Happy Birthday, McKenzie!!!

How time flies. McKenzie turned 7 years old today. I love her at all her ages; I wish I could keep a clone of her at each age. I'm excited for her as she grows through life, but I can't we slow it down a little? It seems life only picks up speed. In church on Sunday, Sister Black told me that the next thing you know, they've graduated from high school and moved out of the house. How can that be? Unfortunately, I know it's true. Anyway, enough ruminating. Here's the rundown on McKenzie's fabulous day:

We spent the morning preparing for her birthday party. At 12:30, Jen and Chloe came to help set up. At 1pm the guests began arriving. Each of them got a headband with animal ears on it, a balloon tail, and her face painted like a cat or a dog. There were little goldfish crackers in a kitty bowl and scooby snacks in a doggy bowl for them to munch on as they colored Littlest Pet Shop pictures while waiting for the rest of the invitees to join the festivities.


When all of our guests had arrived, we started on the games. First, we had a dog/cat chase, where their objective was to pop each others' tails. The last one with her tail intact won, and the victory went to our friend, Kenzie.

Next, the girls (and Thomas) raced in two teams, cats versus dogs, in an animal relay. First they had to "crawl like a cat" until they got to the dog marker, where they had to "bark like a dog" three times. Then they progressed to the "walk like a monkey" marker, which led them to the "hop like a frog" to the finish line. That was a lot of fun to watch. (I think we should play this at our next Girl's Night Out!) The dogs won this game.

Finally, the kids raced in a doggy water bowl relay.

I fudged it so the cats won. They were down by a few tablespoons. It was essentially a tie, but I wanted to keep things even.

While that was winding down, Michael started up the snowcone machine and we were soon dishing out flavored ice for everyone.
When the kids finished this refreshment, we moved on to opening presents, and eating cake and ice cream. I was seriously amazed with the generosity of our guests' parents. I don't know where they found the gifts their children gave McKenzie, but they did an awesome job. She got a lot of creative things, crafty things, and some toys that she absolutely loves. I sit here speechless as I think of what wonderful people we are blessed to know. You are truly great examples to me.

McKenzie and her friends as she opens her birthday presents.

McKenzie blowing out her candles.

Gratuitous cake shot.

Once the kids enjoyed their cake and ice cream, they headed out for fun on the BONZAI!!!

McKenzie's party was a blast. All the kids had so much fun. I was so grateful for Michael and Jennifer, who helped make it such a success, and to Stephanie, for loaning us the snowcone machine.

After McKenzie's party, we got the kids cleaned up a bit and headed to the mall to get McKenzie's ears pierced. The piercing guns at Claire's Boutique were out of order, so we headed over to the Piercing Pagoda. Unfortunately, there was only one person working at the booth, so she had to pierce McKenzie's ears one at a time. I was impressed at how brave McKenzie was. She usually screams bloody murder at a minor scrape, but today she held her tongue and didn't make a sound. I could tell by her expression that it was painful, yet she was committed to continue with the second ear (thankfully). She was so proud of herself when it was done. I think she looks great. Albeit, now she really looks like a 7 year old, and no longer the 6 year old she was yesterday. Sigh!


What a great day. Happy Birthday, McKenzie! I love you so much. You brighten my days with your cheery smile. I'm so glad to have you as my daughter!

4th of July, 2008

I wasn't much of a photographer this Independence Day.

We started off the day bringing fresh muffins to the 8am ward breakfast for the 4th of July flag raising by the Boy Scouts. I was grateful for all those who gave of their time and talents to provide a delicious and patriotic way to start of the day. Michael had to leave during the breakfast for work. He was on call this past weekend. After the breakfast, we went home and got ready for our city's 4th of July parade. We were 30 minutes late, but we still went, and it wasn't as bad as I though it would be. We enjoyed the people in the parade and watching the parade. I didn't bring my camera to the breakfast nor the parade -- I was just trying to get to these places with my kids presentably in tow.

At one point, there was a boat in the parade on which the entrants were spraying water at the people watching on the side with water guns. As it turned the corner onto the street where we were watching, a home owner grabbed his hose, so when they sprayed in his direction, he got them back pretty good! Another guy on our side of the street ran up and squirted the contents of his water bottle at them, also catching them by surprise. We got a pretty good laugh at that. There were also some funny hecklers on our side of the street who were fun to listen to. They were full of good natured comments.

Jen came over w/her family for games and a barbeque. Again, I didn't take any pictures. It was all so laid back and relaxed that I didn't see the need to document it, but in retrospect, I wish I had taken a few photos. We made chocolate coated waffle cones and some of us had deluxe ice cream sundaes in them (others just had regular ice cream cones, or fancy ice cream cones in the waffle cones.) Finally we packed up and headed over to watch the fireworks. We were so used to them being over the river (from when we lived here before) that we didn't realize they would be in the same place they were last year. (NOT over the river.) Fortunately, Michael (who had arrived home after the parade) called his friend, Jeff, and found out where they were and where a good spot would be to watch them.

We finally brought our camera to this event. I was hoping to somehow figure out how to take pictures of the fireworks, but since I still have no real idea how to use my camera, and don't know much about setting the f-stops, we set it on auto or night focus for most of the pictures and wound up with a lot of mysterious squiggly lights in our photos and blurry fireworks. I seriously need to take a class. Here's what we got:

Thomas and Mason reacting to the explosions in the air

Our little group watching the fireworks

Megan's reaction to the colorful lights in the dark sky

By the end of the show, the boys were cuddled up on Michael, with Mason hiding his head under the blanket.

Gardening

Thanks to my wonderful husband, we now have our very own square foot garden. It even has a spot where we can one day put a little outdoor bistro table! We've never had a garden before, so we're pretty excited about this one. We put it on the side of our house to utilize that area and hopefully keep it a little more protected from our kids, who love to dig.

We initially tried growing our plants from seeds in a little greenhouse but after a false start, the few seedlings that did make an appearance soon dried out. Michael remedied that by purchasing some tomato, strawberry, and squash plants to use in our garden. We planted them on Monday. So far, so good... but we're keeping our fingers crossed!

Laying the foundation.

The kids always want to help.

Planting seeds in 72 little starter pots - of which less than 20 sprouted and none survived.

Adjusting the watering system.

Planting.

Our garden! (Thanks, Michael!)