Celebrating MG

Next in the birthday line is the sweet and unforgettable MG.

She turned

!!!!~~eleven~~!!!!!

this year. AND, as she grows more lovely every day, her sweetness and patience grows, too. I can see God has some wonderful plans for her. She is so gracious (REALLY!!~~she does have to put up with 3

siblings and, quite often, some very difficult-to-please, demanding parents),,helpful and very, very creative. She wants

to please, and she also wants the freedom to stand her ground. This last part will be our hardest challenge as parents, for though we want her to stand her ground, too, our stubbornness has already clouded our eyes to those golden moments where her standing was truly good, noble,

right and pure...it was just not timed quite right! :o) But, back to the main point....

Celebrating MG!!!!

We made cake pops for her to share with her classmates at school:

And on her birthday night

we had our own "quiet" family celebration

with cake

~

and presents.

Then a few days later we hosted a Crafting Birthday Party.

Since I knew it would just be me with a group of girls, I had to limit the amount of friends to come over. There were so many little girls that we could have included in

the party, but with the ones that did actually come, plus all of my own children, and THEN the

added fun of paints and glue and frosting and sprinkles and scissors and pens, etc, etc, etc... the small number was more than enough!!!

Momma-made cupcakes

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Cupcake decorating 5th grade style

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First craft

With this craft

the girls "drew" pictures with Elmer's glue

After it dried completely,

they painted over the

canvas and the dried glue with a solid color.

The idea was for it to turn out like the photo on the left. Since the

glue was not completely dry, the girls took home their own brush and bottle of paint. I figured this would happen, though.

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Second craft

I showed each girl what we were doing, step by step, and it was such fun to see them take the steps and make the designs their very own.

Same idea?

Yes.

Unique to each girl?

Definitely!!!

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Third Craft

Each girl picked out her own branch and her own vase,

and while they were writing on their "leaves" something they like about the other girls at the party, each vase was filled with stones and sand so hold the branch would stay in place.

Once the girls were finished writing the notes were tied to the girls' respective trees. Because we were running out of time, each girl received a baggie full of pre-cut

flowers/leaves they and their families could use to add more to their

Thankful Trees.

Too-whit, Too-whoooo

Dana=Ageless!

Next in line for October celebrations was Big Daddy Dana! I know, I know....from year to year his cakes never change. Not really. Only the amount of candles and the number written on the cake.

Since he always rags his lovely, beautiful, young-at-heart, sweet, adorable, precious wife about being a year (plus a few more months) older than himself, he was graciously treated to a candle for every year of his life. You may think that the lights were on in these pictures....but you may be wrong, too! ;)

There were so many candles that he could not blow them out fast enough...much of the wax melted onto his "cake". :o) (insert gleeful cackling from the above mentioned sweet, young-at-heart and more mature (wink, wink) wife!!!)::

Here he is opening presents from his lovely, beautiful, young-at-heart, sweet, adorable, precious wife and his oh-so-darling, quiet, loving, delightful children.

While opening said gifts, he re-discovers that his children (especially his oldest son) are not only darling, quiet (only when sleeping), loving and delightful, but that they are also filled with a CRAZY sense of humor.

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I love that Dana finally notices what E is doing and that I actually caught his reaction on camera! Makes me "ba-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" right out loud!!!!

After being goofy-sweet with the gift ribbons:

"E" shows us his tough side:

Watch out....or else!!!!! eeeeerrrrrrrrgggggrrrrr!!!!!

D-D's big days

When October comes, it seems like it is busier than Christmas time. D-D starts out this month's run-like-crazy-so-much-fun-stuff-to-do with her birthday.

This year, she turned

~7~

And she wanted, once again, Hello Kitty for all things birthday! She honestly believes that she is the biggest Hello Kitty fan "in the WHOLE world" (or, in her accent, The whoooooole wallld!")

So, we went big with the Kitty.

"Pin the bow on the Kitty" with Hello, Kitty! eye mask.

I made pennants

and a cupcake garland,

cupcakes,

cake,

cake pops,

and had a very hard time not buying everything that had that cute little white cat on it.