Happy Birthday edition

Henry’s 3rd birthday was marked with two days of fun: birthday breakfast, balloons, and cupcakes with friends on Friday; birthday dinner, presents, and birthday cake on Saturday.  It’s a joy to watch our little man growing up!

Friday

Whoops… skipped last week.  Not much has happened lately, just a lot of summer.  So here’s a list for today:

1.  HOT.  I know it’s hot everywhere right now, but that’s the overwhelming sensation today.  The area is a little low on power, so conscientious (and cheap) folks like us have the AC set to 80.  It might be 80 upstairs where the AC unit is, but here on the main floor it’s about 85. 

2.  KIDS.  I’m watching a couple extra toddlers today, so I’ve got four little munchkins running around today.  Plus, another three were here this morning while their mom was at the dentist.  The more the merrier, right?  Not like I was going anywhere today anyway. 

3.  ACTIVITIES.  I didn’t plan anything for today, but I’ve actually felt a bit like “super-babysitter” today.  After getting the kids a snack this morning, I got out the play-do and they all sat around the table doing that for awhile.  Then at lunch time, we used some leftover dough from the freezer to make mini pizzas.  The kids sort-of made their own.  With the three girls napping, I had Henry help me make some no-bake cookies for our snack this afternoon.  If I need any more filler activities when everyone wakes up, maybe we’ll string some cheerios on pipe cleaners.  Or just watch a movie… haha. 

4.  QUIET.  Three out of four kids in the house right now are napping, so it’s nice and quiet.  Bonus: the Chaplet of Divine Mercy is on the radio in the background. 

5.  SUMMONS.  I hear voices, which means the quiet is officially over.  We’ll sweat our way through the next week and I’ll be back to let you know how things have been going.  I think there will be many popsicles involved…

Friday!

Yesterday we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary.   Matt and I had a nice lunch date and then “birthday” cake with the kids after dinner.  While I didn’t set out to, I ended up with an approximation of our wedding cake.  Appropriate, no?  Since we didn’t make it to Webers this year for our anniversary cake, this will have to do.  Chocolate cake (with beets; shh… don’t tell the kids!), cherries, and delicious swiss meringue buttercream (I was a little less generous than the baker, apparently).  All made with the “help” of some little hands. 

 

I came across this picture while looking for a picture of our original wedding cake.  See that blue duffel bag?  It’s an HVS bag that I got in 8th grade.  This bag has been present during many of the most important and memorable points in my life.  It’s traveled with me cross-country and around the world, it was clearly there at our wedding, and I’m fairly certain it accompanied us to the hospital when both Henry and Lucy were born.  I pull it out every time we pack to go somewhere.  Unfortunately, the zipper only half works now.  But I sort of feel like it’s part of the family now.  I will be very sad when I have to replace this bag. 

Speaking of weddings and travel, we were blessed to be able to travel to Chicago on our recent vacation to celebrate the wedding of some dear friends.  Congratulations, Dan and Kate!

 

From there we went up to Alpena to spend some quality time with the Fleming family.  Amazingly, everyone except for my brother Mike was able to come for at least a few days.  What fun!  The kids especially enjoyed playing with their little cousins.  Can’t wait for the next two little monkeys to join these ranks in December!

 

And finally, a belated Happy Easter to the kids!  This Easter package from Grandma got delivered to our old address.  Rather than returning it, the current renters at that address decided to hang onto the package.  They finally looked me up on facebook to let us know they had it, and we went to pick it up this afternoon.  Better late than never!