Birthday

Nathan had a birthday, he is 10 already! We went to lunch with all of our local family (and those here for Christmas!) to Granny's Buffet---a child's dream restaurant, at Nathan's request.

Is there anything better than all-you-can-eat-food, chocolate milk, and slurpee drinks? Not to a ten-year-old! We also went ice skating. Fortunately, there were lots of aunts and uncles to help all of us who couldn't stand up straight on the ice (myself included). We all had a wonderful time, ice skating may become a yearly tradition for us!

It's great to be 8!

Andrew turned 8 years old!

I think that this boy has been counting down the days until his 8th birthday for at least three years. He was definitely excited about being baptized, and thrilled to become a new cub scout!

We had a friends' birthday party that was pirate themed, a smoking volcano cake (that fell apart before the party---that deserves its own post), and got to spend a great day with a lot of family. Andrew is an amazing boy. He is growing up into such a responsible son and brother. He is very thoughtful and loving. He he finds so much joy in life. We are so glad that he is in our family!

Andrew's Baptism

Andrew was baptized on November 6th. He got to share this special day with both sets of his grandparents, his family, and some aunts and uncles and cousins too.

We are so proud of Andrew choosing to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. Andrew is a wonderful boy, and an example of Jesus Christ in his life!

Mark's 6th Birthday

We had a swimming party for Mark's 6th birthday. It was 98 degrees, and a perfect swimming day. It was a great party with a lot of fun boys!

Birthday Week

It was a week of celebrating here for this little girl, I mean BIG girl! With Grandma and Grandpa here, party with uncles and aunts, party with friends, and fireworks! What more can you ask for?

New outfit from Grandma and Grandpa

Dress up clothes and jewelry from cousins and Grandma Kelly

And I think that she grew a foot taller when she got to go on a special date with Uncle Shayne and Aunt Kortneigh for her birthday-----to a movie by herself!

With popcorn bigger than she is!

Topped off by a friends' birthday party of cute little four year old princesses.

So much fun dressing up, making crowns and jewelry, playing musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey, treasure hunt, and eating yummy food!

What a day! What a week!

And, YES, she does keep wearing that dress day after day after day since her birthday!

Eleven already

He is eleven already. I can't believe it. So I guess this is the age that clothes start to be as cool as toys, or better. And birthday parties are much simpler if there is lots of food and football and homerun derby to be played. We had a great time!

Grandpa's 60th Birthday

We all celebrated the big 6-0 by going out to dinner together. Ryan's dad was really dreading the approach of this day, but hey---60 is the new 30.

2 years old

Miriam wearing her new birthday dress before church on her birthday!

My baby is two years old already, but as you see in this picture she thinks she is four :)

Miriam loved her princess cake, a party at Grandma's house, and even some presents. We are so thankful for this sweet little girl who is two. She talks up a storm, has been potty trained for four months already, loves to hold babies all day long, and is a charmer to all of her brothers. We love her!

Making a Princess Cake

I am NOT a creative cake maker. I always use the good old 9x13 for birthdays, and two stacked round cakes when I am really feeling birthday creative, and most often lately it has been cupcakes for birthdays!

For some reason this year, I decided to stretch the cake abilities and try a princess cake for a 2 year old birthday. Maybe it is because I have older kids now, and they can appreciate the efforts, and they did. So here is the process for making a really easy "hard looking" cake.

STEP 1

So step one, the longest part. You need to bake 2 cakes using a pampered chef glass 8 cup measurer, the batter bowl they may call it? The cakes are so thick they have to bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes each. It is hard for me to be patient for the fun decorating part, so this seemed to take all day. You could fit two batter bowls in the oven, but who has two? I guess I should have borrowed one from a friend and cut my time in half. Here is the recipe/directions I followed over at Pampered Chef.

STEP 2

Here is cake number one, with its bottom edge cut off to make it nice and flat. I didn't get a picture of the two stacked without frosting. You only use the bottom 2/3 of the second cake, and let the kids snack on the leftovers. The bananas and wheat bread have nothing to do with the cake, I just bake amidst kitchen mess! So step two, frost and stack the two cakes.

STEP 3

Frost the outside with a base layer of frosting. My cakes didn't match up perfectly, but nothing a bit of frosting won't fix. The two cake part is important or the cake won't be tall enough for the dolls legs to stick into.

STEP 4

Time to stick in your Barbie/Princess/Fairy --whichever doll you choose. This is Sleeping Beauty, with her bottom half wrapped in plastic wrap. It really made clean up nice of the doll when the birthday girl wanted her after the cake was eaten.

STEP 5

Time to get some clothes on this girl. Stick her right into the cake. Start covering her with frosting in any way you like.

STEP 6

Dress design. I just used a star tip with the frosting and covered her with stars. This is a great way for beginners, the class of decorators that I am in. The stars are very forgiving and don't have to be perfect. Make sure you tie up her hair somehow, or it gets stuck in the soft frosting.

STEP 7

Add some frills, fix up her hair and put in the freezer if you have room. I was making this cake a day before, so I put it in the freezer. This really cemented up the frosting nicely.

I could hardly cut into her, but everyone loved eating the princess! And it feeds a lot!