Happy Birthday Evie!

Evie is such a wonderful girl and Mark and I really wanted to show how much we appreciate her and everything she does for the family. 

Since her birthday was on Saturday and Mark teaches Taekwondo at the YMCA, we decided renting the party room at the YMCA and taking Evie and her friends swimming was a great idea.  And it was!  Evie had six friends join her: two from Taekwondo, two from homeschooling circles, and two friends of the family.  Their brothers joined them as well and all had a great time on the water slide and in the pool.

I've never rented a facility for a party before, but I have to say, renting the party room at the YMCA is one of the best ideas we've had yet.  The room was right next to the pool so the parents (and grandparents) could watch the kids swim, Lula and Heidi could run around in the room with balloons, and the staff was so helpful and friendly!

The kids played in the pool for an hour and then came back in the room for a quick snack of cupcakes, oranges, grapes, juice, and pretzels.  And presents of course!

I took all these pictures with my new phone.  I'm surprised how well they turned out considering the artificial light.  Usually these kind of pictures would be completely blurry (instead of partially) or I would have to use the flash and completely ruin the shot.

Lula gave Evie the best birthday present ever.  Ian, Shane, and Evie decided to sleep down by the fire Friday night, so I woke them up nice and early (7:00ish) when Lula and I went down to snuggle in my favorite chair.  Lula started crawling all over Evie trying to wake her up.  I told her to be gentle and say, "Happy Birthday, Evie."  She babbled something and Evie picked her head up, just in time for Lula to give her a big hug.  She turned to me and signed "hug" and said, "Luf Evie!"  Isn't that sweet?  This is the first time she has said she loves anyone and she chose Evie on her birthday!

Evie got many nice and thoughtful presents from her friends as well including Pokemon cards, a horse painting kit, a knitting kit, and money.

We love this girl!  Happy 9th Birthday Darling!

Thanksgiving

This year, we packed up and drove out to Fox Island for Thanksgiving.  My mom made delicious food and used her prettiest dishes.  Mark and I decided at the last minute to go off our "diet" and just enjoy food for a day.  (Our next day off is Christmas)  I didn't take many pictures, but Daniel got a hold of the camera and helped us out with a few candid shots.  Enjoy!

Traditional Baby in the Salad Bowl picture

Kids Table

My plate (I ate lots of veggies) picture courtesy of Daniel

Enjoyed his cheese and pie!

Enjoyed his wine! (picture courtesy of Daniel)

Aunt Tracey (Daniel again)

Lula caused trouble, but is anyone surprised?

This is what the males did.  The old ones watched football, the young ones video games.

And that's all!

Heidi's First Birthday

People say it all the time, but seriously, I cannot believe how fast little ones go through their first year.  I cannot believe that Heidi is a year old today.  Enjoy our pictures!

I love Heidi's smile

I love Heidi's personality too!

My girls (Lula is pouting because Heidi is in Evie's lap.  Evie's lap is LULA'S lap.)

Sugar Cookie Porridge (Oatmeal never gets boring at my house)

Cups are the perfect present for a one year old.  No more bottles!

Big Girl!

But Lula wants the cups too!  Don't worry sweetheart, I got you new cups too!

Chocolate chip banana cake before frosting...

...and after frosting (yes, I had a piece but Mark didn't).

Party Hat!

I had the buy the party hats because when we were in the store buying plates for another birthday we have coming up, Lula, who has been mostly non verbal, pointed to the hats and started shouting, "Party hat! Party hat!"  She learned this phrase from Signing Time! and knows the signs, but I've never heard her say something like this.  It was too too cute.

My boys are so...photogenic?

Someone is tired of being in her high chair...the same high chair I sat in on MY first birthday!

First Bite!

Someone thought it was funny to put the hat on the dog...it was more funny that he left it on!

I hadn't planned on doing anything special today.  Tuesdays are my crazy days with two dance classes, a boy scout meeting, toddler time, Scoutreach, and Bible study.  Today ended up being a day where I had all seven kids with me all day running errands after Fiona's dance class/toddler time.  Heidi and Lula slept all afternoon in their car seats while I threw a cake together.  It was out of the oven by the time I needed to pick Ian up from Scoutreach and I had dinner leftovers and cake served by the time Mark left with Evie and the boys for dance and scouts.  It was a fun 15 minute party!

Pecked to Death

Fiona would excel at Common Core math.  When I asked her what 6 - 6 was, she answered 6.  *deep breath* I said, "Let's pretend six dogs were playing at the park.  Six dogs went home.  How many dogs are still playing in the park?"  Six.  "Can you tell me how six dogs are playing in the park if all six went home?"

If the rumors are true, if a student can explain their incorrect answer, they get full credit.

"Well, if there were actually twelve dogs playing, then..."
"But there weren't!  There were only SIX dogs playing at the park!"

I thought that by seeing the numbers on the abacus would help her out, really I did.  I, with great faith, started her on RightStart Math remembering what great success I had teaching Evie.  Evie was able to see four digit numbers in her head and add them with regrouping without using paper or pencil when she was this age.  Fiona can't even count 16 pennies without forgetting what she is doing.  I've put her back in Saxon.

Teaching Fiona math is like being pecked to death by chickens, I kid you not.  She is a wonderfully lovely vivacious little girl, but I'm pretty sure numbers aren't in her future...unless she works for the government balancing their budget.

"What's five minus five?"
"Did you really just ask me that?"
"Yep!"
"You just get five and take away five."
"Oh! Okay!"

The Plague

The Downens were hit with a nasty cold this week. Every single one of us was affected to one degree or another.  The virus combined with the first week of bitter cold found us calling a sick day and snuggling down by the fire under blankets.  We were even too sick to go to Homeschool Friday which was a total bummer because it was reptile day! I stayed busy with my projects until Heidi got sick and needed to stay on my lap all day.

One Miserable Baby

My first project was sewing up some fleece into warm pajamas for Shane and using the leftover fleece for a pair of pants for Lula.  Shane has been living in his pajamas for three days (being sick and all) and I still can't keep Lula dressed.  She is going to freeze this winter if she doesn't wise up and wear pants!  But the best project that I haven't started yet is diapers for Laura's baby!

This Nana just can't resist a 60% off sale on snuggly printed flannel.  Especially if her much-loved step daughter is planning on cloth diapering.  Little baby girl diapers are SO cute.  The cost for one Nana-made diaper is only $.73.  So far I only have the fabric washed, but I have plenty of time, right?

Stocking #1: Whose will it be?

I've been taking advantage of having a sleeping baby on my lap to start up the Smith Family Christmas stockings.  My original plan was to make stockings that look like ours, but I just can't knit another fair isle Christmas stocking.  I begged Ami to let me just knit striped stockings and in return I would knit enough for her whole family.

So there you have it! Another week at the Downen house with nothing new and exciting to report *smile*

Stuck

Heidi just wants to climb mountains to be with her goats!  That is why she keeps getting stuck in strange places, I'm sure!  She is so incredibly adorable.  Which is why I'm so sad my camera finally died.  I'm missing out on the cutest age.  Well, I can't say that Heidi is the cutest age ever because I also really enjoy my preadolescent boys.  There is something amazing about how strong they are while they are pounding each other and breaking my furniture, yet how gently they can scoop up their baby sister and rescue her from harm.

Stuck on Mark's stretching machine

Now that the weekend is (partially) behind me, it is pretty safe to say that I've been productive.  I've always got a list a mile long, but I'm really good at making time for me.  Really good at it.  So far I've worked a few inches on Laura's Baby's blanket, a few inches on the first Christmas stocking for Ami's family, and finished off a cowl that served as a stash-busting project.  I sewed up the holes in the boys' pajamas (how do they destroy them so quickly?), turned a pair of pj pants that couldn't be fixed anymore into two diapers following this method, cut a giant soaker in half and made two soakers for the two new diapers, fixed the holes in Daniel's pillow case, and sewed a pull up for Lula.  I would have made two pull ups, but I'm missing one tiny little piece of the pattern and I need to focus my cleaning power somewhere else: The Kitchen Counters.

Stuck on Daniel's bed

I've decided to jump into a challenge (I'm seeing a new pattern of behavior emerge with challenges) all about keeping the counters clean.  All I need to do is clear them of everything, even the toaster and Vitamix, and keep it that way for two weeks.  The thought behind keeping everything put away is that the 15 seconds it takes to take the thing out of the cupboard and put it back is worth the rest of the 23 hours and 45 seconds of cleared counter mental peace and clarity.  We will see about that.  Some people are posting before and after pictures, but sadly, dead camera (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).

Stuck on a stool.

This morning I found a bottle of Metmucil that expired ten years ago.  It was behind the loose tea leaves.  I think you all can guess that since I have only lived here for five years, I didn't put that Metmucil there.  But now it's gone (Mark joked that we should feed it to the chickens) and so is the tea and the bread basket moved off the counter and into that spot cupboard.  I guess the next time I spill my coffee, that area will be a lot easier to clean up!  My next job is to fold the five or so loads of laundry...and scrub out the fridge.  Ever since Mark joined me on the Whole30 (and then Kai got neutered and we ran out of money) the fridges have been strangely empty.  We managed to run out of everything!  Today is a perfect day for work.

If You're Happy and You Know It...

Heidi is happy and she knows it!  She has six teeth, can climb on the couch all by herself, AND she can sing "If You Are Happy and You Know It."  What an amazing little girl!

My camera is starting to experience The Black Screen of Death.  I don't know what I'll do without her.

Halloween...and Candy!

We had another fun-filled Halloween!  I realized that I need to make Halloween a two-day celebration.  One day for setting up Halloween projects and carving pumpkins, and one day for executing the projects and dressing up in costumes and getting candy.

My favorite project this year was freezing gloves with water in them to make an ice hand.  I'm glad I brought home extra supplies because even Ian and Shane wanted to make them. We stuffed the gloves with little pom poms, spider sequins, orange and black pony beads, glow in the dark maggots and fingernails, and plastic pumpkins.  We added water and food coloring and tied it tight. Ian made his The Red Hand of Ulster.

The next day we carefully removed the gloves from our ice hands and used boiling water and various spray bottles and medicine droppers to melt them.  For some reason, pulling little treasures out of ice is a lot of fun!

With the help of those little pumpkin carving kits with the tiny saws, each kid carved their own pumpkin.  It was the least stressful pumpkin carving Mark had ever experienced.  In order from left to right is Shane's, Ian's, Daniel's, Fiona's, and Evie's pumpkins.  Ian carved Daniel's pumpkin for him (Daniel drew several faces around the outside of his pumpkin and let Ian pick which one to carve).  I love Fiona's kitty!  And Shane's Bulbasaur!  But overall, Ian's is the neatest, cleanest, most symmetrical pumpkin face.

Ian dressed up as a Viking.  He made his own hammer and sword, but I made his outfit (brown flannel pajamas and a fleece tunic).  Evie's witch skirt from this year still fits, so we just added a cute pair of tights.  Daniel the lion, Fiona the ballerina princess, and Lula the doll all wore outfits from our dress-up collection.  Shane was a ghost (I modified Ian's old King Josiah costume from Awana's) and was the only one to wear face paint.  I was a knit witch; I found a crocheted skirt at the thrift store for $1 that I couldn't leave behind.  When I find super awesome cool knit or crocheted items second hand, and I know the person put hours and hours of work into the project, I have to buy it simply because I respect the craft.  And you can't even see the skirt in the picture!  Heidi was the kitty that played with my balls of yarn.  She was a very cute kitty.

We hit up both candy carnivals this year.  Lula and Heidi fell asleep in the van on the way to the first carnival held at our church, so Mark was happy to hang out with them while I went in.  I happily socialized and ate dinner with no distractions or interruptions while Shane took Daniel around to the games.  Ian volunteered to run a game as part of the youth group.  Halfway though, we left and went to the other candy carnival so Ian and Shane could volunteer as Boy Scouts at their game booths.  Evie found a game that was closing up for the night and they let her take as many toy prizes as she wanted.  The plastic junk is just as bad as the sugar junk in my opinion.  When we got home, the little kids and Mark went to bed and Ian, Shane, and I stayed up to watch The Sixth Sense.  I'm starting to think we have a new tradition to add to our Halloween...as long as Halloween falls on a weekend!