Elizabeth's 5th Birthday

I can't believe my baby girl is five years old!  I still have drops of milk left over from when she was weaned in January, a year ago!  I wonder whether I'll always have milk, lol.  I could easily fully relactate if I were to adopt a baby, I'm quite sure of it. 

Ok, so I had planned to put Surf Sweets gummy Spooky Spiders on Elizabeth's chocolate cake.  I was so excited about the surprise for her, because she loves spiders, and I've bought the spooky spiders before, so I could hardly wait.  She loves spiders!  I ordered from Amazon, and I was sent the wrong thing.  I was sent sour bears, instead, with no time to get the right ones.  The good news is that we got the sour bears for free, since they sent the wrong thing, and I later ordered the spiders, and since the very next week it was my sabbath pick for dessert, I chose to make chocolate cake again and put spiders on it.  :-) 

I put organic sprinkles on the first cake, since I didn't have the spiders.  She was clearly happy about her cake, regardless.

She loved the cake with the spiders!  Goodness, I ran out of confectioner's sugar, and so I was upset all over again, because I needed to make icing.  I found a recipe using honey, cocoa powder, butter, and vanilla extract. It was fairly quick and easy, and it turned out just fine. 

:-)  She's so excited.  Nathan always wraps the kids' presents (he does it so much better), while I always make the desserts and order the gifts. 

These are from Olivia, wrapped by Olivia and tied with yarn.  Olivia loves wrapping and giving things.  She loves to draw pictures to give as gifts, too.  Elizabeth was so overjoyed that Olivia gave her some presents.  

Basically, we got Elizabeth the same things we got Olivia for her birthday: a Neutab (Android) tablet, a tablet case, and a pair of mittens.  

 

 

At some point in her unwrapping her gifts, she shouted, "Happy birthday!"  It was to say, "This is great, this makes me happy!"

We'd gone out to eat the evening of Elizabeth's birthday. We'd visited a particular restaurant for the first time a week or two before her birthday and really liked it, and when I asked her whether she wanted me to cook or something or whether she wanted to go somewhere to eat, she said she wanted to go back to that restaurant, so we did.  Tanya, Bianca, and Nolan went, too.  They got her some little dinosaurs, those things that you put in water, and they swell.  She also got some little scratch picture things that she scratches with a wooden stick to make dinosaur scenes appear.  

She has a history of playing in Nathan's sink with her toy dinosaurs, anyway.  So this was a cool idea.  

My baby girl is growing up, but she's still very much a baby, too. I love, love, love my precious Elizabeth!

Olivia's 7th Birthday

We went to Jump Zone for Olivia's 7th birthday.  We took Bianca, too.  Pictured below are the five kids in a "hurricane simulator," which cost $2.00.  It was cold and windy in there.  I'm glad I wasn't in there.  I could feel the draft underneath the door.  May as well be Arctic simulator.  (Ok, so it wasn't that cold, but sign me up to get in one of those things.)

It was funny to watch them in there.  It wasn't far from my bench where I sat during the entire time, because I was experiencing cervical radiculopathy symptoms that were a bit concerning.  Nathan was also concerned, but I didn't want Liv missing out on birthday fun, so I sat there with a funny taste in my mouth and numb mouth and lips, as well as numb and tingling arm and dizzy, out-of-focus vision.  

They had fun jumping and sliding on the floats, too.  I've posted pics like that in the past when we've taken them to Jump Zone.  I like taking pictures, but again, I wasn't willing to walk around that place on that occasion, in the condition I was in.

After we left, we picked up Taziki's food for dinner, and we all ate at Tanya's house, and I presented Liv her cake that I'd made her.  She requested strawberry cake with strawberry icing again, and I always have to make that from scratch, because I've yet to find an organic strawberry cake mix. All the mainstream ones are full of bad ingredients.


I didn't have my digital camera with me, and the iPhone doesn't work well in the dark (not sure who turned out the light), so the picture quality is not great.

After eating cake, we all went home, and Nathan wrapped Liv's presents from us, as well as one from Tanya and Bianca, and then she opened them in our bedroom.

Haha, Elizabeth was playing on my iPad, and only something as exciting as her sister opening presents could break her away! 

We got her a tablet (Neutab), a pink case for the tablet, and a pair of nice (and cute!) winter/snow mittens.   

Tanya and Bianca got her a pink Barbie car to ride her Barbies around in. Trusten sure looks excited (or shocked?) about it, doesn't he? 

She seemed to be very happy with her birthday.  She also received gifts of clothes and earrings in the mail from others. 

I love how this sweet girl posed with a piece of her cake, with her beloved organic sprinkles, the day after her birthday.  :-)

That's it!

Until next time...

2016 Fall Pictures

Here are the best of the kids' fall pics, plus a funny one or two, and I always love to keep those, too.  Lol, there were a lot in which they had frowny faces on, because they did not want to be getting their pictures taken.  I'm amazed I got any good pictures out them, silly kids. :-)  Enjoy!  Oh, and grandparents and others who want printed pictures, PLEASE email me to let me know which one(s) you like and what print size.  I'll order as soon as I can, once I know what everyone wants.