Easter Egg Hunt

Happy Easter!  Because I have been neglecting my blog I'm just warning you that you are about to be bombarded with Easter.  And I'm talking everything Easter!  We had several Easter Egg Hunts and this was our first.  We got together with some other families to have a hunt and to eat dinner.  We decided to first hide eggs for the two littlest - Colby and Presley. 

This is the picture of Abby helping Colby collect his eggs.  Let's be honest.  He had no idea what was going on and really didn't care to pick up any eggs.  Actually he spent the first 45 minutes finding and opening eggs before his hunt started so this was all old news.  And he was pretty quick about figuring out the candy thing.  It didn't bother him at all that the Reese's had tin foil on them.  If he couldn't get the candy completely unwrapped he just bit right through it all.

Here he is making trouble.  This was where he kept finding the older kids' eggs that he wasn't supposed to be into.  He also would not stay off that wooden staircase and 2 days later I finally noticed a huge, pussy, sliver in his finger.  Luckily, slivers are my specialty;)  He's healing up real nicely.

The group of kids waiting for the signal - we have a  few peekers...

Abby and Brooklyn both got right after it.  We had told all the kids before that they each got 15 eggs and then they had to stop looking for eggs until everyone had their 15.  Then they got to find the rest (which wasn't many). That way it was fair for the little ones.

Abby found some of the more difficult ones to get.

It took Brooklyn a while to find her final egg but she finally found it hiding under a leaf.

Jace wasn't all that excited about this egg hunt.  Part of it had to do with the fact that he decided  not to wear his socks.  He just put on his cowboy boots when we left the house (unbeknownst to me).  And then ran around playing chase with the other kids for an hour before the egg hunt.  And when the egg hunt started he realized he had a big blister on his foot and it hurt really bad.  So this is what we got for most of the egg hunt from Jace.

But, after we took his boots off and Darren carried him around helping him find eggs, he cheered up a bit.

After our egg hunt we ate dinner and tried to keep Colby out of everyone's eggs! The kids had a great time and everyone got plenty of sugar!

More birthdays...

Well, since birthdays seem to be a theme, I guess we'd better round out our family birthdays (until summer that is, where Jace is the lone birthday:)

Darren celebrated his birthday February 21 and we had our go-to birthday crew invited.  The kids were excited to get to help blow out candles and Jace keeps begging us for his birthday to be next.  Really Jace has sort of believed every birthday we've celebrated has been his....

Darren lighting his favorite birthday cake - yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  He made it all on his own.  Even though I told him I had planned on making it.  I think there is a little part of him that thinks I would ruin a box cake and store bought frosting.   As if.

Happy Birthday Darren!

Colby's 1st Birthday

Happy 1st Birthday Colby!!

Don't even ask me how the New Year's Baby of 2012 has turned one.  I can't believe it.  I was sure the newspaper would call to get an update on how our first year went.  You know, maybe snap a few more pictures to plaster all over the front page.  One year later.  When I would have actually taken a shower, gotten dressed, and smiled more than sleep deprived grimace.  Well, one can always dream:)  Anywhoo, Colby passed the Baby of the New Year crown on down to New Year's Baby 2013 so I guess that chapter in his life is closed!  I'm,er,ahem he's going to miss being famous;)

But enough about that.  Let's check out how awesome our Cookie Monster cake turned out.  Made by your's truly.  I saw this cake on  Pinterest and thought "Why not?  I can do that."  And I can. I was  hoping it turned out as cute as the picture showed.  I think it turned out just perfect!  (Except for one eye.  They were made out of cupcakes and I added a few too many toothpicks which caused the cupcake to break apart.  I was able to kind of glue it all together in the back, but next time I'll know to keep it to one or two toothpicks. I guess it just adds to the "crazy cookie monster" look!)

Colby was lucky enough to have all of his cousins on the Hall side in town the day after his birthday so that's when we celebrated.  One day late. 

The orange ball that Colby picked out himself at Walmart and Abby, Brooklyn and Jace were able to sneak home and wrap without Colby even knowing- wink, wink.  It ended up being his favorite present.

To go along with his Cookie Monster Cake I also made a tiny Cookie Monster.  It was his very own to smash up and eat however he liked.

And "like" he did.

 It became necessary for him to eat it right from the table.  With no hands.  They were too full of cake to be able to do anything for him.

Colby had plenty of help opening all of his presents.  I thought he had lots of help with just his brother and sisters.  Add in 4 more older cousins and we had presents covered. 

And here we have everyone that came to the party.  It being right after Christmas we had lots of family in town.  Lucky Colby.  Here are some things about Colby at age 1 -

- he's walking all over the place (he started at 10 months)
- he can say mama, dada, and bye (on a good day) and something that sounds like "ball" ( but it could be just another form of "bye". It's hard to say)
-he can crawl upstairs very easily but figuring out how to go down still eludes him though we've practiced quite a bit
-he still loves baby food in a jar and is very picky about which table foods he'll go for
-he loves to wrestle with anyone who'll let him
-it's not uncommon for him to wake up once or twice a night but he does also sleep through the night
-his dad and brother love to call him "Tank" and he answers to it
-he loves to carry around the remotes and the telephone
-he's a snuggler (compared to my other kids) and will nestle into my neck and sing to me

Happy Birthday Colby!

The Tree That Could Talk

by Abby Robbins

Once upon at time there was a girl named Samantha.  Everybody thought she was as sweet as a flower. One day, while Samantha was picking a bouquet of flowers for her mother, a tree came to life!

"Who are you?" said Samnatha very scared.

"I'm just an ordinary tree," the tree said.

Samantha didn't know what to say.  The tree spoke again saying, " I won't harm you."  She handed Samantha a golden necklace.  It shimmered in the sun.  It also had a purple amulet in the center of it. 
"If you wish to see anything in the world," explained the tree "say I wish I could see whatever you wanted to and it will appear in the amulet."

"Thank you," said Samantha. I'll go show it to my mother and father."  She started walking off. 

:Wait!" the tree called after her.  "You mustn't show it to anyone - if you do,it will lose its power forever."

"Oh, I understand," said Samantha.  She went home and kept it in a secret safe her dad had bought for her.  Everyday Samanta went to check on the precious, golden necklace and made sure it was safe and ok.  Samantha didn't know it but a man was spying on her!

One day the man came up to Samantha's door.  His name was Richard.  Richard knocked on the door.  Smantha answered it.  "Hello." said Samantha when she saw her guest. 

"Hello." said Richard trying not to mention that he had seen the precious, golden necklace. 

"Have we met?" asked Samantha.

"Oh, no!" said Richard..

"Well then, welcome." said Samantha and she served Richard a cup of tea, not knowing Richard had a potion.

Now, this wasn't  any old potion.  It was a sleeping potion!

"I have a surprise for you," said Richard.  "But I have to cook it first.  If you could just let me use your kitchen for one minute?"

Of course," said Samantha and she led Richard to the kitchen.  Richard put a little of this and  a little of that into a bowl.  Then, it was time to put in the potion.  He put it in and served it to Samantha.  Seconds after she had drunk the thing Richard gave her, she fell in to a deep sleep!  Richard snuck into Samantha's room, shut the door, and tried to open the safe but he didn't know the password!  Richard tried and tried but he couldn't get it opened!  The password was : 100, 99, 59, 81, 19.  Richard just couldn't get it opened.  Suddenly, he heard Samantha waking up!  He tried one more time but it was still no use.  Richard ran away forever and was never seen again. 

The tree still stands where Samantha was picking flowers.  Samantha kept the necklace a secret forever.  And they all lived happily ever after. 

The End

Christmas

Merry Christmas!! We had a great Christmas with no real surpises.......except what Santa Clause brought of course!  Here is Abby with her new Pogo Stick.  I wasn't sure it was anyone was ever going to be able to really use it (you know, those things are kind of hard and some of them don't actually do what they are supposed to) but as soon as what little snow we had dried up Abby was out there bouncing away.  I think her goal to date is 400 bounces without stopping!  Yikes! What a little kangaroo!

Brooklyn has been begging for a new bike ever since she climbed up on her old one after not using it for a few months and discovered she no longer fit on it!!  She was thrilled that Santa knew just what to get her.  And the handlebar streamers make it all that much better:)

Jace had a whole list of things that would have been "totally awesome".  This train may or may not have been on his list, but nevertheless it has been a big hit.  The fact that you can make your track however you want is a big bonus (unless you are the mom that is called on to come engineer it so that every last piece is being used and the ends meet just right after its already built.  Then it's kind of a bummer:)

And here's our little Colby.  He LOVED his dump truck.  Not really.  I'm not sure he's even played with it.  But give him the wrapping paper and empty boxes and he'll have the time of his life.  Good thing we didn't overexert ourselves on his presents this year:)

Here's everyone with their piles of presents.  All in all it was a great Christmas.  The kids had fun.  We had fun.  Everyone had fun!

Abby's turns 8!

 Abby's birthday dawned bright and early with both my girls throwing up.  Boo. We knew Brooklyn wasn't feeling well because she started around 2am with the stomach flu and we were up with her several times after that. It was pretty funny (once I think back to it that is - nothing  funny about being up to your elbows in throw up at 2 am) to hear Brooklyn talk herself through her sickness.  After she had thrown up she asked me  "Mom, do I have the pukey bug?  'Cuz I don't want the pukey bug, (voice pitch getting higher and crazier) do you think I have the pukey bug, I can't have the pukey bug, I don't want the pukey bug. (On the verge of a meltdown) Ohhhh myyyy goshhhhh.  I HAVE THE PUKEY BUG!"  My poor girl.

In fact, Abby came in and slept with me while Darren went in and slept with Brooklyn because Abby was convinced she would get Brookie's germs and she wanted none of it.  I didn't blame her.  I guess it was too little too late because at 6:00 am Abby started in with it.  Uck.
Luckily for Abby, she had a rough morning but was feeling much better by afternoon and by the end of the day she was more than ready to celebrate.  We actually only opened presents.  There was no cake.We saved that for a few days later.

Brooklyn looks pretty good in this picture.  In real life, she wasn't looking so good.  She didn't move from the couch all day and was feeling the after effects for days.

Because of all the sickness we had to postpone Abby's baptism.  We were planning on having it the night of her birthday but since that didn't work out we had it a day later.  Darren's Mom, Dad, and brother were here to help make it extra special!

Two days after Abby's bday.  Chocolate cake and chocolate frosting.  Abby also did not care for her bday cake (remember Brooklyn?) .  Seems to be a pattern here.

Some things about Abby at age 8 -

-loves to play, hates to work

-has a horse club at school with her friends.  Her horse is named Lily.

-always seems to have a loose tooth (and it's always DRAMA to get it out)

-it is becoming very apparent that we will need to have LOTS of orthodontic work done

-is very good at being "in charge" - of everything:)

-has a really great memory and is above levels in school

-likes to play the piano, especially Christmas music

Happy Birthday Abby!!

Brooklyn turns 6

And the November birthdays continue!!  Brooklyn turned 6 on the 26th and she is loving being a whole year older.  I, on the other hand, am wondering where the time is going?!!

Brooklyn with her presents.  She usually gets Christmas wrapping paper for her birthday.  She doesn't mind. 

Abby somehow always ends up with at least one present on Brookie's birthday and this year was no exception.  Grandma Lu figures if Abby is getting the same present as Brooklyn  on her birthday (2 1/2 weeks later) than why not just wrap it up and give it to her now.  Abby totally agrees.

Brooklyn's cake.  She doesn't like cake.  But she requested this cake. So I made it.  And she didn't eat it. It tasted different than she thought.  Oh well.  We'll try again next year. 

Abby was helpful by videoing the singing part of Brooklyn's birthday.  So she wasn't involved in helping blowing out the candles like Jace was.  I'm not really sure if Jace cleared it with Brooklyn, but I am pretty sure that Jace blew out half of those candles! 

Things about Brooklyn at age 6 -

-she loves the monkey bars at school
-she is completely shy around lots of strangers (she got a stomache by just going to a bday party alone for a friend in her class - we're hoping she outgrows some of it!)
-loves to entertain Colby (yay!)
-has recently discovered the "side part" and thinks it makes her look like she has bangs
-Captain Crunch is her favorite cereal
-arguably the best hugger in the house
-hates waking up in the morning and is slooooow to get out the door for school
-brushes, and brushes and brushes her teeth before school and before bed - if you hurry her up she has a melt down and insists her teeth are not clean

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!!