7 going on 17

My sweet daughter turned 7 today!  Sometimes I forget how young she is because she’s so very mature or very hormonal 🙂 .  Hey, she’s a girl!!!

She surprises me sometimes by choosing to read over playing with the boys.  In some ways she reminds me of myself.  She’s stays active by doing ballet and soccer but she can also appreciate quiet time.

Well, today came and I still didn’t have much of a plan as to what to do.  Originally we were supposed to be in Florida and we were going to do something fun like go to the beach or the Everglades.  That plan blew up in my face and I found myself needing to have a birthday party but not much time to do it in.  I made it a thing for me and the boys to do while Jared was at home with Emma.  We ran to the dollar store and Target and picked up some pink crape paper ($0.50), a Hello Kitty table cloth ($1.50), pink plates ($0.97), a birthday banner ($2.00), a helium balloon ($1.00), package of balloons ($1.49), and a birthday badge ($2.00)!  I had everything else that I would need to make her cake and do her presents.  We drapped everything, and blew up all the balloons but only put some of them up.  The others we just left scattered on the family room floor for everyone to play with during the day.  I think the cutest thing was hanging the crape paper over the table to look like a chandelier!  She thought that was pretty fun!

Next we moved onto making the cupcakes and her individual cake.  She wanted vanilla cake with vanilla icing.  She is a frosting lover so even though I had made a Hello Kitty cake before (and on a much larger scale) I made it with frosting instead of draping it with fondant.  I did make a big pink bow out of fondant but just because I have no idea how to do something like that with a piping bag.  I did pipe on the ears though.

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The best thing about this baking process was Emma’s involvment.  She helped me through most of the process.  I decided that it would be a little time consuming to make 18 individual Hello Kitty cupcakes but I thought we could make them Hello Kitty-“esque”.  We put them in bright pink and purple liners, frosted them with large dollops of frosting, rolled them in pearl balls, and topped them with a pink fondant bow.  As I was rolling out the fondant to make the bows Emma asked if she could help me.  I started to say no but that she could watch when it dawned on me that this is probably one of the easiest things to do with fondant.  She pulled up the stool and I showed her what she needed to do.  She made 18 beautiful bows that she then placed on each of the cupcakes!

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While Emma and I were finishing up the cakes the boys took a walk over to the park.  When they got back I was taking pictures of Emma in the room but Benjamin walked straight up to Emma and gave her a flower that he had picked.  Ignoring the fact that it’s an oliander flower (poisonous) it was a very sweet gesture.

We started the party off by watching a little movie that I made of Emma.  It started with her birth and went all the way to just a few weeks ago.  I’ll add photos and video from today to it later.

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Once we were thoroughly Emma-tized we gathered around the table to sing “Happy Birthday” and eat cake and ice cream.

  

At one point I spotted Jacob pulling out the stool.  He saw me watching him and in his own quiet way said, “I’m just watching them!”  Right?!?  I’m sure that’s all you were doing 🙂 .

I love how just this morning when my parents called to wish her a happy day, and we invited them over, and they asked if they could bring anything, and Emma said she’d love some strawberry ice cream how they ended up bringing vanilla!  🙂  Gotta love getting old!!!

It’s funny that she took so long to think of something to wish for.  She had done the same thing when we celebrated with Jared’s parents.  I guess that means she’s a pretty content child!  I can take that!!!

Content or not, she had her fair share of presents.  I had taken her to the book store the other day and we went through a bunch of books that she might be interested in.  I wanted her to have books that she’d enjoy but also books that would challenge her.  We each compromised on topics and came up with a good grouping (Boxcar Children, Ella Enchanted, Clementine).  Because she’s growing up physically and not just in age we had to get her some new dance clothes and ballet shoes.  We signed her up with a new studio for a few months to see if the more technical approach might help.

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More than anything she wanted a Sorry game and a CTR ring.  For the CTR ring we attached it to the helium balloon and stuffed it in a box.  When she opened it the balloon floated to the ceiling and the ring was sitting there at the bottom 🙂 .  It was super cute!
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It was a fun evening to celebrate my daughter.  She really is the most amazing daughter.  I have loved watching her grow and develope into this beautiful, caring person that she is.  Here’s to another 7 great years with amazing adventures to match these last few!

Dutch Oven Cook-off

As if we hadn’t had enough ward activities the past two days, we had our high priest dutch oven cook-off tonight.  I’m sure the food was wonderful and that the park and weather were amazing too but I have to admit tha I wasn’t really paying much attention to any of that.

At 3:00 this afternoon I got a call from Jared asking me what I was doing.  At that time I was doing naps and food with the kids after a long morning and afternoon of soccer.  I wasn’t in one of the best moods and answered that I was busy and asked if it could wait.  He then asked me if I could do him a favor and drop by the airport.  Me being completely clueless asked him what for?!?!  You see where this is going?  Well I didn’t!  He said that he’d love us to come pick him up but he could take a taxi home if we were too busy.  OH!!!  We rushed down to grab him and finish our errands with him in tow.  Everything seemed to be a million and one times better than before.  They were the same chores and errands but our whole family’s spirits were lifted with him home.

I felt a little bad that my heart wasn’t in the cook-off.  I was being a bit selfish and didn’t want to share Jared with the rest of the ward but I knew he had friends that wanted to see him too.

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Michael showed up for some fun and food.  He kept the kids occupied which didn’t take a whole lot of effort.  They love it when he’s around!  They played frisbee and soccer.  They played on the swings and ran and rolled around on the grass.  It was a beautiful night and it was so nice to be with friends again.  With last night’s dinner, tonight’s get together, and church tomorrow we will have spent a lot of time with our ward family this weekend.

In all honesty, we couldn’t wait to get home with daddy and just hang out together!

Boys Being Boys

I guess this is what the boys do when they’re left alone with Uncle Muck!!!  Too Funny!!!

“Even the least of these” F.H.E.

Mike called me this afternoon wondering if I had anything special planned for F.H.E.  He said that he had taught a great object lesson in his Sunday school class and thought the kids would really enjoy it.  I’m all for good ideas so I told him to head on over after work so that he could also join us for dinner before hand.

He started off by asking us to each draw a picture of someone who we didn’t like.  Jared drew a picture of Dr. Doofenshmirtz, I drew Sponge Bob, Benjamin drew Venom, Emma drew Ursula, Joseph drew Dr. Octopus, and Michael drew Justin Bieber.  Jacob walked around and added his own touch to everyone’s drawings 🙂 .  Once everyone was done drawing, we went around the room and talked about who we didn’t like and why.

  
  

We then took our pictures into the other room where Michael had set up a dart board with a slip of paper attached that said “place photo here“.  Then, one at a time, we took turns throwing darts at the pictures we had drawn.  I scanned the pictures in and put a little red dot where a dart had pierced the picture, just to give you a better idea.  (Please forgive the horrible drawings, I never intended to have the public see them but I had to document this great F.H.E.)

When we had each had our turn with the dart board, we went back to the family room where we read one scripture.  As we read Matthew 25:40, Michael peeled off the sign on the dart board that said “place photo here“.  On the back of that, unbeknownst to us, he had placed a picture of the Savior.

You should have heard the kids cry as they realized that their darts (as well as Jared and I) had done that to their Savior.  They each got to hold the picture, get a good look at what we did, and tell how they felt.  Some were more affected than others but we all got a good idea of what kind of damage our unkind words and deeds can do.

Thank you, Michael, for a great lesson!

Combs’ Family Portraits

Since everyone was scheduled to be in town, we decided to set a date and time to have some family pictures taken.

We ended up going to a beautiful park up in Summerlin that ended up worked great with the lighting, colors, and kids.  When taking pictures there are always so many factors that can make or break a picture but this park made things a lot easier.

I snapped a few pictures of my own so that we could enjoy them while we wait for the real pictures to be finished.  You know me, I can’t help myself!  I’m so glad that I did because the photographer didn’t get any of the cousins interacting, or of just my four, or how ridiculous we all looked trying to get seven little kids under the age of seven to try to smile and look at the camera.

I’ll post the real pictures when we get them back from the photographer in a couple of weeks.

Future Dreams

It has been real fun having Michael sleep at our house while Garron and Abby are in town.  I guess there’s not enough room over at my parents’ with Michael home from his mission now.  I don’t mind the house guests one bit!

This morning, at breakfast, Michael was talking to the kids before we left for school.  He has been in the habit of asking any nonsense question just to get to know the kids again.  This morning he asked what the kids wanted to be when they grew up.

• Emma wants to be a ballerina.
• Benjamin wants to be a homemaker!  I was a little perplexed by that one, but when I asked him to give me more details he informed me that he wants to build homes.  (Breathing a little sigh of relief!)
• Joseph announced that he wants to be a SHOOTING STAR!!!

 I absolutely love my kids!!!  Can’t get much sweeter than that!