Photo Booth Fun

The kids and I had a lot of really silly fun and giggles playing around with Photo Booth on our iMac tonight.  We cracked ourselves up.

Sylvia's 8th Birthday Party

Our sweet Sylvia is about to turn EIGHT years old!!!  And to celebrate, she got to host her first slumber party last night!  She invited 4 sweet friends--3 from school and 1 from church, and they all got along fabulously.

As soon as everyone arrived, they got right to playing Barbies in the girls' room...

...and closet/play area.

Sylvia chose spaghetti & meatballs and green beans for supper, and all her friends were pleased.

It's always more fun to do the silly-face shot when I feel like I'm nagging them all to get in the right place and smile.

Five beauties!

  And, you can tell they were all born around the same time just by the popularity of their similar names...

~ Isabella, Emma, Sylvia, Ella, Eliza ~

We did a rainbow mini scavenger hunt, where each team had to find 2 items of each color of the rainbow small enough that all their items would fit completely inside a tiny basket.  

And, we played several rounds of hilarious musical chairs.

There are always balloons at birthday parties at our house!

Sylvia's friends weren't supposed to bring her presents, but most of them did anyway.  And, boy, do they know her...Squinkies, a stuffed bunny, princess sunglasses, a violin ornament, sparkly headbands, and little notepads...exactly what she would have wished for!

Sylvie chose angel food cake with strawberry dream frosting.  Mmm!

I noticed these girls made a lovely choir earlier when they sang every verse of "On Top of Spaghetti" as I served supper, and their "Happy Birthday Dear Sylvia" was very nice too, as Daddy delivered the cake with candles burning.

Everyone was tucked in by about 8:30 to watch The Princess & the Frog with their glow bracelets on.  They were all asleep by 11:00--and awake by 6:20 in the morning.

We had pancakes, peaches, and apples for breakfast.  Then the girls played Squinkies, Wii, and more Barbies before they all had to go home.  

I was really impressed with this group of girls, how sweet they were to each other, and how much love they show Sylvia.  I'm so thankful she has such great friends!

Before each girl left, I made sure to get a picture with Sylvia, then printed them up as little thank-you post-cards.

"Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."

- 1 John 4:11

In the House of the Lord Forever

This evening, the kids were finishing up memorizing the last of their 20 Bible verses for Quizzing.  They can read them in their Quizzing book, which the girls do, and Annah even wrote all of them out twice to help her learn them.  And, they have a CD with a catchy repetitive song for each verse.  So, they learn them quickly and pretty easily.  Caeden, though he is becoming an excellent reader, learns his verses almost completely from listening to the CD and me reciting it and him repeating it back.

So, this evening, he was working hard to remember the 23rd Psalm.  (They have memorized the entire chapter!!  I'm so excited!)  He whipped right through it, and when he got to the end, he said, "And I will twirl in the house of the Lord forever!"  


I laughed and grinned, and almost hesitated to explain that it was 'dwell' instead of twirl, and what that meant.  I thought it was such beautiful example of a child's image of God and what he would really like to do forever in His house!

Sylvia's Slumber Party Invitations

I am absolutely horrible at sending things through the mail.  I never have stamps.  I don't even walk out to the mail box every day.  Things sit on my desk for months, never get mailed, and I commonly end up sending an apology e-mail instead.  It's awful.  

But, in contrast, I'm always excited when I can do something from my computer that's equally as nice as something through the mail!

Here are the Smilebox invitations I created and sent for Sylvia's birthday party.  They were a hit.  (*Whew!*)

This invitation personalized with Smilebox

Aliens?

Sylvia and I laughed ourselves silly playing with the Photo Booth app on our computer tonight.  How do you think we look like aliens?

Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day!  Here are our 3 valentines at breakfast this morning.  Mommy made them blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup, and they were pretty pleased with that.  

These are the lovely valentines Gram made for us...so neat that she always hand-makes them.

We actually celebrated Valentine's Day as a family on Saturday.  We went out to lunch at TGI Friday's (giftcard!) and then used our free mini-Blizzard cards at DQ.  

Haircut Time

Thursday night after wrestling practice, Caeden was playing Sharks & Minnows with the "big kids" and apparently got "trampled on" and his knee injured.  He cried as Jeremy was giving him a bath because he didn't want to stand up and put weight on his knee.  He was up in the night because it was hurting him, and Jeremy gave him some Motrin.  I sent him to school Friday, and watched him run to the bus through a bunch of snow still on the sidewalk, so I was pretty sure he was doing better with it.  Still, Jeremy was worried about him, so I called and made a Saturday morning appointment for the doctor to look at it.

Saturday morning came, and Caeden hadn't mentioned his knee hurting.  I saw him twisting at the knees and playing and jumping around.  We all got around and into the car on our way to town, but decided to call the doctor and cancel the appointment on the way.

Instead, we decided to take Caeden to get a haircut.  His hair was pretty long.  Even though he had adorable curls when he was fresh out of the tub, it was pretty crazy for hat-wearing weather.  Krampa was worried that we didn't have any scissors to cut it, and Daddy has wanted to shave it all off for months.  So, I finally gave in.  And he looks cute.

His typical face when forced to have his picture taken...

Is this better, Krampa and Gram?  :)

Tessa's 1st birthday

We made a long but very short trip to Indiana this weekend.  It was long in that it took us a long time to get there because we were driving in a snowstorm.  We didn't think there was that much snow predicted, but, it kept snowing harder, and they didn't clear it while it was coming down.  So, it was a pretty scary trip.  It was short in the amount of time we actually spent there...

We arrived directly at the church for sweet li'l Tessa's FIRST BIRTHDAY party!  Despite the snow, everyone arrived and was so glad to celebrate her special day!  

Miss Tessa had a pink princess party.  She was very happy and totally loved all the people and excitement. When everyone started singing "Happy birthday to you," she grinned and started rocking and dancing in her high chair--precious.  We were so happy to be able to be there.  

We have taken a lot of the kids' toys to Krampa's & Gram's, where Tessa spends a lot of time.  It's fun to see all of them playing with them together.

Snow Tunnel

While Jeremy and the kids were building their snow tunnels today, he took my phone through with them.  They spent hours digging, connecting tunnels, freezing, and having a blast!

"They tunnel through the rock; their eyes see all its treasures." 

- Job 28:10

"Snowpocalypse 2011"

I didn't choose the name...or the timing...or the fact that it even happened, obviously.  But, we had a bunch of snow yesterday.  Most of the country did, actually.  I read today that 30 states had school closings related to the snow and ice of this storm.  We even heard predictions and reports of thundersnow!  

Really, we've had more snow.  It's been colder.  But, still it hit, and we're snowed in now.  And everything's closed and canceled around us.  And, we've been cozied up at home, enjoying time with each other.  

Jeremy's work was closed again today, for the entire day.  He had some conference calls this morning, and did work online too.  But, he was here with us, playing with the kids most of the day.  

Many people have been without power.  We have been there, and are incredibly grateful it has stayed on for us this time.  

It has been almost like time standing still, enjoying being together these past couple days, knowing we had nowhere to go and everything we need here at home.  I have tried to savor the moments.

I'm not even sure how much snow we really had, it drifted so much!  I would guess 10-12 inches.  I went outside for about 5 minutes today, just to take a few photos.

3 sets of footprints across our front and south side yard...

the driveway and the neighbors' house, on the north side of our house

Last night, we heard the wind blowing so hard and pelting the snow and ice up against our siding.  It is still stuck there today.

a 4-foot high drift in front of the garage and down the driveway

Yet, the drifting has blown the ground nearly bare in some areas!  

This is the middle of our south side yard.

The back yard, which is on the west side of our house, is where all the snow ended up!

Jeremy spent ALL afternoon outside with the kids, playing in the snow, and digging tunnels through the big drifted pile!

our neighbors' (to the south of us) backyard, through the tree row that separates our yards
(Jeremy said on the other side of their house there is a drift that is about 8 feet high!)

Sylvia tunneling through...

Jeremy getting another tunnel entrance started...

Annah loves the outdoors, no matter the weather!

Annah entering her tunnel

south side of our house and yard

front of our house from the southeast corner

Yep, it's cold and snowy, but we are loving every minute of it!  So blessed are these times together!!

"Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice."

- Deuteronomy 14:26

Snow Day!!!

Last night, under all the forecasts and predictions of a huge blizzard with ice, freezing rain, winds, thunder, lightning, 12 to 24 inches of snow, school was canceled for today!

[9:03 a.m. Facebook Snow day update #1: Had cinnamon rolls (that Daddy bought for us last night) for breakfast. LEGO building and Barbie sorting/mall designing has begun!]

While the girls continued with Barbies, Caeden spent some time playing with his Nerf gun.

 

[11:36 a.m. Facebook Snow Day Update #2: "Animals" are barking and singing upstairs. Caeden and I did some rhythm boxing, rhythm kung fu, rhythm parade and step aerobics on the Wii Fit. Snow has just begun falling here.]

And, Caed spent some time playing with his giant Mickey Mouse Memory game.

[12:30p.m. Facebook Snow Day Update #3: Took showers, in case we lose power and don't get one for a couple days...;) Making mac'n'cheese for lunch. Jeremy's work closed, so he is heading home (YAY!)...praying for his safety!]

Sylvia dutifully did her homework, even though she did not enjoy the story about frogs.

[1:45 p.m. Facebook Snow Day Update #4: Homework done. Memory match game and Tiddlywinks played. Violins being practiced. Jeremy is still not home...over an hour now...please pray!]

Both girls practiced their violins.  Annah is currently working on the Bach Minuet in G, and Sylvia is playing Let's Go Fly a Kite.

[2:30 p.m. Facebook Snowday update #5: Jeremy is home; praise the Lord! Kids are playing Guess Who and Mouse Trap, and I have been banging out some Grieg on the piano. Also, about 15 loads of laundry have been folded and piled up on the couch.]

Sylvia and Caeden played Mouse Trap, and Caeden enjoyed seeing which color Tiddlywinks work best.

Jeremy's office even closed at 12:30, and he came home before the worst of the storm.  We were so glad when he arrived home.  He spent a few minutes playing his current favorite Facebook game, Zuma Blitz.

[4:45 p.m. Facebook Snowday Update #6: Chocolate Chip Banana Bread is baking. Did piano lessons with the girls. Caeden is asking for new batteries in all his toys. Jeremy is practicing his ski jumping...on the Wii...Even though we have plenty of snow, we still have no hills in central Illinois. ;) Snow is coming down and swirling about pretty hard now.]

And of course he also spent several hours logged in working from home.

 

And we had vegetable beef soup/stew for supper...so warm and satisfying!

  

How grateful we are that God has kept us safe, together, warm, full, and healthy today!  We are blessed so far beyond what we need.

[7:46 p.m. Facebook Snowday Update #7: Bellies are full. Kids are watching Despicable Me from Netflix. Jeremy is working on his laptop. The wind sounds like it is going to blow the house right off of us! School and work already canceled for tomorrow...hope we left something to do on a second snow day!]

"He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth." 

- Job 37:6