Birthdays and Baptism

     Henry turned 8 and wanted a carrot cake for his birthday. I made it and had Lizy put the final touches on it. He asked for a Minecraft party. Teddy and I went in search of Minecraft party supplies, and luckily, it's still quite popular, so they were easily acquired. 

The piñata was a pull-the-string only; I told the kids how it works, but Henry took a crack at it with his hand anyway. He then tried to pull all of the strings at once, which elicited a chorus of dismay from the rest of the kids.  He did relinquish his hold and took a single string. He pulled and opened the bottom, but no candy came out, so I stuck it back so the others could have a try.

    Henry decided to be baptized, and we were so happy to support him in his decision. He wanted his siblings to be involved. My parents and Ron were kind enough to attend. NaDene had embroidered baptism towels for all of my kids, and Ron was kind enough to let me try to figure it out for Henry. It took me about three days to get it all done. Luckily, I found NaDene's file for Lizzy's Towel and figured out how to adapt it for Henry.  It was so nice to be able to include something from her. I always like to put up photos of their life at the church, and Henry really liked them.

    He wanted donuts for the refreshments after the baptism. When we lived in Vancouver, we found this doughnut and ice cream place that had some campfire donuts that were chocolate-glazed and covered in mini marshmallows and graham crackers. Henry loved them; no donut has ever lived up to it.  I found a few different kinds for him. His baptism had severe competition. The stake had a Relief Society meeting in the morning and a priesthood meeting in the afternoon. We rescheduled his baptism three times. He followed in Devon's footsteps and needed to be put under twice, due to his foot popping up. 

Fun Stuff

     I cleaned up some of the toys and organized them while trying to get a bin to turn into a compost bin. By so doing, I highlighted certain toys to Teddy. He loves vehicles, and we have quite a few.

    We are finally getting Henry some occupational therapy. His therapist noticed that Henry had problems with his periphery. I took him to the optometrist and found out that he is farsighted. He had glasses now, and the doctor wants him to strengthen his weak eye. I ordered some patches, but for a day, he went full pirate. 

I had a hankering for sushi, so we made some. This time, I tried making Spam Musubi.

I took Teddy to the park. He went down this slide one time, and then he just wanted to tell me a story.

    Apparently, there is a secret clown at the high school who moves around the school. Lizzy finally saw him up on a ledge, and later, it was in her classroom. Who knows how long this has been going on or who moves it.

    We were invited to a get-together, and our neighbor dropped off a ton of potatoes, so I asked my friends for a good potato salad recipe. I love potato salad, but have never made a great one. I got a huge variety of salads, as you can imagine, but in the end, I went with one online. It was ok, but I'm still on the hunt for a good recipe. 

    It was a fun event, but it was surprising how much of the conversation Daniel and I carried. It felt a bit forced at times. The kids loved the smores. They had caramel-stuffed marshmallows! There was a surprise visitor, a garden snake. The kids killed it with the tetherball base and then cleared the remains with some shovels. That was exciting!

    At this point, we had been there for over an hour, and Devon was done. He is allergic to nearly everything outside here. He tries to avoid the great and small outdoors if he can. Poor thing.

We came home, and I had to capture these roses in our front yard; they were just so vibrant.

We had a blood moon, and I could not get a good picture, but you can see the color.

Back to School

 This year is historic. Not only do I have a senior and a freshman, but Devon is in his third middle school, and Emily and Henry are in their third elementary school. I never thought my kids would move around as much as I did growing up; they haven't, but we have moved more than I expected. 

    Charles got a half-day trial run. He took the bus and everything.

    Then, later that evening, we went to the elementary school to meet the younger kids' teachers and see the school. They take Taylor Swift very seriously here.

Henry had to take his sister down.

    School starts in August here, so it wasn't long before everyone was riding the bus for real. The first day of school, it was raining. The kids were complaining a bit about it, but just as the bus arrived, the sky lightened and we had double rainbows.

    Our neighbor has a new sixth grader, but she forbade her mother from taking photos. She camped out in her car and watched until the bus came. We got an alert that the school had lost power, but not 10 minutes later, it was restored. I told her that I'm not to be deterred from taking photos; my kids are used to it. 

    I was really impressed by the younger kids' bus driver; she had their names up above the seats to let you know where to sit. She is very organized. Unfortunately, the elementary school was without power for a few hours. Henry had a few hard weeks settling into the new routine, but he is doing really well now.

   

 Teddy is happy to have me back to myself. He does love a captive audience. He would like to show you his creations:

Back to Summer

     Teddy was invited to his first non-familial birthday party. I took him to the park and the splash pad. He had a wonderful time.

A lady had brought a ton of old containers, and the kids loved filling and refilling them.

I shared the chocolate I brought back with the kids.

I got my FoE Craft exchange.

 

The theme was Sci-Fi. I made a painting homage to my partner's favorite sci-fi books.

    We had a storm that knocked over one of the beehives. Daniel was at work, so I woke up Lizzy to help me try to right it. She rather impulsively kicked the bottom of the hive, upsetting its occupants and leading to her having a bee hitch a ride inside in her hair. I was able to dislodge the poor fellow, but Lizzy was stung for her trouble. I called Daniel to get his opinion on the matter, and he suggested I put a tarp over the hive until he could help. 

   I looked for a tarp, but couldn't locate one. I then remembered a shower curtain that was downstairs, which is currently without employment. I secured it and put on a bee hat and ventured out to my fate. I was worried, but I was able to get it covered quickly without incident, thankfully. Daniel righted it upon his return and even protected as he was with his gear, suffered several stings in the exercise.

On a happier note, Daniel and I were able to go to the Starlight Theater to see Ain 't Too Proud.

    I really appreciated the screens, but they were a little distracting as well, as they focused on certain actors and not the whole cast at times, so I was looking back and forth quite a lot. The show was very good. The music was wonderful, and I learned quite a bit about the Temptations.

    Henry is my scientist. He loves making experiments, so it was not terribly surprising that the temptation of having a variety of soaps in one bathroom led to a common experiment. Namely, what happens when they are combined with water. He dragged Teddy in as his assistant, which he happily agreed to. The result:

    As summer was winding down, I gave the kids a choice: we could go to the state fair or swimming. Overwhelmingly, they chose swimming. The pool we visited is in Grain Valley. It is very nice and has two slides as well as a floating snake.

    They enjoyed this goodbye to summer. Our library's summer reading challenge gave the kids meals at Culver's, so I took them there to congratulate them.

This summer has been eventful! I am excited to see what the future holds.