Sofi's Birthday

Sofi was our last April birthday.

We had chinese food and a big ice cream cake.

Silly kids.

...and we went to a friend's play that night.

We got Sofi some pretty random gifts. An itunes giftcard, her latest favorite Pokemon (which, lucky for me, her siblings knew and pointed out), chocolate (of course), and Tony's gift....

...that he had been assembling for quite some time. 

The zombie apocalypse survival vest - chalk full of helpful things like water filters, fishing supplies, and first aid kits. She was super excited about it.

I thought it sounded like it might be useful for your more run-of-the-mill emergency situations too.

(knock on wood)

Happy 15th, Sof!

Storybook Quilt

I finished baby's quilt.

I wanted something scrappy-looking, with cute pictures for a little kid to look at 

when they are supposed to be napping.

Hand-quilted, with love in every stitch (Sponge Bob reference for the kids).

I used a "Wee Wander" fabric for the back and a Denise Schmidt fabric from my stash for the binding.

...and tied it with some embroidery floss too...but just a bit.

I think it gives it a home-y, young look.

The color scheme is actually from a children's book by one of my favorite illustrators....which I'll post about once I get those dang pictures hung above the crib.

More nursery goodness to come....

Annika's Birthday

Annika was our next birthday.

We spent the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. There you can see the roller coasters at Hershey Park in the background.

No. We didn't go there. Instead, we went to Hershey Chocolate World. Fast. Free. Not exhausting.

...but it still has a ride...the chocolate factory tour that we all love. :)

Since Annika's birthday fell right near Easter this year, we also dyed eggs (a tradition we skipped last year.)

Some kids - who claimed to be totally uninterested in egg dying - where the most involved.

...and we had a barbecue (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!), accompanied by gross things like shrimp for the birthday girl. Yuck. She didn't get that from me.

Costco cheesecake. Much yummier than nasty shrimp.

Annika is always both easy and hard to shop for. This year, she wanted a rose bush for her birthday. Well, we bought one and planted it....but you can't exactly wrap up a bush and open it on your birthday.

...and it's mostly a bunch of thorny twigs at the moment anyhow. 

Not very impressive.

So, we upgraded the birthday girl's ipod from a shuffle to a nano.

The biggest part of that gift is me tolerating the birthday girl's constant use of ear buds and her never having any recollection of anything that I say to her, while claiming to always be able to hear me.

Pretty appropriate for this birthday milestone.

Happy Birthday, you teenager you!

Cozy's Birthday

Cozy turned 5 this year!

I'm not thrilled about it, but she it. 

Why must babies grow up?

Tony made us rainbow cake with cotton candy frosting.

It was sugarlicious.

...and we gave Coze the new bike that we had been denying was for her for weeks and weeks.

She loves it. Now she and James can actually ride at the same time. ;)

Since she had a friend party last year (we were cruel, cruel parents and stuck with our "every other year" policy), Cozy got to spend the day at the Zoo with her family!

Brushed some goats.

Got pushed around in a stroller (by strong teenagers, not by pregnant mother).

Rode the train. Woot! Woot!

...and the carousel...multiple times.

Got really cranky about looking at animals and wanted to be carried instead of pushed.

Decided the zoo was not nearly as fun as a birthday party.

Lucky for her, she has a sweet big brother, who was happy to give her a shoulder ride.

...and by the time we got home she was recovered enough to eat cake and open presents. 

Little cutie. Welcome to not being the baby anymore! :)

Baby Stuff

I've been trying to sort out baby's quilt and a few decorations.

I think I'm finally on the home stretch with the quilt. Of course, as I was basting it, one of my teens decided to tell me it looked girly...once it was all put together. Thanks. Too late. I'm just going to ignore that one.

...so there's a little bit of pink in it...and maybe a few floral fabrics. Oh, well.

"Father"- Son Campout

Last year, when Tony was traveling around, doing rotations all over the country....and mostly not here, Jon had to miss out on the Cub Scout Father-Son campout. Sad. (It turns out, the boys dodged some unseasonably cold weather.) Still, they were sad to miss it.

This year rolled around.

Tony is here.

...but working some more intense hours, with only occasional weekends off. Naturally, the weekend of the campout wasn't one when he would be available. Big brother to the rescue! Anthony stepped in as his "Dad". (If there is something Anthony has been pretty willing to do, it's camp.) I bought them a 4-man tent (our other tent is ginormous), since they were going to be hiking in a bit.

That's the cool part of this particutlar campout....

The took the MARC to  Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, hiked to their campsite, went to a Waffle House for breakfast, and then took the Amtrak home. My kind of camping...minus the sleeping on the ground part. In my defense, now that I'm eight months pregnant, I can barely sleep in a bed. 

So, I'm not really out looking for adventure.  I'll leave that to the boys for now. :)

Shamrocks and Other St. Patty's Nonsense

To "celebrate" our last snowy day, I made a snowflake cake.

I used the recipe that came with the pan - an almond cake - and it turned out beautifully.

We put some sugar "snow" on it and ate it. Time for Spring.

Of course, it did defy us and snow this last Sunday...but not the cancel school kind of snow, just the annoying, make Annalia's daffodils look sad for a few days kind of snow.

My flowers have all recovered. :) ...and now it's Spring...for reals.

My St. Patty's Day banner from last year was coming apart.

Cozy helped me fix it. She was so serious about clipping each shamrock on "just so". I'm not quite happy with the result...but happy enough not to redo it.

Since my the end of Irish Dancing at our house (for now...Cozy might be more enthusiastic...and less crippled), our St. Patty's Day celebrations mostly involve wearing a little green (if you remembered...or claiming that you have on green undies if you didn't) and eating an amazing meal of corned beef, cabbage, mashed potatoes, etc. 

This year, Tony and I got to double the celebratory eating, since a friend hosted an 

Irish-themed dinner that week. So, take everything that we ate with the kids and add on bangers and mash, an amazing beef stew, and multiple desserts. I'm hungry just thinking about it. Dang it was good.

Maybe next year I can find us a parade or something?

We've also had some spring visitors to our bird feeder...

...a family of deer.

If you count legs, you can see that there's a doe and three fawns/yearlings.

I thought the squirrels went through a lot of bird seed. They can't even compete with deer.

Jonny thinks we should put up a salt lick too.