Day 2 of Birthday Celebration

We decided that we would celebrate my birthday the next day since I usually spend the day working to celebrate Eleanor's birthday.  I made the kids go for a walk with me on the trail by our house during lunch, which was lovely.  Zaron made me a wonderful steak dinner, cooked to perfection.  Yummy!

For dessert we sang to Eleanor since nobody wanted cake the night before.  She blew them all out!

Then I watched a chick flick with the kids that evening.  It was a nice, relaxing day!

Eleanor's Birthday

We got to celebrate Eleanor and my birthdays this week!  I spent some time to make the Christmas tree a birthday tree in preparation for the big celebration.

I also made her a candy poster.  She was pretty excited.

She wanted sticky buns for her birthday breakfast.  Yummy!

After breakfast she got a special birthday surprise.  We brought home baby bunnies for her to snuggle with during school.  She was super excited about that and had one on her lap all day.  The other kids enjoyed having bunnies to snuggle too.  Bailey was a little out of sorts about the whole idea though.

While the kids were doing school, I snuck away to enjoy a walk at Coulon in the sunshine.  It felt so wonderful.  I also indulged in a short nap.

For her special dinner, Eleanor wanted Chef's salad with lots of cucumbers and carrots and homemade rolls. I think she was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Eleanor wanted a cute dog cake for her birthday.  I am pretty happy with how it turned out.  When she finally saw it taking shape she squealed with delight.  That was the best thanks I could ever get.  I don't know how many more cakes like this that will be requested by my kids so I really enjoyed this one.

Eleanor wanted all of her presents wrapped in the dog Christmas paper and we had just enough! She had fun shaking all of the presents trying to figure out what they were.  She got 2 lego sets, a craft kit, a journal with a lock, a Bailey calendar, some fun candy, a cute rain shell, and junk bots.  She got quite the haul.

When she opened the Bailey calendar, there was great squealing by her and Charlotte.  It was so fun.

Zaron and Corban immediately got into the junkbot building with Eleanor.

It was a great day.  We sure love having Eleanor in our family.  She is such a joy.  She loves to read, cute animals, playing video games, candy, playing soccer, building legos, jumping on the trampoline, doing crafts, and making art.  She spends at least half of her time upside down doing headstands and handstands.  She loves taco and Bailey, and loves to make up riddles to tell us.  She is such a wonderful girl.  I look forward to seeing what she will do in life.  She is amazing!  And we love her so so much!

Cute

The girls dressed Bailey up for cold weather and she looked pretty cute.

And Eleanor made a new sign for their room.  I guess they have been training Taco!

Soldering

Zaron got an oscilloscope kit for Christmas.  He had fun soldering it together, and he taught Eleanor a few things in the process.  It was nice to see Zaron do something fun for himself for a bit.  It was a rough year last year.  Hopefully this will be the beginning of a better year for him.

New Year's Eve

The kids all did cousin sleepovers the last day of the year.  Corban ended up going to the early youth NYE activity instead and had a good time too.  The kids were so happy and excited and they stayed up way too late and played lots of video games.  Then we all met up at Mike and Victoria's house to do a New Year's Eve celebration.  It was fun.  We just hung out and lit off fireworks. And we did a sparkling cider toast.  It was sad not to have Zaron there (he didn't feel up for it) and Corban had a NYE gathering with a couple of friends.  But it was a good night.

Looking forward to a good year in 2021.  I know things will continue to be difficult, but it's always nice to have a fresh start.

Weird Bailey Spot

Bailey does this really weird thing where when her skin gets injured, her hair grows back a different color and texture than the rest of her.  We first noticed it when she got her regular vaccines.  In the spot where she got the shot, she got a brown spot.  Then about 6 weeks ago, Bailey had an abscess right above her hind leg.  Once it went away and it was healing, a brown spot appeared right where the abscess was.  It is such a strange thing that hppens!

Girl Scout Junior Badges

Charlotte waited until the very last minute to finish up her girl scout badges for Juniors.  But she did it!  Just barely.  She was cooking right up to the very last second before going to the cousin sleepover.  She earned the bronze award!

Since Christmas

We just spent a few days chilling after Christmas.  I tried out my new griddle, the kids played games, Corban went hiking with Andrew, we went to the park to fly airplanes, etc.  It was a nice, relaxing break.

We also went to XXX in Issaquah to celebrate Gregory's golden birthday with him.  He looked very dapper in his golden jacket and hat.  The boys decided to try and eat the XXX burger.  Liam ate the burger, but couldn't do the fries, and Corban couldn't even finish the burger.