Tabitha is nine!

April 16, 2015 | Stacy

Her day started with her wake-up song.

And she was greeted downstairs with balloons, a garden flower, and – um – whatever that was that Daddy hung from the light fixture (looks like a forming blood clot IMO).

She got the morning off school, but did have some work in the afternoon… Mostly she enjoyed listening to her new Adventures in Odyssey CD that Nan brought over in the morning.

For dinner, Nan, Nene, Ba and Poppy joined us to celebrate both Tab’s and Daddy’s birthdays.

She got more gifts than he did…

Including some fabulous high heels we blessed her with.

They requested and received molten lava cake…

Happy Birthday Tabby (and Daddy)!

The cake says it all…

March 2, 2015 | Stacy

We were blessed to have some friends and family join us after church Sunday to celebrate Katriel’s 2nd birthday.
I never seem to take photos of the food even though that is what takes the most TIME to PREP! LOL.

She fully grasps the concept of gifts…

And made a new bunny friend.

A hat for the summer.

And cake.
She knew how to blow out the candles. She’d done it on her own just a few days prior. But, in the moment, she just couldn’t do it. Marie tried to help, as did I. But we were not doing it properly, it seems.

SO – Hanny leaned in and got the job done. That cake was taking WAY TOO LONG to get on her plate!

Because I care about my guests, I did NOT post the pictures of the men in party crowns. But they wore them well. 😉

our sweet ducky is two

February 25, 2015 | Stacy

Birthdays start early in our house. We “woke” Katriel with a birthday song and dressed her up in her “Minnie” clothes.
She was excited to see balloons and decorations, but was mostly hungry and asking for breakfast.

Nan was over early and brought her present then. Hanny volunteered to help her open it.

It was pretty much a normal day from then on. Dinner was pancakes and sausage. It took ForEVer to make the pancakes as I had forgotten that I was down to one griddle. It was a mess of a day, really…

She enjoyed a birthday phone call.

Then a few gifts.
A microphone from Nene.
And a dress, some sneakers, and GOLDFISH from Mommy and Daddy.

I think the Goldfish were her favorite part.

And cake. There is always cake.

A very merry non-birthday

December 3, 2014 | Stacy

My birthday fell in a Very Busy Week. Actually, it was the beginning of the second week of three Very Busy Weeks in a row.
So I cancelled it.
I appreciate very much that my family wants to celebrate my birthday, but the logistics of a big dinner one night just was as far from practical as gifting a chicken a bicycle. So we dropped it.

But that didn’t keep my family from blessing me and my mom from finding a way to let the kids enjoy my day. Because frankly, at my age (ahem), it’s more about them having fun than me, anyway.

This gift was made while I was on my cruise. My family (including my mom and sister) was invited for dinner at the home of some very dear friends. While they were all there, their hosts shared this very creative idea with my family and they all worked together to make this GORGEOUS bouquet. (Can you see all the traced hands, cupcake papers, and photos? And there is something sweet written on the back of each one!!!)

My mom also made cupcakes and had the girls help her frost and decorate them while I was doing school upstairs. She also brought all the stuff for making sub sandwiches, and cheetos, and cider for a yummy lunch.

And we topped off the day with an orthodontist consult for Marie… 🙂

Nan’s birthday

October 23, 2014 | Stacy

I haven’t had a chance to upload my real camera. But we celebrated Nan’s birthday twice this year. Her sisters, my Aunt Betty & Aunt Jackie joined us for dinner on the 23rd.

Poor Johanna didn’t like the cake.
Can you imagine what it is like to be four and to see what looks like an amazing princessy cake (it had sprinkles) and then to find out there are CARROTS in the CAKE? And CHEESE in the FROSTING?

Stewart is 14

August 19, 2014 | Stacy

“Mom, when you blog about my birthday, use the picture with the lightning that Nan took.”

He rocks. He just does. He’s not perfect. He complains about vacuuming, and teases his sisters. But he is a very great guy.

He asked if we could go to RMSC for his birthday and since we hadn’t been there in years I said we could. It would have been $68 for the day, or $83 for a membership, so I went for the membership. But I am sorry I did. It used to be that movies at the Planetarium were included and that would have given us a great pay-off for the huge admission fee/membership. Turns out they are now $6/pp. Seriously? We will never go. And as the museum is plastered with evolution-based lies I feel like I have to constantly play defense. So I do not love it there. Oh – and now you pay extra for this and extra for that, and…

I’ll get back to the birthday at hand. ♥

Johanna saw the sand and asked, “I get my hands dirty?” in her permission-seeking voice. She didn’t quite buy it.

She also could NOT get herself up and around in this climby thing. Maybe next year.

We really enjoyed these building block things.

Stewart was very excited about the sour cream we gave him. Sadly, we had forgotten to refrigerate it and it wasn’t edible. But it was the thought that counted.

No. No. No. It was just a CONTAINER. It had something Much Classier in it. An I.O.U. Yes. It was a paper that said, “I. O. U. A. I. O.”

Which stands for “I owe you Adventures in Odyssey.” It had a shipping delay. We also gave him an Orange Crush t-shirt and a pair of headphones. And a yummy homemade (as in every iota from scratch) lemon cake with lemony filling and lemony frosting. It was superb.

He’s a great guy and I’m so glad we get along as well as we do. I sincerely pray it never changes. He’s a light.

Marie is TEN!

July 13, 2014 | Stacy

Marie started her second decade with the opportunity to be part of the praise team at church. It meant an early morning, and an abbreviation to our normal birthday festivities, but it was pretty cool.

(It also meant running around because the dress she wanted to wear was no where to be found, and the other two options both needed ironing. We got one ironed, but then realized the first-choice dress was likely AT the church, having been quickly discarded on church-picnic-day for play clothes. Sure enough, once she got there I found the dress crumpled in a Wegman’s bag in the coat room. I dashed to my mother’s house, down the street, to iron it. So she got to wear dress A, after all. And that – friends- is my life in the NUT shell.)

It was a cool, drippy day, like most of summer 2014, so we just hung around the house. Tabitha and Marie did some face painting.

For dinner we had pasta Alfredo, and Ba, Poppy, Nan, & Nene joined us.

Gifts were fun, as always…

The boys bought her Wall•E Wii game.

Tab did some fancy artwork.

And bestowed upon her the movie, “Cinderella.” The kids had never seen it, and I had not seen it in well over 30 (35?) years. Turns out – it is a FABULOUS movie! Wish I’d watched it long ago!

Ba took her out to lunch a few days prior for some one-on-one birthday fun.

Nan and Nene got together to give her a nice red camera.

Nan also got her a charm bracelet with lots of charms from our vacation.

Dad and Mama didn’t give her any gifts as she was heading to camp the following week. Well – we HAD bought her a bunch of art supplies and a carrier for them… but we forgot them!! Daddy called me the next day to remind me, and we did give her that. (Welcome to Stacy’s brain.)

But – I DID deliver on the cherry crumble pie. It was amazing.

Just like my beautiful birthday girl. ♥

Nigel is 12

July 2, 2014 | Stacy

It was an at-home-kind-of-birthday. We hung around the house and swam. Nigel had requested steak, cole slaw, and steak fries for dinner with all of us plus Nan & Nene, Ba & Poppy. He made his request far enough in advance that I was able to visit the meat dept. at Wegman’s and Walmart often enough to find ample steaks marked “Special Buy” to feed the whole crew. It was delicious.

After dinner he opened the homemade cards from his siblings

and gifts from Ba & Poppy,

And Nan & Nene.

Mommy and Daddy provided the meal and his birthday gift request from us was to have a day out with Daddy.

That came the following day. They went to Applebee’s, Adventure Landing, and Cow Licks.

SURPRIS*E

June 23, 2014 | Stacy

Because their good friend was coming to town (they did not know, of course) I suggested to John that we throw the boys a surprise birthday party before either of their birthdays was even on their mind. This was a crazy idea… so we went for it.

Nan assisted by taking Stewart, Nigel, and Andrew to her house to power wash her deck. When she brought them back at 5:15 P.M. our family room was filled with quite a few of their favorite people.