Happy Birthday Theo

Happy 8th Birthday Theo! We hosted a wild and fun Pirate/Princess Party on Saturday. Kids came dressed as pirates or princess.


Theo and I made a pirate ship cake (thanks to the Lego pirate ship pirate people for help). Theo did a nice job helping with the frosting job:

Grace and Theo came dressed as Pirates:

Louise and Hannah as princess (Hannah is wearing cape Aunt Alissa made):

And David and I as Pirates:

We had some unexpected fun when some of the pirates started capturing girls (and mittens) and holding them hostage in the climber:

Here are the kids being held hostage in the two climbers. I received a ransom note that listed the names of the girls being held hostage and this request: ". . . are being held for ransom for cake and ice cream. If these items are not received by noon all will be fried." I had a talk with the head pirate and settled for release of the prisons in exchange for chocolate gold coins (which were hid in the yard for a treasure hunt).

Other games: The kids used Nerf guns to shoot pirates off the ping-pong table:

Pin the Patch on the Pirate (Grace drew the pirate):

Theo got a really cool game for his Birthday. It is called Scrabble Flash. You link the five electronic cubes together to spell words. For every word right you get a point. The electronic cubes talk to each other and keep score. Pretty fun.

And here is Theo opening his Lego Airplane from Papa and Mimi on Saturday morning. Thanks. He really loved it.

And here is one picture that should have made it with the stock show pictures: Smoky the Cowboy:

Stock Show

Yea, Ha! We had a great time as a family at the Stock Show and Rodeo today. We went as a field trip with our homeschool group and David even took the day off and joined us.

The petting zoo was a big hit:

After the Rodeo, we went and watched a sheep sheering demonstration:

Then we tried our hand at weaving on a loom:

Louise's favorite animal of the day was the pig. Up close and touchable:

And finally the best part of the day: When a big pig snout came through the bars to sniff Louise, she was delighted. "Big pig nose, like Daddy nose! (as she points to David's nose).

I guess Louise does spend the whole day looking up at David, so this is what he looks like to her!

Baby Bean

Well this is about how big our baby is at about 8 weeks pregnant. As big as a Kidney Bean (about 1/2 inch). I passed the Kidney Bean around at the breakfast table for the kids to hold and explained that this is how big our baby is. Louise held it with great care and respect. When she accidentally dropped it she said, "Uh, oh, baby bean drop!" Now Lousie has great care and respect for all beans she sees. She found some beans spilled in the pantry and was very disturbed, "Uh, oh, baby bean." Might be a while until she is ready to eat beans again! Next week we graduate to a Lima Bean (a package of 15 Bean Soup has come in handy for this project.).

Iowa Christmas

Here are the three littlest (for now) Cranbabies enjoying a hike. Thanks, Alan and Jan, for hosting us all for a week and for all the fun.

The Pinata was a big hit as always. My favorite memory of this time is when Ezra broke this Pinata open and announced with joy, "I prayed I would be the one to break it open!" I can just imagine him waiting all year to beat Theo to this honor.

Great Dalmuti

Dress up fun (since we have been at home Louise has been crawling around saying, "I a dog. Woot. Woot.").

All four of my kids really enjoyed getting roller skates for Christmas. Grace, Theo, and Hannah can make it all the way around Crown Hill Lake Now on skates. Thanks, Alan and Jan, for the great gift. I ordered skakes for myself this week so I can skate with them.

Caps for Sale!

I think this is the first time we got a picture of all 9 kids. They are lined up waiting for a turn at the Pinata.

The three oldest girl grandchidren with Mimi:

Here are the same three girls three years ago (2008) with Aunt Alissa: