Brigham's birthday creations, plus another afghan

Brigham's birthday party is today at Fenner Nature Center.  We're doing a bird walk, bird stories, bird games and of course, Bird-day cake!

These are the cupcakes that went to Brigham's classroom yesterday.  The kids seemed to really like them except for one child who came up to me with a scrunchy look on his face and told me that he really didn't like them.

My favorite afghan I've ever made.  It's a thank-you gift for our favorite Michigan folk singers.  Their music got our whole family through a hard time this past year.

Some recent projects

Turkey Vulture cupcakes for Elijah's birthday (delivering these to school today).  We are so into birds around here.  Vulture cupcakes for a birthday?  What's next?

Afghan for B that's been several years in the making

Afghan to match my Monet print (also several years in the making)

Sariah's Poi cupcakes from January

Sideways owl piñata (Sariah's birthday)

May's second afghan--She made this for the intern from her 2nd grade class who recently had her second baby girl!

I have also finished another afghan recently, but have the pictures on my camera, rather than the computer.  It's a beauty (because of the yarn) and my favorite that I've ever made.

An on-time birthday

Here's Elijah with his pogo team. He's on the right side of the photo, to the left of the group.

Elijah got to celebrate his birthday on the actual date this week. On the same date, we attended his jump rope team's show. The whole team did great, but Elijah on his pogo ball, was spectacular. I see the makings of a fine athlete in him.

Here are the cupcakes he shared with his class (idea from "Hello, Cupcake"):





Elijah loves the Little House on the Prairie books. He got the whole set for his birthday, just as he was finishing reading them. He requested that we make the recipe of Laura's Wedding Cake from our Little House Cookbook. This recipe takes quite a bit of work because it requires you to beat 10 egg white by hand with a fork until they are stiff. Elijah and I took turns with the beating. Here is the result:




His other passion at the moment involves Great Lakes Freighters. He's specifically interested in the sinking of the Edmund Fitz, but anything freighter is interesting to him. He asked for this map of ships that have sunk on Lake Superior.


Happy Birthday, Elijah!

Early Birthday

We celebrated Brigham's birthday early this year. He's so excited to turn four and showed me all the finger combinations for ways to make four today.

Brigham is such a great kid. If you don't know him already, I wish you could. He brings so much joy to our family.

Here's the cake:



Here are the road signs:



Here's the birthday boy opening his Laffy Taffy's and blowing out his candles:




We had such a fun celebration today and next week, I get to take Brigham to the zoo on his real birthday.

Birfday Boys

Our two youngest boys have birthdays close together. It was a days-long hectic t-shirt and cupcake making fiasco! We have way too much fun around here, I tell you.

Elijah chose the cover of his "Travels of Thelonious" book for his t-shirt. The phone rang while I was working on coloring Elijah's shirt. I left the room with Brigham sitting at the table. I had that little feeling that says, "Don't leave markers with two year old." I did it anyway and you can see Brigham's addition of green marker in the "O."

(happy about something he opened)

And panda cupcakes from the book "Hello, Cupcake." These were a hit at school.




Brigham got the cover of "Red Truck" on his shirt.



If you've never read "The Missing Piece" by Shel Silverstein,



you might not get Brigham's cupcakes. Even if you have, you might not get it, but Brigham lovingly called this whole scene his "birfday." All he really asked for was the ladybugs. The rest was just to keep me entertained. Again, most of the ideas came out of "Hello, Cupcake."






The kids made Brigham's wrapping paper, drawing all of his favorite vehicles from his Hot Wheels collection and from books.


Brigham got some new car j's.



My favorite memories from this birthday season were:

1) One night I went and laid in bed with Brigham for a few minutes and filled him in on what his birthday would mean (turning 3, cake, presents). It was such pleasure to see his face light up over and over again.

2) Watching Elijah open his presents and get everything he put on his list. He was so excited!

P.S. This is a cute little orchard oriole that visited our house for a few days. No relation to the birthdays, but he deserves a place on the blog. Miss that bird!

The "Girlie" Turned 6!

I can't convince Sariah that she is four and not six and so I concede. She wins! She is six. We had a fun time as a family on her birthday and she relished (you have to know Sariah to get the full effect of "relished") the day that was set apart just for her!

Here's the cake (from the book "Hello, Cupcake" by Karen Tack):


Here's the birthday t-shirt (her favorite book is "Little Pea" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal):


Here are the cupcakes that she took to school:


Oh, and this has nothing to do with Sariah, but here is the opossum that was in my backyard about a week ago. It let me come up close to take a picture and didn't even bare it's ugly spiky killer teeth at me. Isn't it cute?:



Oh and while I've got you on the subject of wildlife, here's the merlin we saw in our pine tree a while back. We were so excited!:

Joseph

It's his birthday. I won't say which because he's so much older than myself (inside joke).

I'm so happy to celebrate the birthday of this incredible person. He's the reason for much of the good in my life. Just four months after we were married, he agreed to let me go to Monterey, CA to study marine biology for seven weeks. Then two years later, he agreed to let me go again! We had such good times when he'd come from Utah to visit me there! This summer, he took us all to the upper peninsula. I don' t know when we ever would have gone, but he scheduled his meeting in Marquette, MI during the summer so that he could take his family with him. This past weekend, he took each of our children to a quiet place and had an interview with them. I loved reading the list of questions he had decided to ask them. Those are just three of many examples of wonderful things he has done to help me and our family.

This is the kind of dad he is:


FUN! We're all so lucky to have him around!

Happy Birthday, J!

P.S. He has great taste in menu too. Tonight's dinner is Teriyaki Chicken and for dessert Cream Pies!

May

Sweet May at 6 months

May turned 9 while we were on vacation, which has become a tradition in the last few years. When I asked her if she wanted to have her birthday on vacation or at home, she unequivocally chose vacation.

We spent most of the day driving and checking out beaches, but she didn't seem to mind. We ate at an Italian restaurant, her favorite, and had a bakery cake.

May is a wonderful and dedicated friend. She has a gift for loving her siblings. She is a talented singer and an athletic jump roper and runner. She loves to have me read aloud to her and I so enjoy that time we have together. She always, always hugs and kisses her both parents before bed at night. A sweet, sweet girl! Love you, May!