long, long ago on a levy far, far away

Back in May, I got some levy pictures. I was going through one of my no-blog times so they never got posted. I'm actually just now posting them on 10/09/08. Sad.

when Christian Bale first became my hero...

Go see The Dark Knight and you'll see why he still is. (That's all I'm gonna say about the movie, Heather ;])

Aubie's artwork

Matthan by Aubie.

Aubie's art has gotten really impressive lately. She just started drawing people a few months ago, but within 10 or so people pictures, she moved from the head-with-arms-and-legs-attached stage to drawing a body and hands and feet with fingers and toes. She is such an artist in the perfectionist sense. She will start out drawing a person, let's say me. But because she doesn't have the skills to draw something how it looks or doesn't draw as well as Aunt Leah, she will change it and say, "oh, that's not you, Mommy. that's just an old lady, ugly man, bear ..." or whatever it looks like. Then some of her pictures, like the onion in the Curious George picture, start out as doodling and then she calls it what it looks like. I'm not sure if that's the case with the parrot or not. I don't think it is--I've seen parrots that look like that which she could have copied--but I'm not positive.

The parrot.


Curious George and the onion.




This a mermaid, water, and fish.

what would you do-OO-oo

for a free meal at Chick-fil-A? This past Friday was Cow Appreciation Day, and though I do not appreciate the cows (their time has come and gone, in my opinion), I do appreciate Chick-fil-A enough to do whatever it takes to get free food! As do my two little baby cows. Aren't they adorable?


This little cow acted a bit more like a little piggy!

Finally, the birthday pictures

Princess Aubie, for whom this royal celebration was held.


Princess Aubie and Aunt KK (thanks, Aunt Karen for all the great photos! I wouldn't have near so many if not for you!)


Three pretty princesses : Princess Jill, Princess Aubie, and Princess Harlee.

Crown or Kiss the Frog Prince. The boys crowned him, the girls kissed him. They were all blindfolded (except Isabella) and nobody cheated!

Roman was the first to go and he got the closest for the boys. Here he is laughing at where he put the crown.
Aubie after her turn. Ellabella "kissing" the frog.

After that it was lunch, and then the Pinata! Instead of letting a bunch of children under 5 (except Jill, she is 5)violently swinging a stick around, I opted for the pull string pinata. Isabella loved twirling in the ribbons. King Daniel, Princess Aubie, and Princess Jill. Thank goodness Mom had an extra crown around. Daniel didn't want to just be a knight, he wanted to be a king! Jill and Aubie getting ready to eat cake!


Princess Aubie's castle... cake.

Aubie looking shy during the "Happy Birthday" song.


Matthan woke up in time to watch Aubie open presents. He looks a bit like his Daddy does when he wakes up from a nap--Grumpy!


Aubie opening presents. Kelly drew the cutest little princess--I had to take a picture.

Aubie loves her Cinderella dress from Jill and Daniel.


A cute picture of Wendy : ) Ellabella was happy to be a princess when she got there, but after her crown broke, she decided to leave as a knight.

3 Fun Crafts from this post:
This is the before shot of the pinata. Aubie had really wanted castle pinata, but 20 bucks on something that is just for getting candy out of... I'd come out way better (and have about as much fun) by just throwing candy in the air. But when Mom gave us this for recycling, the squares on the box looked sort of like blocks to me, and it got me thinking. So, I turned it upside down, attached 2 paper towel rolls (I also took a roll apart to make the cones for the tops), spray painted it pink, painted some castle-y blocks on it with pink and purple, and used this website to figure out how to make a pull-string pinata.
For the knights cloaks, I used some felt I had for the crosses, some (brand-new) flannel I got on freecycle, and since flannel doesn't ravel that easily, I didn't even finish the edges. I had the red and white ribbon, and I made some little drawstring pouches to keep coins in(these actually held Princess fruit snacks). Leah found the adorable horses at the Dollar Tree--not a craft, but I thought I'd mention them.
And then the cake. I got the design from Family Fun. But everyone who reviewed the recipe said that the 4!!! square cakes that it took to make it needed to be made of something sturdier like pound cake. I wanted to make this cake, but I was definitely not having time to slave over 4 cakes! So I remembered a little trick from my cake decorating class and I used 2 SaraLee family size pound cakes. It wasn't pink strawberry, and was definitely a lot smaller, but it was just the right size and we weren't stuck eating birthday cake for days on end. : )

walks to the park again

Hey, instead of updating the the other "walks to the park", I just thought I'd put the rest of the pictures in a new post. Only a couple of captions--we're leaving for Rome in a few hours and I don't really have time to be creative or funny. I really don't have time to post these pictures either, but I've been promising them for days, so here goes...


Tadpoles!



The tadpole's two worst enemies: Snapping turtles and mommies who don't know how to take care of tadpoles (after the first of our two died, we threw the other one back).











:o)

a sad cinderella post

After just having complained how I hated taking my kids everywhere!, I'd just like to go somewhere by myself for a change!, etc., etc., and so forth!, Leah came home with terribly sad news. She asked me if I had heard about Steven Curtis Chapman. I said no, not expecting what was going to come next. His teenage son backed their SUV over his 5 year old daughter, and she died from her injuries later at the hospital . This was sad of course, and I felt for him. But it wasn't until she said, "It's so sad 'cause he wrote that song, 'Cinderella'"... I've heard this song on the radio many times. And though it's always seemed like one of those tunes with lyrics orchestrated just to make you cry, I also knew that he had a daughter that he was singing about, so it was ok. And since Aubie is going through her Cinderella phase, it always made me tear up a bit. When Leah said that, I couldn't hold back the tears. "Cause all to soon, the clock will strike midnight, and she'll be gone." What beautifully sad lyrics! I don't care if I do have to take my children with me everywhere I go until they're able to drive, they're still here with me right now. This tragedy has made me rethink and realize how truly blessed I really am.
Please pray for SCC's family--especially his son.
I still plan to update my photos later. I just wanted to share my thoughts on this.

walks to the park

, its been a while. I've had this one in my head for a few days, but am just now getting around to it. (And look, after I wrote that, it still took me almost a week to get it posted.)
Anyway, these are just various pictures of our walks to the park the past week or two. Mostly we walk in the evening before Matthan's bath then bedtime. But we do go during the day some as well. Anytime we go, we have to walk down to the pond to look for tadpoles or to see how big the baby ducks are getting. This post is about what we do when we're there. No captions, just pictures this time.
I've got a few more pictures to add to this one tomorrow, but I told Aunt Karen I'd post today, so here it is. When you see *updated*, you'll know I added them.