An assortment

My Valentine from Sean- YoDa One for Me

 So, obviously the first pic here is back from valentines, but it just made me so happy to see when I uploaded the pics from my camera, I  thought I'd post it.  Sweet kids.  And notice that the kids are STILL able to ride bikes to school...even in February.
A couple of weeks ago I peeked into the living room to see how Sean was doing at his guitar lesson.  I about burst out laughing when the first thing that I saw was Thomas, still as a board, laying in Sean's teacher's guitar case.  Apparantly they were paying him no mind.

Jump ahead to this past Saturday.  Grandma Eyre brought up a pack of these pictures to paint and the whole family was taken by them.  Who knew they were so easy to entertain?  Brandon even gave ME his completed masterpiece for an early birthday present (as well as some asparagus starts...woo-hoo!)

 We had birthday dinner observed on Sunday as we couldn't fit it onto the actual birthday (b/c of my upcoming travels!).  Brandon made the BEST Cheese Souffle ever. He covered the sides of the greased pan before cooking with real grated Parmesan so it got all toasted and crunchy and wonderful when mixed with the delicate souffle.  I'm thinking of instituting 'Souffle Sunday'.  Has a nice ring, doesn't it?  Of course Brandon would have to do the cooking... (what am I saying.  He always does the cooking on Sunday).

The blaze

My cake was a homemade strawberry cake with strawberry filling and, as you can see, had a strawberry  'flower' on top courtesy of Sean.  Apparently the kids decorated it all themselves.  They ran out at 32 candles but, lucky day, Catherine found a '4' candle in our decorating box and the math all worked out.  During Sacrament meeting earlier in the day, Rin was filling out the day's page in Nana's sacrament book.  It talked about family and said for her to draw a cake with the right number of candles for the person who had the next birthday in the family.
She just looked up at me and said, "WOAH.  That's a LOT of candles!"

And since I'm trying to continue with my Spanish studies....Buenas Noches

Bleh

Feeling down today as a mom.  Two experiences- both to do with hair.  First I'm  cutting Sean's hair,  and at one point I put the top layers up in an elastic because his hair is so thick.  Immediately he gives me a seething look, a 'Mom!  Stop it!', and he rips the elastic out (apparantly I'm embarrassing him... in front of Henry and Thomas I guess? Have to keep up appearances!).  Then, later, Rin is getting ready to go to a birthday party and I tell her I want to help with her hair 'cause it's a fun dress up time (fairy princess party).  I do a simple little twist with only a little bit of her hair leaving most of it down as she wanted.  She's glaring at me the entire time and when I finish, she keeps 'adjusting' it 'til it's pretty much falling out.   Don't know why I bother.

Maybe if I just shaved them all bald...

beware

warning message on our new mesh laundry bag:

Caution: Item under spring pressure, keep item away from children and face while opening.

Fortunately, although I didn't see this message 'til after the fact and handed the package to my 3 youngest  to open, my kids managed to not hurt themselves ...


Has a company really ever been sued over  laundry bag injury?  At least we're keeping the attorneys busy (they're people too!). :)

On a different note, we started Sean and Rin's science fair (or as our school calls it 'Da Vinci Fair') projects for FHE last night.  Rin's was making sugar crystals (rock candy) and putting different additives in to see if it makes a difference in the formations.  This seems about the most basic of experiments, but I managed to botch up the instructions and 10 hours later the pint jars were pretty much solid sugar crystals with the yarn trapped inside.  We will be trying again tomorrow after the jars soak.  Sean's is hydroponics...growing beans in various different liquids to see what produces fastest growth.  After Rin's fiasco I am keeping my fingers crossed that these beans actually sprout.  I'll report later.