Now Showing: 11-Year-Old Adah

Somehow we now have an eleven-year-old in the house. She's made a great start to fifth grade in a new school and had a nice group of fun girls to invite over for her birthday party. 

She chose to repeat the movie-themed birthday party of a few years ago, but this time with a more "grown-up" movie than Tinkerbell. We borrowed a projector and set up the family room for true big-screen viewing of "Mirror Mirror."

The concessions stand was supplemented by pizza, carrots, apple slices, and drinks in the kitchen.

Adah really wanted a root beer cake for her birthday. She'd had root beer cookies and had heard of a root beer cake, but none of us had ever had one, and I'd certainly never made one. I asked advice of a friend (the source of the root beer cookies), scoured the Internet for recipes, and finally settled on a root-beer-extract-heavy (versus using actual root beer, as some recipes called for) concoction. The only way to make the brown cake fit the cinema theme was to make it the foundation for a "movie screen" with birthday wishes.

 

 

It turns out that Adah and I were about the only ones that liked the root beer cake. We think that most of the party guests were sugared out by the concessions stand, but even post-party, Damon declared the cake "weird" and opted to not eat it. Adah thought it was "awesome," so I guess that's what really counts.

Adah's birthday was on a Tuesday this year, and since she's now a big 5th grader and has homework every night, we had her party on the Saturday before the actual day so that everyone could really kick back and relax. That means that when Tuesday rolled around, it was time for more celebrating!!

We usually make the kids get all ready for school before opening presents, but Adah did get to open one early since I gave her this blue shirt and wanted her to be able to wear it. Then, after everyone was dressed and ready to go, we let Adah open her other gifts, which included a book and pens & pencils from Nana and Gumpin* and a little pillow sewn by Maggie. Then we sent her on a brief treasure hunt with directional clues through the house...

 

. . . until she found her NEW BIKE in the garage!! She was getting too tall for her old bike and now she's got her first bike with multiple gears and hand brakes, which have taken a little adjustment, but provide a much-improved ride.

Adah is a great daughter. We're so happy to have her as the big sister in our family since she has become very responsible and helpful. She can do dishes and clean up the whole kitchen (and willingly chooses that job when there's a list of chores to be done), cook spaghetti, get herself to and from piano lessons, make her own breakfast, and always gets her homework finished without being asked.  She's growing in her understanding and testimony of the gospel and it's so wonderful to see her insight when we discuss the scriptures or to hear her share something that she's prayed about.

We're proud of the young lady she's becoming. She's really growing up. One of the first things she said on the morning of her birthday was, "Only one year until I go to Young Women!!"**

*Grandma and Grandpa were at our house earlier in the month and brought presents then. They gave her a painting of a horse and a drawing book.

**Young Women is our church's program for girls aged 12-18.

Can you dig it?

Gunnar invited several friends to come over for a construction-themed birthday party. We got to liberally use his favorite color, orange, and I enjoyed designing lots of road-sign & DIY-themed decorations.

 

All of the party-goers were given a hard hat and work apron and then got to select a small construction vehicle. 

Here's the birthday boy ready to go in the "party zone." I didn't get a picture of it, but on the table in front of Gunnar I placed some 9x13 pans full of corn meal and rice for the children to dig and drive around in with their construction vehicles. This is a favorite playtime activity of Gunnar's.

By far the biggest hit (literally) at the party, though, was this hammering station. Here the kids used play hammers to pound golf tee "nails" into styrofoam blocks that we covered in paper that looked like wood.

If I'd known how much they would like doing this I would have had more hammers and more blocks. Still, they managed to take turns and no one got their fingers smashed. (They were using plastic hammers after all.)

All the construction workers took a turn "driving" our dump truck.

 

Adah really wanted to look like she was sitting in the driver's seat.

 

Maggie really got into the festive construction spirit. Her shirt says, "Caution Big Sister," and she made a hair bow out of caution tape. This girl knows how to accessorize.

I loved making Gunnar's birthday cake. It's what I consider a "traditional" birthday cake--3 layers of chocolate cake with my mom's killer chocolate frosting--with a backhoe and bulldozer digging into it. It was easy to make and tasted delicious.

And it made for a happy birthday boy and mom.

 

 

Now We Are Six

Gunnar-man turned 6 on October 3rd!  This little guy is growing up so much and we're so happy he's in our family. His boy-ness adds a definite twist to all the femininity in the air at our house.

Although there was a birthday party scheduled after school, Gunnar got to open family presents in the morning.

Nana and Gumpin (my parents) sent him two National Geographic Kids books about animals. Gunnar LOVES them. This kid just soaks up any and every animal fact he hears, so he just loves the photos and facts in these books.

We gave him some Legos.

We also gave him a skateboard and gave him one-time special permission to try it out in the hallway. Not bad for a first try.

 

Gunnar is having a great start to kindergarten. He's a model student--sitting still, keeping his hands to himself, raising his hand to talk, following directions quickly, completing his work, and just generally following the rules. He's progressing in his reading and improving his handwriting. I've always known Gunnar was a good boy, but he can be a bit wild and crazy at times, so seeing him adapt to the rules and routines of a classroom has been a source of great pride for me.

When we moved to California last year, Gunnar could have enrolled in kindergarten because the birthday deadline was different from what it is in Washington. However, I didn't feel that he was ready. This issue became a point of disagreement between the school district in Milpitas and us, and was one of the main reasons that we moved to a new city and school district this summer. Seeing Gunnar be so successful in school so far has just reinforced to me that we made the right decision in not sending him to kindergarten last year. He knew his ABCs, numbers, and tons of animal facts last year, but I don't think he was quite so ready to keep his spot on the rug and wait for recess to run and jump. Now that he's six, school is super!

Gunnar continues to be enthralled with tigers, dinosaurs, and prehistoric animals. He's a great bike-rider and has also been learning to roller blade. He's making friends at school and is a fun friend to his sisters at home. We sure love him.

Final Fall Camping Trip: The Next Day

Here are some cute kids after their night in the tent. Everyone slept pretty well, aided by our comfy pillows, which we didn't have room for on the last camp-out (after which I made a note to always make room for my pillow in the future).

 

 On the last trip I also made note of my cold ears and this time packed hats for everyone.

We got us up another great fire in the morning & had some pancakes for breakfast.

Then we broke camp, packed up the car, and re-parked the car near the visitors center so we could go hiking without worrying about getting back in time for check-out.

These morning rays of sun coming through the trees were just begging to be caught on camera. My family obligingly hammed it up in their poses.

Chosen One

Angelic Prayer

Shying Away

And here are just some cute poses of Maggie by a green pool:

 

We all crossed over this meager bridge. Here's proof that I was on the camping trip.

We saw several banana slugs. Here's Gunnar's foot for scale:

And the same slug by Holly's foot:

We finally settled down at a rocky shore by the creek. I claimed a spot in the sun while Damon and the kids did some more exploring.

 I found this butterfly softly resting on some of the rocks nearby.

 

Adah enjoyed getting her feet wet and playing in the water.

Holly looked at rocks. 

Gunnar rolled up his pant legs and got in a bit deeper.

...and reached a bit further....

Until he pretty much fell all the way in. The only dry thing for him to wear was Maggie's pink fleece. He was not loving that, (although I think he's smirking here, so maybe he didn't mind so much).

We eventually had to leave the creek and finish our hike. We were all getting hungry and wanted to get back to the car where our lunch--and dry clothes--awaited. We also had to get back for an afternoon birthday party for Gunnar and Holly and the Relief Society General Broadcast (a worldwide meeting for women) for me. I told you our weekends were busy!

Camping is fun, and even though it's hard work, I'm glad we make the effort. We always have a good time and make good memories with our kids.