Ella's Garden Party.

Perhaps this post should be titled Another Birthday Party!

Our little girly-girl was bent on having a girly friend birthday party.  The weekend after her birthday she invited a few friends over for a "garden-Springtime" party.  Since it had a garden theme, I decided a morning party would be best (I may have also not wanted the party to consume our entire day...maybe).  My main goal was to keep it simple.  Ella's main goal was to hang out with her friends.  So considering, I think it was a smashing success!

We started our morning decorating terra cotta pots.  I had a couple of different options in mind, but decided that morning that everyone was just going to paint their pot (per the "keep it simple" plan).

 

Of the five friends she invited, three were able to attend, and one friend was able to bring her little sister, much to Addie's delight!   

Nathan originally wanted nothing to do with this gathering, but ended up joining in and enjoying himself (he's used to girls).

Nathan hijacked the camera for a few moments.  He managed to take a couple of nice photos, including this one of our neighbor Kenna.

While the paint was drying, we had a snack of berries, orange juice, and cupcakes.

I'd like to think it was sort of like a "high tea" only with orange juice and in the morning...

(bonus: the flowers from the previous weekend still looked good,  thank you $5 Hy-Vee bouquet!)

I let the girls (and Nathan) finish their fruit first, then it was on to cupcake time.  I've discovered that little girls really like to decorate cupcakes, and it saves me a bunch of time.  So, I just baked the cupcakes, made different colors of frosting, and put the frosting into decorator bags with an assortment of tips.

The girls usually put on way more frosting than I would have, but that's part of the fun.

Evelyn didn' really participate in the party much until the fruit and cupcakes were brought out!

Here's everyone with their finished cupcakes!

Following cupcakes, Ella opened her gifts.  She got some great things: a fashion design notebook, modeling clay, and Beados.  She was very busy that afternoon!

With the remaining minutes of the party, we took the finished pots onto the back deck and planted some zinnia seeds.  Five days later Ella, Nathan, and Addie all had some sprouts!  The stories I've heard from others have sounded as successful! :)

It was a fun morning; Ella loved it, and overall it didn't require much time or effort.  I'm so glad we were able to do this for her, and look forward to more girly parties in the future!

7.

We've had almost two weeks to get used to it, but Ella Grace is seven years old!

 It seems like just yesterday she looked like the first photo...sigh.

It's amazing how Ella has transformed from our dark-haired, blue-eyed, chubby baby girl, to our dusty blonde, hazel-eyed slender young lady.

I love Ella's heart and her sensitivity.  

She is definitely our peace-maker.  Sandwiched in between Nathan and Adeline, she may not have had much choice. She can't stand it when others are hurting or upset...often to a fault.  Many a time has she given up a toy or something she wanted in order to prevent someone else from crying.  Ironically, though she dislikes crying, she is usually the first to shed tears when  things don't go as planned.

Ella loves all things girly.  She loves to dress up and accessorize, and if it were up to her there would be fresh cut flowers in the house all the time (okay, who wouldn't love this?!)

Ella excels at math and is great with numbers.  Reading requires more effort, but she has improved greatly and is becoming much more confident.  Ella would love to do art all day long, and has completed many "self-guided" projects.

I wanted to interview Ella on her 7th birthday (ish) to record all her faves and ambitions.  Here is a bit of Ella, as told by Ella.

My favorite food is:  mac and cheese 
My favorite sport to play is:  basketball
The best show on t.v. is:  Big Hero 6 
The coolest person on Earth is:  the President
My favorite thing to learn about in school is:  the Pilgrims
The thing I do the most awesomely is:  play with my Legos
If I could anywhere in the world, I'd go to:  England 
My favorite color is:  Blue
When I grow up I'm going to be :  a crossing guard
My favorite song is:  Let's Do the Countdown (apparently from some library movie I missed out on)
The book I am loving right now is:  Fancy Nancy 
Three words that describe me are:  "I like to read", "I like to color", "I like to sing" 
When I was little I used to:  chew on stuff
My favorite season of the year is:  Winter because it's Christmas and my birthday
The snack I like best is:  Munchies (chip mix)
The food I really dislike is:  squash and zucchini
My best friend is:  Lyla
If I had one wish, it would be: to have a dog
My best memory is:  when I had my baby sister

We pray that God will continue to grow her sweet caring spirit.  We pray she may grow in selfless love and have a deep love for God's people and the injustices in this world.  We also pray that God would give her wisdom and teach her to guard her heart.

We love you sweet Ella Grace.  We are so thankful to God to have you as part of our family, and we consider it a great privilege and honor to be your parents.  May God bless you and call you to Himself as you continue to grow in wisdom and stature.

A Cowgirl Party:: Sweet Ella is 7!

The weather here is amazing, sunny and 80 degrees.  Perhaps it's because I'm a realist or maybe it's because I'm married to a Vikings fan, but I'm still waiting for the weather guy to forecast a big snow storm.  For now, we'll relish in the fact that Ella is 7 and we got to celebrate our "winter baby's" birthday in the beautiful sunshine!

Of course every birthday leaves me with the same sense of awe...How did that year pass so quickly?!  Ella is growing up way too fast, but we are so thankful for the kind-hearted sweet lady she is becoming.

I let the children choose the theme for their birthday party.  Ella is my girl; we have similar tastes and she often chooses themes that I'm excited about also.  This year was no exception...

Cowgirl!

It was a very simple, fun party celebrating with family.  Ella and I found a few decorating ideas online that she liked, including a cow print cake and the following cute little cowboy hats.

(Matt made all of those hats.  They were more for show, but we ate the whole plate...)

Besides cake and Pringles hats we had pizza, "wild wild west" fruit, "happy trails"mix, veggies & dip, and a "watering hole" filled with iced tea, juice pouches, root beer, and of course water.

 Ella loves flowers, so we wanted to use them to decorate the tables.  

Baby's breath is so sweet and simple (and also cheap).

Here's our sweet little cowgirl!

You can tell by these photos how amazingly sunny it was outside!  

We didn't have many games planned, and the ones we were going to do we actually forgot about since the kids were playing outside.  However, Ella was very insistent on apple bobbing.  Thankfully we could set that up on the back deck on not have it in the house.

It proved challenging for little mouths, so I quartered the apples.  It was still tricky for most of them to grab an apple.  You had to go all in!

Ella got one!

Our niece Katlyn struggled at first, and then figured out you just have to go for it!  

I tried to get some adults to participate, but there were no takers!

 

After playing outside for much of the afternoon, it was time for presents!  Ella got many lovely gifts including: Shopkins (don't ask me what these are), headbands to decorate, a bracelet lacing set, clothes, the movie Big Hero 6, and flower seeds.

Finally, it was cake time!

   Happy Birthday sweet Ella Grace!  

We love you so very much!

Spring is in the Air: Getting Dirty in the Kitchen.

I wish it was beginning to feel like Spring...today was actually bone-chilling cold. Although temps and wind-chills were both above zero so who am I to complain?

Despite the cold temps, last weekend we took a trip to the local gardening and landscape center.  We didn't go for plants but seeds.  We are actually thinking about our garden before May 1 this year (yeah us!), and we're hoping that starting a few tomatoes and bell peppers from seed will be fun, educational and money-saving.  

We got three different seed packets: Red sweet bell peppers, cherry tomatoes (sweeties),  bush tomatoes (ace). 

 

It would perhaps be nice to have more variety, but then it becomes less of a money saver.  Especially for us since we only have space for 6-8 tomato plants and we don't eat a lot of peppers (2-4 plants is plenty).  If you had a large garden then obviously you could buy a bigger selection.  

The most important for me was the full-size tomato since I can can or freeze those.  It also was a priority that all the seeds were heirloom.  Heirloom means that we can save some seed from this year's crop to plant for next year.  Ideally everything we plant will be heirloom and if we are successful, we'll never have to buy seeds again (bwa-ha-ha...that's my evil laugh)!

To start our seeds Matt purchased a greenhouse kit from Menards.  There are 16 cells, so each kid can plant and take care of four.  The cells in this kind that he bought are made of something from a coconut so that we can just plant the whole thing and not worry about upsetting any roots.

He also purchased some organic seed-starting soil and a plant light.  The plant light was the most expensive item purchased at around $5.  Perhaps it will last more than one season though.  Total on everything we spent around $18, but we leftover dirt and seeds.

The process was very simple, but there was something exciting about getting a little dirty and planting some tiny seeds!  There was a bit of a Spring buzz in the air!

 Evelyn planted 4 red pepper plants, Addie planted 3 cherry tomato and 1 regular tomato plant, and Nathan and Ella each planted 4 tomato plants.

Matt was involved so everything was done very carefully.  He made a hole the correct depth for each seed, covered the seeds back with dirt, and then tamped it down a little (with a plastic spoon).  

(I would have just pushed it in with my finger and called it good.)

 

Once planted, we watered the seeds.  We used a water bottle so that it would be more gentle, but I'm sure there are other methods that work well too.  We put the plastic cover over the top, so the greenhouse effect could take place.  We made sure to put them near a window, but there's not a perfect place for them.  So far they've just sat on our kitchen table.  Once they all sprout, they can move to the basement and they'll have the plant light.  Although our basement is a little chilly, so we may have to rig something up down there or come up with a secondary location.

Upon entering the kitchen later, I found that Aerial and Cindy were on duty protecting our newly planted seeds.  Having them face different directions is good strategy...

So, if anyone has experience or knowledge in this department, we are always open to advice.  Like most everything we do, we're learning as we go!

update:  We planted the seeds on Sunday 2/08/15.  One week later on 2/15/15 we have 8 sprouts!

Labor of Love.

 So, as a homeschooler I sometimes have felt like my kids are missing out on some aspects of public school.  One such being class parties.  But now that I have a kid in public school, I'm surprisingly apathetic towards them.  They don't really seem that valuable to me...however, the kids enjoy them and nobody's going to end school parties because of my apathy, so carry on.

This Tuesday was Nathan Valentine's party.  This was our first party that required at home effort: creating "the box".

He was told he could bring it Monday or Tuesday, but all weekend long no one even thought about it.  It was not high on my priority list, and apparently not on Nathan's either.

Then, of course, Sunday evening comes.  Nathan declares he's been thinking about his box and he thinks he would like it to look like Gandalf (from Lord of the Rings).

Alrighty I say.  I'm not going to stress about it.  But, I do realize that I also volunteered to bring some candy to the Valentine's party and Nathan doesn't actually have any Valentines to pass out yet.  So, Monday we picked up Nathan, stopped at Target for said Valentine's "necessities" and headed home about 4:00.

This gave Nathan two hours to create his Gandalf box before dinner.  After which he had Bible study and wouldn't be home until 9:00.

So, as soon as we entered the house it was game time.  I told Nathan he needed a plan. 

[By the way, I could find nothing on the internet for Gandalf Valentine's box, not even on Pinterest...shocking!]

This is what he came up with:

(I'm not sure if they were helpful or not)

I then told him find a box or two.  So, he brought up ten.  I helped him get started, but I had to work on dinner.  He was on his own, and I didn't have a whole lot of expectations for what Gandalf was going to look like when completed.

When he left for Bible study, he had a good start.  However, the hat wasn't quite finished and he hadn't started his beard.  Personally I felt like these were the two distinguishing characteristics, and so must be completed.  Nathan's idea was that I finished his box while he went to Bible study...right.

Obviously, I didn't do that.  

But, when Nathan got home at 9:00 he wrote out his Valentines cards to his classmates while I shredded paper.  Then Matt and I hot glued the paper on for his beard and hot glued the top of his hat to the brim.  It wasn't perfect, but it was finished...and Nathan headed to bed at 10:00.

Nathan was actually so pleased with the final result that he spontaneously gave me a hug and kiss and told me thank you.  It made every hot glue burn worth it!

So, here's Nathan and Gandalf, all ready to leave for school the next morning.

He thought he was going to win the prize for "coolest Valentine's box", but some kid came in late with an even cooler box and won that prize.  I guess there was also some confusion as some kids thought it was the wizard from Harry Potter.  But Nathan was still glad.  He told me there were even 5th graders that wanted to see his box.  I'm guessing the custodial staff was not as pleased since Gandalf was also a bit of a shedder...

I was able to volunteer an help with the party.  It seemed it was a success...kids exchanged cards, played games, and ate too much sugar.  Nathan did however describe it as "the worst party he's ever been to".  I can't win with this kid!

With all the cardboard lying around, Ella also decided to whip up a Valentine's box Monday afternoon.  

 

It's a unicorn!

She had plans too, though I couldn't find them to take a picture.  She worked very independently and finished it before dinner Monday evening.  I love it.

It Is Well?

I have another wall project in the works.  

I'm hoping that between my diy canvas and wall gallery(ish), our home will look cute and charming and not just cheap.  Though perhaps it is the triple threat.  

My new project is barely started, but I need the letters to spell "It is Well with My Soul."  However, Michaels apparently only likes to carry one two-inch wooden  "w" at a time, so I left with just the letters for "it is well".  

I left the letters on the counter, and this is what I found Sunday afternoon:

 

Life with my 8 year-old boy, it is not for the faint of heart.

Sweet Evelyn.

 I get comments a lot lately about how 'big' Evelyn is getting.  It's true.  In a few short months my baby will be three.  She's really not a baby all...sigh.

She's enjoying exerting her independence more and more lately.  I'm enjoying watching her personality come out as we get to continually learn more about her.  It's so fun (and often funny) to finally hear her speak and discover what is going through her mind.  She has a very gentle and fun personality.  I'm totally in love with her. 

However...packaged with this independence and sweetness is a streak of naughtiness.  She has definitely been testing the boundaries more and more.

I got this shot of her earlier this week:

She selected her outfit and her shoes.  Yes it's February, so when it was time to go get Nathan I slipped some leggings and a sweater on her (and some boots).

She looks totally studious and lady-like here...never mind the blue plastic snake under her chair.  However, when she is drawing with markers (here she has a dry erase marker and board) the rule is she needs to be at.the.table.  

(side note: This rule has come about as a result of negative marker experiences...if you have young kids you should also have this rule!) 

We had already had a battle over the fore mentioned rule once this day (and several other times on other days).  So, she is feeling quite pleased with herself right now.  Like perhaps this is acceptable because she is sitting in the correct chair, or maybe if she crosses her legs it's okay because she'll get some cuteness points.

Sadly, it may have worked a little.  After all, she is the baby.  

Hopefully I don't have a photo next week of marker all over our furniture...

[Addie wanted to be in the photo, so she is posing in the background.  Ella is doing some spelling.  I see she is flirting with the rules too!]