I love this pic of Jacob. This is his "smoulder" look. His, "I am too cool to smile" look...

I told him he had to smile though.

I like Bekah's face here. Luna wasn't staying still and I think that made Bekah a little jumpy.

Then the kids all got to pose with the ornate box turtle. Isn't Beau so cool?

The turtle was trying to scratch Jacob and he was trying not to drop him.

After the presentation, the kids all went inside, got some snacks, proceeded to disregard the crafts we'd planned in favor of casual play, ate their dirt cake, opened presents, and that was that. Beau had a great time, so I count the whole thing as a success.
Beau's actual birthday was the next day. I had been working hard for the previous week on making him a desk because that's what he wanted. A desk and a lamp. Inspired by parts of different desks on Ana White's website, I decided to make it with cubbies on one side and a book shelf on the other.

I decided to just make it all out of 3/4" plywood with a clean contemporary look. There was no way to build it without Beau seeing, so we all conspired to tell him that I was actually making shelves for Dad. I didn't put it together until the last minute, literally, so it wasn't too hard to pull it off the deception.
I think he was happy with it...here was his reaction:

And here he was sitting at his desk. Such a big boy!

Bekah and Jacob were kind enough to help him organize his things. They put his art supplies in bins and filled the book shelves with his favorite books. Under his direction, of course.

I am so grateful for Beau! I feel blessed for the last 6 years our family has spent with him in it.
Bekah says the thing she loves the most about Beau is that he likes to play games with her. And that he likes to run around in his chones.
Jacob says the thing he loves best about Beau is that he sometimes gets a little crazy. He's a pretty energetic boy.
I know Marianne would say she loves that Beau watches shows on the iPad with her, hugs her and plays with her. He is usually her first choice when I tell her she has to hold someone's hand to cross the road.
I am grateful for his joy and love of learning knew things, for his ability to work hard, and for his fierce hugs and kisses. I'd say his greatest ability is that he can see a task to the end. If you give Beau a picture he will color all of it and if you ask him to scrub a toilet, he will stay with it until it is spotless.
Also, Beau would want me to mention that he has recently learned how to ride his bike really well. In fact at the 4th of July parade at church, he rode it 600 times around. (That's what the emcee of the event told him.) Also on the 4th, Beau ran a whole mile, without stopping, and won first for his age group.
I also love that Beau insists on "2 minutes of hugs" every night, without fail. He has a tender heart he is easy to love.
Happy Birthday Beau!

Random summer happenings

Oh dear. It's July. Which means we've been out of school for a whole month and we only have one month left. Yuck. If digging my heels in made time slow down, I'd do it.
Our summer has been filled with fun things...the kids have taken some of their Bear Canyon Academy classes - like Baking, Curse of the Mummy, Weather Bugs, Center Stage Ballet, Summer Day Camp, and Art of Science - with more to come like Book Club, Swimming, and Just Desserts. I love that they have something fun to look forward to, but I tire of driving them all over and trying to memorize my schedule so I don't miss anything and having to be three places at once. As I told a friend, I'm just realizing I have to lower my expectations of trying to be everywhere on time.
We have also had friends over to play (and busted out the face paints)...

Sported Fauxs like Cutesy...

And I sewed! I don't know what happened. I think it was the combination of already needing to sew a bunch of dresses for our RS Dress a Girl project and finding a pattern I had purchased a year ago...and then like fuel on a fire there was a well timed Joann's sale AND THEN I WOUND UP WITH A FEW HOURS TO MYSELF to thoroughly peruse, select, and purchase adorable fabric. So I made Marianne this skirt and of course the best part of it was the floofy bow on her bum!

I also made her a pillowcase-style dress and Bekah a skirt out of matching umbrella fabric, as shown in this pic Rus took on Father's Day. (We went and bought Rus "ugly" ties at a thrift store).

And then, motivated by my children recurrently sleeping in their regular clothes, I made them all pajama pants. Yes, Marianne's pant legs are not the same lengths. They still sleep just fine.

We also had an unfortunate incident of Colonel baby-napping a baby bunny from it's burrow. Colonel has horrible, self-incriminating timing. He was found with the baby in his mouth during a lunch party with a bunch of other little kids, right before we all had to leave for an appointment. So instead of leaving, a dozen of us hovered around a pint sized bunny wrapped in a washcloth by a very concerned and motherly Bekah. Long story short, the bunny survived, and through some tricky observation of Colonel, we discovered the burrow and re-deposited the bunny in its home. 

We spotted it (or perhaps a sibling), a few times in the yard eating our weeds. The kids couldn't resist picking it up...

A few days later I spied it dashing through my backyard and escaping into the wood pile as Colonel and I returned from a run. I excitedly told Bekah, "the bunny is in the woodpile!" It was about thirty minutes after I had first spotted it. She went out to look at it and found it dead - as evidenced by the ants in its eyes. I was troubled by this, I still am actually...did Colonel and I scare it to death? Did it hop into the woodpile and land on something unforgiving? Of course Bekah was devastated, and I had to play the "circle of life" card...but it did make me sad.

And last but not least, several volcanoes have recently erupted in our area. Fortunately no lives were lost, although my vinegar and baking supplies were greatly diminished.

The end. For now.