Early Morning

This is just a picture I happened to take and Amelia happened to yawn in the middle of it.  :)  Obviously she wasn't fully awake yet, but Bronwyn is enjoying the book nonetheless and taking bites of banana while waiting for yawns.  Good morning!  Start of a new day!

Does This Bring Back Memories, Mom?

Quiet Time, Painting and Braids

 A beautiful spring day called for outside quiet time.  See that spot in the middle of the hill?

 I'm not sure why she chose to sit on the dirt instead of the grass, but she enjoyed herself coloring and reading out there.

 Eli enjoyed playing on the top deck.

 His Lego towers.

 Cecily stretched out to color on the lower deck.

 Here's the whole view.  Ben and Cal were working on a painting project to paint and sell these bed frames.

 Speaking of painting, Ben got the girls and Elijah involved one day.  He asked if it was alright and then he made them all painting smocks out of garbage bags and played an excellent foreman as he wandered around instructing and overseeing them.

 They absolutely loved this task!  A rare treat.  I don't let them near paint very often.

 The girls requested recently that I braid their hair while it was wet so that it would be wavy all over. 

 It took a little time, but it was a fun thing to do.

 Here are the waves the next day.  :) 

Yep.  It turned out to be as much fun as we thought.  They loved having wavy hair.

Sunday Afternoon and Spring Flowers

 Church dresses a couple of weeks ago.

 It's nice to make the switch to cheerful spring/summer clothes.

 A gap!  She actually lost another tooth since this picture, but she sure was excited about losing this first one!

 We got around to planting some bulbs last fall and so we got to enjoy some tulips this spring.

And some grape hyacinth.  Girls and flowers make me happy.  :)

First sentences!

Amelia brought this to me a few days after her birthday.  I think she may have asked her brothers about the spelling of some words, but basically she worked this out all on her own and she isn't even fully reading yet.  I was totally amazed.  

It says:  "I turned 7 on Tuesday.  On my birthday me and mom went to the mall.  We had a fun time at the mall.  Then we went home and had fried chicken and muffins and broccoli salad.  Then I opened presents then went to bed."

Something tells me she will keep a journal someday.  I think she's going to love writing and recording events.  Sounds like someone else I know.

Bonnets

 Two reasons for these pictures:  1)We actually got Bronwyn to keep a hat on!  She's old enough to be desirous of being like her sisters and so she wore it and left it on.  2) I haven't had the camera out at all.  I needed some kind of update to put on here!

 I was glad too, to get the opportunity to take a picture of the "pocket."  Thank you, Shannon, for thinking of us!  The girls have had such fun with this this week.  Another mother passed this Colonial Williamsburg pocket on to us from her girls.  It ties around the waist and was worn by ladies in colonial times underneath their dress, where they could reach it through a slit in the dress.   It is astonishing how many things you can carry in it.

Amelia had a small story book in there that Bronwyn is enjoying and a small notebook and pencil for spare-time drawing or writing.  :-)

I love these spring days where we are able to be inside and outside all throughout the day with doors open.  So nice.

Happy Birthday to Millie!

For Amelia's 7th birthday, we couldn't come up with a good gift for her.  She truly didn't need anything. neither practical nor a toy.  We ultimately decided on a trip to the mall (where we almost never go) to shop, eat and spend time together.  In preparation of her trip we painted nails and washed, cut and braided her hair.  Above she is about to get her haircut when her Grammie and Papa called to sing the birthday song.  She is listening to it on speaker phone.

All ready to go and hanging out with her sisters for a few minutes.

Brr...it's still a little cold outside.

Cecily helped me make Amelia's birthday dessert.  We saw a recipe for these ice cream cupcakes in a cookbook.  We cut circles of store-bought pound cake, spread them with strawberry jam and placed them in the bottom of a muffin paper.  Then we placed a scoop of strawberry ice cream on top and froze them until firm.  Later, we "iced" them with whipping cream and froze again.

We started our outing by visiting Chick-fil-A in the food court at the mall.

Millie enjoyed the special treat of chocolate milk.

And they gave her a dish of ice cream when they found out it was her birthday.

Just the two of us!

The main shopping we did was browse at Claire's, the accessory store.  We probably spent close to an hour looking over all of the jewelry, hair things, etc.  We had never been in that store and it was our main destination spot in the mall.

We tried some things on.  Amelia really liked the metal tiarras.  They have some very fancy things in there!  I ended up letting her get a few fancy things to take home for dress up.  She loves fancy, but I told her she couldn't actually wear it except for dress up!

She got gloves, a crown and some rings to share with Cecily.  I let her pick herself with some guidance.  It's not what I would have chosen for her.  I'm curious to see if she's glad about the choice later.  I think she'll enjoy them but I'm hoping in the end, that she'll learn through this that she might have enjoyed something she could use more often more than these items.

In the evening she opened her gifts from her siblings and from my parents.

And always the cards that are looked forward to.

This is from my mom.

She found  a very cute tea party themed set of paper supplies that included invitations, place cards, a tablecloth, plates, napkins and cups for having a tea party

The other part of her gift, my mom sent in the mail.  It was wrapped up in pieces.  Here Millie is trying to guess what it could be.

A plate, with a hole, and still no idea.

It's a tiered tea tray, that needs dad to assemble it.

Ah ha.

So pretty!  Someone gave this to mom to find a home for.  She thought Millie would enjoy using it for tea parties.

Here are the finished cupcakes.

What a fun day she had.

Here are the layers of the cupcakes.  They were a hit.  They kids loved them.