The view this morning

Matthew had time to turn a few cartwheels before catching the bus.

And Claire had time to laugh. Of course, when doesn't this girl have time to laugh? It's one of the things she does best.

A Picture Story

One evening we decided to hike up to a lookout to view the sunset while overlooking the river.  I bring you a picture story of how our evening went.

The kids started off with way more energy and stamina than I did.

But Claire stopped and said something like "don't worry Mommy, I wait for you."
Oh, thanks sweetheart.

Me: Lets get you all together and take a picture, OK?

Yea, they were all thrilled about that, Matthew obviously the most thrilled.

Me: Well, I need new pictures for my frames so let's get one of each of you alone.  Thankfully, that did work, the pictures from this post are their individual photos from that night.

Claire: I need to go potty!
Me: Hmmm (looking at my wonderful husband),..well, honey I'm toting around this camera, would you mind taking her?

So off they went.

The other kids were growing restless and trying to find things to do at a place that doesn't really have things to do; except look out over the river, of course.

Let's make our footprints in the sand.

Me: How about let's take some pictures of the views from here guys.

Jacob: No, that is kind of boring Mom; let me think of what we should do.

Yes, that park bench looks like a mighty fine place to entertain ourselves.

We kept moving towards the general direction of the only restroom, hoping to intersect J and Claire on their way back to us.  But, it was still taking quite some time for us to meet up so Jacob pondered more activities.

This looks like a fine hill for us to run down and nearly fall on our faces.  Sound good to you?

Wow guys, that was fun.  I think we should really try to make ourselves one with nature.  Care to join me?

Well, since we're doing this lovey dovey thing and you can lean on me and all that, how about you remind me to take my allergy meds next time.  OK, bro?

Me:  All right, Claire is back!  OK guys, gather together and let's try getting a few pictures of you before it gets too dark.  Mmmkay?

Emily takes charge of the gathering and gets her long arms around all of them.
Matthew:  Do not touch me!  Get your arm off me!  Don't!

Claire: Will you please don't touch me?
Matthew:  *Insert scream grunt here* Get off me!
Claire: I don't want any picture.

OK, well that was fun!  Let's move on.

Dad is always best at changing the mood so we find a picnic table and he starts making up "I dare you to fill in the blank" games.  These start out simple enough but the kids must always out do each other.

Shortly after this last picture the inevitable happened; Matthew fell off the table as he escalated his tricks.  The only other people at the lookout were totally giving us looks and I wanted to yell, "Yep, we're THOSE parents!"  I was really disappointed that I didn't get any pictures of Matthew falling off the table because after he promptly stood up, brushed himself off and let out a smug "I'm fine!" my mother's panic turned into "darn, that would have been a great picture!"

I chased Claire around for awhile trying to get her picture because she had been avoiding me.  I got her to slow down enough to put her hair behind her ears.

When she realized I got her picture she laughed and said "I don't know why you always take my picture, Mommy?"

Because I can, and because I love to!

With that we got a picture of the sunset we came for and made our trek back down the hill.

What a fun, impromptu evening overlooking the river.

Boy, oh boy

I wish Matthew would come out of his shell more.

Maybe even become a dare devil.

And try things that none of the other kids would while running through the sprinkler.

I mean, really show us some personality.

Maybe when he comes out of his shell his personality can really come through in photos, just maybe.

A pot of gold

Happy Birthday to my baby boy! I can't believe you are already 8 years old; it's obvious that the age-freezing potion I spiked your cake with last year didn't work. You are a ray of sunshine in the life of everyone you meet. The Lord certainly blessed all of us with your birth.

To go along with my blond-haired boy's heart of gold I made him rainbow cupcakes to take to school.

What's that? You have a child with a heart of gold as well? Well, let me share the love and show you how to spend 3 hours in the kitchen making them rainbow cupcakes too!

Ingredients:
2 boxes white cake mix
Items needed to make cake (eggs, water and oil)

I made the cake mixes according to the box but of course, the rebel bit of blood running through my veins means I had to change it a bit. I cut the water down from 2 cups to 1 1/2 cups and used 1/2 cup of vanilla coffee creamer and I also added a bit of vanilla extract just to make it extra yummy.

Mix it up good and then let it sit for a few minutes while you get your mixing bags ready.

Divide the cake mix among ziploc bags. I used five colors, technically not a scientific ROYGBIV rainbow but I was getting tired. Little did I know, I was only beginning.

I mixed the color into the bags and then zipped them closed to mix.

Cut the corner of the bags to fill the muffin cups; I put just a thick enough layer to cover the previous color.

Bake according to the box temperature and time.

Frost with your desired frosting and sprinkles, if you'd like.
To make this frosting I mixed 3 sticks of butter, a splash or three of milk, two dollops of cream cheese, some vanilla and enough powdered sugar to make it all stick together. It is very tasty!

Flower War

It all started as a photo idea; let's sprinkle the flower petals from the cherry tree over Claire while mom takes her picture.
OK, let's do it!

It didn't take long for Claire to show her disgust with this idea.

Matthew figured out he could shake the branch and make more petals fall.

Claire started hiding handfuls of petals behind her back to try and ambush the others.

That provoked Emily to start scooping up her own handfuls off the ground.



Matthew started getting a bit sneakier and hiding a bit more.

Claire thought long and hard...

and decided her best tactic would be to hide.

When that didn't work she resorted to gathering up her own handfuls.


Then it was a free for all with flower petals!




Toby checked out all the action but quickly decided this was too much, even for him.

Soon the patio looked like this,

and the grass was carpeted with a beautiful shade of pink,

and the petals followed everyone inside.

You might notice that Jacob is absent from these photos. We convinced him to join us outside for the fun but after a few handfuls thrown his way he was convinced that flowers being thrown on him was not the ideal way to spend the evening. If you look closely in the 6th picture you can see him standing behind the tree.

You can also see a few more pictures from the flower war on Claire's blog.