Finally Six...The Finale!

Kate's birthday turned in to a virtual marathon of celebration. After spending a few hours at Chuck E. Cheese, the Wright Gang headed to the nearby Sonic to take advantage of their half-price slushies during  Happy Hour! 

After sluprin' our slushies, we headed to our "mother ship"...

...so that Kate could do some birthday shopping with her gift card. 

This particular Barnes & Noble has the most magnificent toy and game section.

While Miss Birthday was making her selection...

Mr. & Miss "Not My Birthday" relaxed in the sunny window seat in the children's area.

Kate soon followed and wilted a bit while listening to a pirate adventure.

After THAT...we headed to the next stop for Kate to spend her last gift card...

The monkey receiving the vigorous scrub down was soon to be named "Lauren" and quickly became the proud new owner of...

...quite a lot of pink. 

Ball gown, ear rings bows, & hair band you name it,

 if it was pink, this monkey was exposed to it!

As the hours ticked quickly b,y Kate's birthday adventure was coming to an end.  When we arrived home, however, there was one last surprise waiting for Kate on the front porch placed there by a precious friend...

 What a perfect ending to a super Birthday!

Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one. 

- Dr Seuss

Six Years Old...Finally

Kate has been "five-and-a-half" for about 3 years now or so it would seem. Finally, she's turned six. The day before her birthday she stopped everyone in her path at church and announced her upcoming number change.

We'd already pre-celebrated Kate's and Cole's upcoming birthdays with their Pappa whose birthday falls just ahead of Kate's, the Saturday before which only served to fan the flames of Kate's anticipation.

The night before Kate's big day, her daddy and I set the birthday scene...

...the birthday plate...

...birthday "curtain" (as per request of the Birthday Girl)...

...birthday presents...

...birthday streamers...

Then it was off to bed to await the big day and the awakening of the Birthday Girl...

Bring on the...

 ...birthday breakfast...

...birthday blow out...

...birthday bummer...

(Molly's response when we refused to sing "Happy Birthday" to her too!)

...birthday buddies.

Then it was on to lunch at McDonald's,

 lunch choice of 9 out of 10 six-year-olds across the nation.

 After lunch we drove the "birthday-mobile" to...

...good ole Chuck E. Cheese's

where a Kate can be a Kate...

...and where Kate scored a happenin' birthday crown studded with game tokens.  

After divvying up the tokens...

...Kate and her birthday buds played...

 ...and played...

...and played...

...and played...

...and played some more...

...and more...

...and lots more.

Molly and I tried to play games that netted us the most tickets...

Meg and Cole discovered that the "Deal or No Deal" game could, if played properly, provide a wealth of tickets.

After nearly two hours of playing and ticket collecting, we herded our gang to the ticket counter. Kate had big dreams about what shiny new doo-dadd she would purchase with her 54 tickets and spent no less than 15 minutes making her selection...

..."fangs" she calls them.  

Just what every fresh six-year-old needs!

Deciding that we'd eeked out every drip of fun that Chuck E. Cheese had to offer, we travelled onward to the next stop on our birthday tour so that Kate could spend the first of her birthday gift cards!

(tune in next time for the next great adventure!!!)

My Wish for You This Weekend...

"...for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content."

~Philippians 4:11

Just a Quick Hello

Hi! I'm not gone from blogging, really I'm not. It's been 9 days since my last post and I've got some fun posts knocking around in my head about where I've been and what I've been doing over the last week and a half. I can't post them now because...

1. I'm weary from my adventures.
2. I'm actively using what I've learned on my adventures and can't stop for fear that I'll forget exactly what I've learned.
3. I'm having a bit of anxiety because my sister posted her experiences over the weekend before I did and now, I'm certain my post will not be as good. {Read Sudeana's ...here}
4. I'm in utter denial that my adventures are over and that I've entered my real life once more.
5. Because I've entered real life, I've not had a chance to load my pictures on to the computer.
6. I'm also in utter denial about the amount of laundry that accumulated while I was adventuring.
7. I've gotten a little sore throat which qualified me for a nice dose of Nyquil.
8. I took the Nyquil about  1 5 minnnnnuitessssssssssssss agoooo.
9. Can't sEEm 2 mmmmmemmmmber wht i wuz   gooonnnnnnaaa writ bouuuuuttttt...
10. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Sippin' at Sam's

Hi! Molly Joy here. All dressed up and ready to roll.

Where am I going? 

Well, here's the situation...we are out of milk.  Dad thaith it's almost time to buy a cow becauth we go through tho much milk these days.  That makth my Mom grin a little, she loves feeding all of uth.  Being out of milk isn't such a big deal exthept that we're out of bread too and I think I heard someone thay we were out of just about anything that could serve as lunch.  Thith makes my Mom grin a little too becauth being out of lunch food usually means we go out to eat for lunch and Mom really enjoys that.  So...

that's where I'm going...out to lunch. Wanna come?

I really like the place where we are going. There aren't any tables large enough to seat our whole family, tho I alwayth get to thit at the table with the big kidth. It'th so fun.  I get to chooth between the pizza and the hot dog special.  I chooth the pizza today.  The only thing that stinkth is that thith place only hath one size drink and that size ith tooooo big fo me! Everybody elth gets their own drink, but I have to share with my Mom or Dad and thath kinda hard from the big kidth table.

It was a really thpecial day today cauth we got to get dessert! Mom and Dad haven't been eating much dessert at all lately and today, they decided to live a little with thoft therve from Tham's Club! (Megan hath taught me allllll about alliteration you know!)  I love the dessert here but by the time we get around to eating it, it's time to get into the shopping cart and race around the store before Dad'th lunch hour ith over. Really, thith part is pretty fun too.  First, we load everyone'th drink into the cart (nobody wants to see all that thoda pop at 88 cenths a piece go to waste) 

...and then in goeth Kate and then me.  

Look at uth chowin down the ith cream! It had strawberrieth in it! Thooooo good. My mom had such a hard time eating and taking pictures of uth...but she soldiered through! 

Ya know what else ith fun when we go shopping at Tham's and other places? Watching all the people looking at us.  I'd look too! I mean really, who pushes THAT many drinks around in a buggy? I don't really think its the drinks they are looking at.  Mom saith they are counting us kids.  She gets a kick out of it too.  She saith that the people looking at us must think that we are a grade school on a field trip to Tham's Club for cheap soda pop and hotdogs.  

I guess when you stop to think about it, that'th kinda what we are!

After we've loaded the buggy with boxes and bags that are mostly the size of ME, I decide to stand up and demand politely requetht that I be permitted to walk about the store for awhile.  Finally, I convinced Dad to let me down. It wath about time too, cause I had a bit of shopping to conquer as well. I saw this patio furniture while I wath eating and couldn't wait to give it a whirl.

The cushion was good and firm that table lookths like it would hold a dinner plate or six. 

Hang on a thecond! That sign doesn't say that it's been stain guarded and Mom saith that is a deal breaker. Did you see the price on it? That'th almost enough to buy....mmmhmmm carry the 4....1,965 drinkths here at Tham's. I'm pretty thure Mom and Dad will think that'th a deal breaker TOO!

Anywayth, thanks for comin' to our gourmet lunch wif us!

Hope to thee ya again real thoon!

To Brighten Your Weekend...

It was a Friday night and we needed a flower for a hat. Well, not exactly a hat. It was a hat card that Meg was making that caused us to be in need of the flower.  Our craft supplies were limited at best, but we did have a few pipe-cleaners.

After a Google search on how to make pipe-cleaner flowers, Meg was rewarded with an excellent instruction video from YouTube and I was rewarded both with the knowledge communicated in the video and a big time chuckle.

 I thought I'd share the fun...(please don't miss the co-star of the video... and... watch all the way 'til the end.)



Looks like the Ring Lady has a  Molly too! What a hoot!

We decided that the possibilities afforded us with our new knowledge far exceeded the pipe-cleaners we had in our possession, so after a quick load-all-four-kids-in-the-van-at-seven-thirty-on-a-Friday-night trip to the craft store, we came home with a few bags full of pipe-cleaners for a dollar per bag.

Meg was a quick study and produced the flower for the hat card...

...and a ring for her finger.

(Meg is in what I like to call her "Orange Phase")

After the children were all tucked in, I may have been drawn in by all the pretty colors of pipe-cleaners strewn about my desk...

See the pretty butterfly? 

Gobs of fun for a dollar I'm tellin' ya!

Happy Weekend!!

A Day Without Daddy

My man isn't in town today. Molly thinks he's somewhere in Lake Michigan...

There were reports of Daddy sightings near Columbus, OH earlier in the day.

By lunchtime the trail had gone cold.

While Molly worked on the Case of the Missing Daddy, Kate helped with the prep for another "Daddy's Gone Dinner".

I found this recipe online a few weeks ago, and filed it away until today when Daddy would actually be gone! It looked so interesting, so different, so internationally appealing.

Look at all of those ingredients...tomato puree, olive oil, onion, garlic, butter, cumin, and the star of the show, sweet potato.  Then there was the ingredient that answers the question to the old Sesame Street game, "One of These Things is NOT like the Others...." peanut butter.

 We began as instructed...

...we added helping hands...

...and we made soup.

Though it looked like this when we were finished, 

...we approached it with open minds and eager spoons.

However...

Meg: "I really WANT to like it Mom, but I just can't quite get there."

Cole: "Mom, I don't think I can finish my bowl. It's just too different."

Molly: "Yuck, I don't yike it. Ewwwww."

Kate: Kate blew this joint a bit before dinner and was dining "out".  

I thought it had an interesting flavor and finished my whole bowl. It appeared that if I ever wanted to eat this soup again, I would be needing only a table for one. 

As my Dad says, "You win some, you lose some!"

Happily, we made some rolls to go with our soup and so we weathered our "Daddy's Gone and thank goodness we didn't try to feed him this meal Dinner" on multiple pieces of bread...

...and a little bowl of popcorn.

After enjoying a movie, it was time for bed. Since Molly still hadn't successfully located her Daddy,  I took this picture of the kids to send to him to wish him good night.  Just after the picture was taken, we all bowed our heads to say our bedtime prayers. One child asked God to help them to listen better, one child asked for a deeper knowledge of God, another asked for good rest and for safety for Daddy's travels...

...then it was Molly's turn.

"Molly," I prompted, "say 'Thank you God for today.'"

"Fank you Gawd for today."

"Say 'Please help me to sleep good.'"

"Pleath help me sweep good."

"And," I continued, "please help me to be nice to everyone tomorrow..."

"Naaawwwww," she responded. 

I waited and waited but it appeared that she was certain that asking for God's help being nice the next day was just not something for which she could sincerely pray.  The bed began shaking violently as squeeks and guffaws escaped from the very children Molly wasn't going to be nice to the next day so I said, "Molly say 'Amen.'"

"Anem Anem!"