Images of Summer

Since this weekend finds our temperature dipping down 30 degrees from Friday's high in the 70's and while I fight off a cold that quickly became a sinus infection, I thought I would post some pictures of the different events that I blogged about in last week's post.

Here is Poppy with her set of twins born in August.  Poppy had previously belonged to a couple other families in our area before finding her way to our small farm.  She had been bred before, but had never successfully conceived.  August is rather late to have babies so hopefully they will survive this winter.

Poppy with twin babies: late fall goats

Here is an image of one of the free range chickens that I was complaining about.  Several of them decided to start roosting on my back windshield wiper this past summer.

Free range chicken

Something new to our house this week: we added a fish aquarium as our only inside pets.  Jessie and I were at a pet store earlier this summer getting something for one of the litters of kittens when we discovered "Finding Nemo" figurines for fish tanks.  Anna had already requested a "Finding Nemo" birthday party and this then spurred on the idea of a fish tank to help transition the three littles into their own room.  Of course this fish aquarium is "bigger" than what would really need if one was just wanting a temporary aquarium.  I really miss the koi pond that I used to have at my old house.  I used to sit by it and pray a lot.  I would just relax and watch the fish swim around and listen to the running water of the small waterfall built next to it.  I honestly enjoy sitting upstairs and watching these glo fish swim around:

Glo fish under black light

Glo fish under regular aquarium light



There are eight glo fish and two clown loach fish in there though usually only Joey sees the clown fish at 6:30am when all is quiet.  They seem to just be hiding in the tiki mask.  Yes, right now, there is Ariel from "The Little Mermaid in the fish tank versus "Finding Nemo" items.

Here is a picture of the cake that Jessie made for Anna's birthday.  The figurines are actual aquarium figurines that one can buy online or at their local pet store.  Jessie made all the coral and used her new checkerboard cake pans to make a two colored checker board cake.

Anna and Katie with the "Finding Nemo" cake made by Jessie

Our local library usually has a "free movie" each month that they serve with popcorn.  Families are allowed to bring their own drinks in.  The movie this September was "Finding Nemo" so ten days after Anna's birthday she got to see the movie on a big screen!!

Anna next to the "Finding Nemo" poster at our local library

Here is the dinosaur cake that Jessie made for Katie's birthday back in August.  The figurines were bought online.  The volcano and waterfall were made out of rice krispy treats and covered with frosting:

Dinosaur cake with Volcano and waterfall

 Here's the cake "on fire" with lit candles.  The dinosaur table runner under the cake is actually an extra large nursing scrub that I cut the arms off of and slit up the sides.  I bought it at a flea market for $3 and there's no way I would have been able to get a yard or more of fabric for that price.  I also managed to buy a "Finding Nemo" scrub for $3 as well and did this for Anna's birthday party as well!  Small frugal luxury and the fabric can now be made into something else or reused for another party!

Dinosaur cake with lit candles

I mentioned previously that Joey is playing soccer at one of the local schools.  This was him about to go in for the second half of his first official high school soccer game.  Harding Stadium is considered one of the top ten high school stadiums in the United States.  He looks so small in this picture, but he is actually taller than me now and has grown about six inches in the last year alone!  Roll Red Roll!

Joey about to go in at Harding Stadium

I mentioned that one of my cousins got married on the Fourth of July this year.  Here is one of my favorite pictures from that wedding.  It looked like we color coordinated ahead of time, but we really didn't!  Both my father and Jason wore red shirts, while my step mom Malinda, cousin J.T. (wearing the cowboy hat), the kids and I were all wearing colors to match the bride's colors of pink and green.   I love how Libby just totally cheesed by putting her chin on her hand and that Anna is sitting on her beloved Grandpa Doc's shoulders.   Here we are at her gorgeous outside reception:

Family Picture at Maria and Brian's Wedding Reception



Here are the four girls playing "Princess Candyland" at the end of Libby's birthday party day.  We really like playing cards and games in this family.  You can also see one of our "reusable" birthday hats that the the special birthday person gets to wear on their party day.

The 4 girls playing "Candyland"

Here is the front flower bed from earlier this summer.  These hostas plants are actually some transplants from our old house that have managed to survive the past 7 years of chickens pecking and goats eating them and mail people running them over.  Hoping they last at least seven more and that I can get some of them divided next summer to plant in different parts of the farm.

Summer flowers



Wishing you a few more warm days this fall!!

From the Sweetness of our couch to yours,

Stephanie 

Hearts for Home: Birthday Traditions

Look who just turned 11! (How on earth is that possible?)

My oldest child, Joey, turned 11 last week Thursday.

Birthdays always "turn my heart towards home!"

They make me all "mushy" inside thinking about how fast the time flies by-even when one is on bedrest!

(Sorry if the picture is blurry-all I had was my cell phone to use last week.  The regular camera had gotten taken to our business.)

Last year after he turned 10 I felt like I was having a mid-life crisis....

where had those ten years gone and how could I possibly teach him everything he needs to know in the next eight years before he leaves for college?......

Thankfully my sweet hubby helped put everything back in perspective: we do our best one day at a time and remember that God's in control.

Birthday Traditions

My family really didn't celebrate birthdays or holidays as a kids growing up.

My mother still lives by some pretty untraditional ideas.

The first birthday tradition I "stole" from my friend Wendy K.-that is the birthday person gets to pick the menu for the entire day: breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Usually the kids always pick a sugar cereal that we only buy as a birthday present for breakfast.  I have found that I have to limit them to one big bowl each per day-so that maybe the box will last two days!

Joey's lunch menu got changed because our dentist fit us in at the last minute to adjust his retainer before he leaves to visit my late first husband's family for the next three weeks.  He got to have the extra special privilege of eating out on his birthday since we were all famished by the time we got out of the dentist office.  There was just no way that we were going to last for the thirty-five minute drive home plus cooking time for homemade macaroni and cheese.  The babies had already been playing in the waiting room for an hour.....some days you just have to waive the white flag of surrender.

For his supper he picked baked beans and salsa chicken-the chicken we used was our homegrown chicken.  As we ate it I couldn't help, but think about how even more wonderful it would be when we were eating our own canned salsa as well-hopefully next year!

Joey asked for homemade cookie cake, but in 91' weather without air conditioning in the kitchen and nine months pregnant, I just couldn't make that.  So, I did some brainstorming and realized that for the first time in seven years he hadn't put strawberries, his favorite fruit, on the menu.  So we compromised with "strawberry shortcake" for dessert.  I took the easy way out and bought the mini-cakes at the bakery and both big kids helped cut up, sugar and smash the strawberries.  All of us except for the birthday boy topped ours with whip cream-he just ate four helpings of plain cake and strawberries by himself.  (I guess he decided to give us a glimpse of how much he'll be able to pack away as a growing teenage boy.)  The strawberry shortcake got served in Homer Laughlin Fiesta Ware china that my mother-in-law and daughter Jessie got last Thanksgiving from their outlet store.  The outlet store has dollar paper grab bags and my mother-in-law has gotten really good at feeling the bags to figure out what's inside: bowls, coffee cups, etc.  She usually buys some bags for the kids to open whenever she stops at the store.  Last Thanksgiving Debbie and Jessie "scored" six of these two handed custard bowls-and they were all matching yellow.  Doesn't the strawberry shortcake look lovely?

Jason, Joey and Jessie enjoying their dessert:

(Jessie had been helping the babies "cool off" in the toddler pool in between supper and dessert time.)

Anna just eating the whip cream and strawberries.  Sweet sister that she is she left the cake for Joey to eat as one of his four helpings:

Katie eating her dessert (sorry I couldn't figure out how to flip this cell phone picture in the post):

Our last birthday tradition is only three years old.  Since we homeschool year round I came up with the tradition of "game day" for birthdays.  I usually leave a list for the kids to pick from when they get up in the morning.  For instance we've played Scrabble as our spelling class, charades as drama, baseball as gym, stretched uno to be math for a second grader-the sky's the limit.

Unfortunately because of all my on again/off again contractions I didn't think ahead to get a sitter to help entertain the two toddlers-they really don't cooperate well with board games right now.  (At least by Jessie's birthday in October my mother-in-law and Jason's grandmother should be here to help out with game day-yeah!)  So, Joey got to pick a movie off of netflix to watch during the afternoon heat and talked to most of the long distance family members before 6pm that night.  Then thankfully Katie and Anna went down early for bed.  While I was getting the babies down Joey and Jessie played a few games on the Wii and then the four of us played Blokus-awesome game!  Think board game version of tetris-and I won both rounds!

The birthday presents and cards are opened when everyone is present-so that means the birthday person has to wait for daddy to be home from work.

So, this is how my family "keeps our hearts at home" for birthdays....what does your family do?

Check out all the other "Hearts for Home" links!:)Cherished Hearts at Home