Birthdays

I think it's safe to say that I made it through that round of the flu bug without catching it.  Whew!!  Thank you Gypsy Cold Care tea!!

I am so thankful because we have entered birthday season. We start it off with Dan's birthday which is also Valentine's Day. I made these cookies as a little special something for everyone.

For Daniel's birthday, his request was for our family to all go to the Lego Store in the Bellevue Square Mall.  There was a time in my life when I was at the mall a lot ~ not anymore.  I feel like the Beverly Hillbillies when we go.  It's a bit of a culture shock - all the traffic, the crazy fashions, the crazy people.  It's fun though, we all enjoy it.  The second best part of the mall for the little ones is the escalators.  While I popped into William Sonoma with Hannah,  Eric wore Mary in the Baby Bjorn and stood and watched while Caleb and Matt rode the escalators with the littles.  Oh my gosh - they had so. much. fun!!  I think they made everyone who saw them giggle because they were all giggling and laughing with delight.

Escalator riding sure makes one hungry so we stopped and ate lunch at Taco del Mar.  The food is fresh mex. The portions are large and the prices are reasonable.  We fed eight people for $40.  Not bad!

Since we were already in Bellevue, we decided to stop off at the Goodwill .  We've always heard that it was a good one since the town is "where the rich people live".  Well, rich or not, the Goodwill in Bellevue was a bust.  Except that Caleb found the Chariots of Fire Soundtrack on vinyl for .99.  He was thrilled!  Hannah and I each found a skirt too. I guess it wasn't a complete bust.

We actually didn't have to battle too much traffic on the way home.  Ahhh, back to our quiet, country life.  Dan had requested meatball sandwiches for dinner, so while I made them, he built the Lego sets that he bought and received as gifts. 

He also really likes walruses.  Caleb and Hannah tried to create a walrus cake for him.  It turned out pretty cute.  Happy 9th Birthday, Daniel.

Three days later, is Eric's birthday.  He surprised us all.  He had told me that he was not going to take his birthday off, but he did.  He was able to putter around and work on some projects that he just doesn't have time for ordinarily.  How nice to spend the day just the way you want to!  That's a birthday present in itself, I think.  He requested chicken parmesan for his birthday dinner and of course, pecan pie with vanilla ice cream.
 

Captain America arrived from Netflix so we watched that later on that night. Fun.

Sarah had us over to her place this last weekend to celebrate all the February birthdays.  She had made lunch for us all, baked a delicious cake,(and some special walrus cupcakes for Dan. ~ from the What's new, cupcake cookbook.) and had her place all decorated so festively!  Wouldn't you know, I forgot my camera.  It was great to spend some time with her.

That was last week.  Next up...Abbie and then Caleb. 

Fun stuff

One morning as I was helping the little girls make their beds and get dressed in their "pretty" (that is Abigail's word for dress.) doing their hair, it made me think about all the things that make a girl.   As the poem goes, "Sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of..."   I thought to myself, what could I do that would celebrate the joys of girlhood?

This came to mind!

 

I had hoped to have a Valentine tea party just the girls and me, but I didn't want to have it on Valentine's Day because Daniel's birthday is that day.  His birthday trumps Valentine's Day!  Instead of a Valentine tea, I think I'll make it a simple spring tea.

This is the menu that I'm planning...

Cucumber cream cheese tea sandwiches

Raisin Scones with lemon curd 

Flower shaped sugar cookies with light pink sugar

Lemon poppy seed cupcakes

Peppermint and Chamomile tea

Hannah and I are really excited to put this together ~ just special girl time.

What about the boys, you ask?  Secretly, they love when we have tea parties because they like all the things on the menu, and of course each recipe makes more than enough to share!  When we do have it, I'll be sure to post pictures. (I'm thinking Leap Year Day - somthing fun to do on an unusual day.)  I hope to do this regularly!

February is a very busy month for us. We have four birthdays to celebrate, one being on Valentine's Day.  Apparently, the flu bug didn't get the memo on that!
We have been hit hard by this horrible bug.  For the last ten days, I have watched my family drop like flies.  They seem to be just fine, then it starts - they complain of a stomach ache.  Within a couple of hours they are vomiting horribly for the next 6-8 hours.  After that is done, the fever starts, along with an awful headache and body aches for a day.  Not much fun!  I am the only one who has not gotten it.  (Mary didn't experience it the same way, she had other symptoms.)  I don't know how on earth I have escaped this, but by God's grace.  I am still in a holding pattern though - not out of the woods yet. From the start of this, it seemed like it took 48 hours for the next person(s) to come down with it. So, I wait to see.  Uh - the dread of it.  I so don't want to get this!  I am currently drinking a special tea by Traditional Medicinals called Gypsy Cold Care.  The three main herbs in it are elder flower, yarrow flower and peppermint leaf.  According to my friend, who is very knowledgable about herbs, the combination of these three herbs is supposed to really knock out any influenza germs.  Let's pray this works for me! 
   On a lighter note, I thought I'd post a few new photos for you.

Our next little piano player.  I can hardly believe that Mary Anne is 10-1/2 months old already.  She is finally crawling on her hands and knees instead of the commando crawl that she got so good at. She'd much rather eat "big people" food than baby food and voices that very clearly. She has 6 teeth now and her hair is really growing in thick. (at least in the back).  She now waves anytime you take her to a window to look out.  She has such a cute smile and she still has blue eyes!

And Ellie lost her first tooth!