Natalie's 10th Birthday!

A whole decade old!

I'm not sure you can see it, but her clock says 6:30.  I'm sure she was awake, waiting as patiently as she could under her covers for us to come in, for at least an hour.

Embroidered shirt made by Grandma Webb.

Natalie and her presents.  Her brothers bought her the suckers and Gobstoppers.  And one of these birthdays/Christmases, we are going to run out of My Little Pony/Equestria girls to give her.  Maybe.  It's been like 5+ years running now.

This cake I made...double layer chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting, surrounded by chocolate Kit-Kats, covered in chocolate M&M's.  Now, I have about as high of a sugar tolerance as possible.  But this was just too much.  As I was finishing it up, I could already feel it making me sick.  There was just so much sugar.  Natalie told me it was perfect.

Oh, and funny story about the frosting.  I was making it kinda late at night.  I was ready to be done with the cake.  I made the chocolate frosting and tasted it, but it was just kind of... off.  I couldn't figure out why, but it tasted awful.  Sometimes if you use too much cocoa powder it can make it a bit bitter.  But that wasn't it.  The last thing I wanted to do was throw it all away and try again.  I had Nate taste it to see if it was really that bad.  He made a face.  Then he said the same thing I was kind of thinking... that it tasted almost....alcoholic.  Not that either of us would know what that tastes like, but that's what came to mind.  So with this realization, I go check my bottle of vanilla, that was getting a bit old and had been sitting on the shelf with only 1-2 Tbs left for quite a while.  We both gave it a smell, and yep.  That little tiny bit of alcohol that is in vanilla had been having a fermentation party!  So now we laugh about how I almost gave our 10 year old daughter an alcoholic birthday cake. 

Now, let me take you through the journey that is Natalie blowing out her birthday candles...

It looks like she is just covering her mouth, very excited.  She's actually plugging her nose.  She has this thing about the smoke from candles. 

The anticipation...

Okay, let's do this...  With the nose plugged.

Wait, that's not going to work.  Let's try this...

Complete and utter fail.  Not even one candle.

I'm pretty sure we had to tell her not to plug her nose while she was blowing.

So, blow quick, and replug nose.

But that method was only slightly successful.  And now there's smoke in the air.  So the nose must be plugged again.

Success!

This girl is truly one of a kind.  And we love her tons!

A visit from Grandma and Grandpa

My Mom and Dad came for a visit a few days before Natalie's birthday.  As always, it was fun to have them here and the kids loved it.

When they first arrived, there was a lot of reading books and looking at school work.

We decided to go hike in Madera Canyon for something fun to do.  I love this picture of my Dad taking a picture.

And this picture... we sat down for a rest.  And we won't discuss the giant, green, buzzing, flying, man-eating beetle bug that almost claimed the lives of my Mom and oldest daughter...

Okay, maybe we will.  It may or may not have had a stinger, just depending on which one of my parents you ask.

According to Kelton, I look creepy in this picture.

I have a lot of pictures like this.  "Look mom!  A giant rock!  Let's take a picture on it!"  Big rocks are fascinating.  And there are a lot of big rocks out there.

Sometimes, when you are a middle child, you just need to be in a picture by yourself. (On yet another big rock, of course.)

Kids on a bridge.

Kids on a rock.

My girls.

My boys.  On a... let's see...oh, a rock.

The kids with Grandma and Grandpa.

Later, we went out to eat at Olive Garden to celebrate Natalie's birthday a few days early.

Grandma and Grandpa gave Natalie the next set of Warriors books.

She was very excited.  :)

 

And while my parents were here, my Dad went to Big 5 (a sporting goods store) to look around.  Natalie went with him.  This isn't the type of store that you would expect a child to find a toy they really, really want.  But that's what happened.  Natalie found these stuffed animals, called Beanie Boos.  All the kids ended up begging for one, but I told them I wasn't going to buy them.  A week or so later, Natalie was still asking about it.  I told her that she could use her own money if she wanted it that badly. 

 

She did.

 

This, of course, set off a chain reaction, with Kelton and Damon pulling out their piggy banks too.  And Arie just has a nice mom.  Or a mom who know the repercussions of a left out two year old.

 

 

The month of May

Here is an overview of our month of May.

Natalie received the Bobcat of the Month award for her class. 

Arie decided she was old enough to start wearing eye shadow. 

But I think she is cuter without it.

The boys went to father and sons.  The girls went out to dinner at Arby's.

Damon graduated from Miss Marcy's Preschool.  He was very excited and he got a very large candy bar.

Damon and Miss Marcy.

Natalie's birthday is always right around the end of school.  When her birthday ends up being during summer break, like this year, we take in treats for her class on the last day of school.  This year we did sugar cookies.  Natalie's class loved Arie.  They all wanted a hug from her and she ended up walking around the circle hugging all the kids.

Natalie and her teacher, Mrs. Clapper.

Last day of school!  I thought the kids would be excited.  But Natalie and Kelton both came home a little out of sorts.  They both moped around for most of the afternoon.  Kelton came straight in the door, and didn't say a word.  A few minutes later, I found him on the couch, looking just like he does in these pictures.  I went over and scooped him up and wiped away a few tears.  He was holding a page from a scrapbook his teacher had given him that day. 

It had a picture of him with his teacher, Mrs. Burke.  He was already missing her terribly and couldn't stand the thought that he wouldn't see her anymore. 

This is Kelton and Damon's solution to not fighting about who got to hold the stuff and put in on the conveyor belt. "Let's both hold the stuff!" says Kelton.  I couldn't bear to break it to Damon that he was actually just holding Kelton.  They both held the bag on the way out to the car, which worked a little bit better. 

Piano Recital

I must say, this piano recital creeps up on me every year!  We barely got it in before the end of the school year-- on May 14th.  This was also Kelton's first piano recital!  He was so excited and both he and Natalie did a great job.

From left to right: back row: Kanesa Gay, Clarice Bird, Chrissie Hancock, me, Emma Vaterlaus, Samantha Bryson.  Front row: Hailey Bryson, Felicity and Helen Davidson, Natalie, Ryan Owens, Landon Palmer, Harrison Crofts, Sadie and Madoc Crapo, and Kelton. 

 

As of this recital date, I had 15 students and have been able to keep all of their lessons on Mondays and Tuesdays.  I guess 13 of them have lessons on those days-- I do Natalie's and Kelton's on different days.  As an update, as of today's date when I am posting this, I now have 21 students including Natalie and Kelton and still only have lessons on Mon/Tues.  Because I have some adults, home schooled students, and a few who come before school, I am able to spread students out over the course of the day, instead of having to teach the majority of them after school gets out.  It is like having a part time job, but only on two days per week.  It works out well.