Birthday Cakes

All of our kids have summer birthdays. We get to celebrate a birthday, then a week later celebrate another birthday, and then have a month off and then celebrate two more birthday's within a week and a half.

My favorite thing to do for the kids birthday's is to make them a cake. Now I am no professional. The cakes are flawed in many ways, but it is perhaps the most creative I am during the entire year when I make cakes for my kids birthday's.

Here is my gallery of cakes that were made this year for birthdays. Alyssa and Ashley each got two cakes- a family cake on their birthday and a birthday party cake. Alex with his birthday falling on the first day of school- had a store bought cake for the family party, so I can't take credit for that one, and Angela had her party on her actual birthday, so just had one cake.


Angela:






Ashley:









Alyssa:









Alex:

Thoughts

I'm sitting on the floor in the little girls room, waiting for them to go to sleep. It's such a struggle some nights to get them to settle down and go to sleep. Yet other nights they are asleep within five minutes of their heads touching the pillows. I know my mom and friends whose children are older always tell me to enjoy this time while the kids are younger. Don't get me wrong I am loving the ages of the kids right now, but at the end of a long day I definitly enjoy the nights that I tuck them into bed and only have to wait five minutes to hear their snores of deep sleep much more than nights that include tucking them in multiple times after additional bathroom a drink trips.

So... I think I do complain a little bit too much about the kids without pointing out the wonderful things I love about our kids.

Alex: He has matured so much in the last year. While we still get complaints about things, he is much quicker to calm down and talk things through. He has such an inquisitive mind and picks up on stuff quickly. On our recent trip he a few times saw the speed limit sign and questioned Rich on how fast he was driving! :). He is becoming great at taking care of younger kids and our friends are noticing how well he plays with their young kids and watches out for them. I think he will have some possible babysitting jobs when he turns 12.

Ashley: She is nine going on nineteen some days. While her debate style can be exasperating for Rich and I some days, she is so quick and so smart. She has developed a great whit and catches the tiniest of details if you aren't specific. She is becoming a great little mothers helper babysitter, and has shown that she can keep a cool head in an emergency situation.

Alyssa has shed her outer shell this year. Where she was once hesitant, shy and very wary in large group situations, she is now bouncing up and down and leading whatever goofy activity she wants to do. I was so surprised on our last trip when she wanted to ride a bunch of the rollercoasters and really liked them! It is so great to see her confidence blossum so much!

Angela: One time a friend of mine mentioned how the Lord seems to send firecrackers for youngest children. That would be an apt description of our Angela. She keeps us laughing daily. She has the greatest sense of humor and uses it to diffuse crankiness so encounters. She is so quick to forgive and forget and move on with the fun times.

Tuesday is the first day if school. We've got the school supplies, meet the teachers and are about to embark on the new school year. I can't wait to see how much the kids learn this year, yet at the same time I'll be content with a snapshot to treasure this moment in their lives.

Oh.... The girls are now asleep... Great timing. :)

Um what was I just saying??

Rich came home from work yesterday and read this blog last night, then turned to me and asked me if I wanted to revise what I had posted or not?

Yes... yesterday was a difficult day. And we have those...

Maybe it's not so much that I'm not ready for them to go back to school, as that I'm not ready for the routine and busyness that comes when school starts.

But today I'm a little more ready for school to start... 1 more week. :)

One more week

School starts in a week and one day. Usually by this time of the summer I'm ready for the kids to go back to school. They are to the point that they are fighting and bored and just really we aren't having any fun at home by this point of the summer.

This summer has been different though. I don't know if it's that the kids are getting older, so going and doing things with them is easier, or if I'm just becoming more mellow and I'm dealing with the occasional fights better.

I decided last night that I needed to start getting myself used to waking up on time this week, so it wasn't as big of a problem next week when school does start.

I failed miserably this morning. Rich woke me up as he was headed out the door, and the next thing I knew it was an hour later and I had fallen right back to sleep! whoops!

I've got 5 more mornings to try and get myself back onto the schedule before it's an actual school day. This year Alyssa will be going to 1st grade, so she has to be up, eat breakfast and ready to go in the mornings too (and that includes combing the tangles out of her curly hair!).

For now though I want to really enjoy this next week with the kids at home. We have had a great summer and it's been fun having them home. It will be good for them to go to school next week though... before we get to the point that we are tired of being at home together all day everyday. :)

Pictures are up!

I've got pictures up from our trip finally... hey it's still under a week back so I think that might be a record for me getting pictures up. :)

Go over to the family photo blog:

www.newtonaaaa.blogger.com

Home sweet home

I love going on trips with my family, but there's no place like home. :)

We were gone for 11 days, attended a family reunion, went to Disneyland, and attended a wedding (that wasn't originally in our plans) and drove in the car for about 56 hours!

I have lots of pictures to share, but we had a blast. :)

We left on a wed and drove to Flagstaff, AZ and stayed the night. The next morning we drove the remaining 5 hours up to Escalante, UT where my family had a family reunion. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins that they don't see very often, and we had a fun time reconnecting with my siblings and their spouses. We hiked, fished, canoe'ed, played kickball, did smores, boche ball, watched a parade and rodeo, and talked and laughed and cooked and ate. It was a great 3 days and my brother and his wife did a great job with all the activities they planned for everyone.

After the reunion we loaded up the car and took off. The kids thought we were just going home, but we had a surprise planned for them. We wondered how long we could keep it a secret and despite the map in the front of the car we were able to get to the hotel in Anaheim before we told the kids that instead of being home the next day, we would be staying in Anaheim for the next 5 nights and going to Disneyland. lol! :) Rich's parents drove down from Northern California and meet us the next day and we had three very fun filled days at California Adventure and Disneyland.

The original plan was to drive straight home after that and arrive home on Saturday night, but Rich's Brother decided to propose to his girlfriend, and marry her within a week... so we diverted back to Utah and the kids got to spend a very fun filled day with my sister and her hubby while Rich and I shopped for clothes to wear and attended their wedding in the Manti Temple. It was a wonderful day and we are so happy that we were able to attend and be there. :)

We got back to my parents house around midnight, slept a few hours and then woke up and loaded up the car with suitcases and kids and drove home... all 17 hours straight. We got in at 2am on the dot... and promptly crashed. :)

Now we are in the post vacation messy house and I need to get suitcases emptied, dirty clothes laundered, and start thinking about the next two birthday parties (Alyssa's birthday was last sunday) and back to school! :)

I'm uploading photo's and will hopefully have them and some stories about the trip up on the family blog in the next day or so. :)