Monday June 2-Happy Birthday Dan! Most the day was chaos control, answering phones, finishing the LAST book of the twilight series, and making a birthday for Dan (cake, decorations, wrapping,etc.)! We went and took lunch, balloons, and a birthday song to Dan at work. There were some patients there, so we totally embarrassed him--yes!!! I armed the boys with birthday blowers & Dacie had on her butterfly wings and a birthday hat too. The song did not quite work out the way we had planned-but it did the trick! I was excited to make a red velvet cake from a recipe we got from a girl at Dan's work, which he totally LOVES-I woke up early to go buy $6 worth of food coloring and other 'secret' ingredients, as well as pick up Dan some breakfast before work! As I started making the cake I realized that it did not have any flour in it. I called the girl at work to see if I had read the directions right. She felt like I had. Now, we have had very few red velvet cakes that have tasted this yummy! So I followed her directions explicitly. As I dumped the batter/water into the pan I was quite skeptical. As the cake was baking I looked up online for some red velvet cake recipes and ALL of them called for flour. I knew I was doomed. After a half an hour of burning the red water onto my cake pan I pulled it out of the oven and had the WORST cake ever (look at pictures above and below) !!! I guess the girl had copied the directions a little bit wrong. I was so sad. Dan told me he had 3 cakes at work and was totally satisfied in the cake department. He even brought a complete one home to share with us.
We had a family party that evening--I think Dan's favorite gifts were the broken gun shoved with play-doh from Ryland and the hand-made comic strip book from Colton. All the gifts were 'fancy' wrapped in newspaper from the boys. The boys also helped decorate, which made it all the better!
Now Dan is finally as old as me for 4 months (the kids constantly remind him)-his favorite time of the year-ha ha!
The infamous ruined red velvet b-day cake!
Dan's work pulled through with a real birthday cake!
Tuesday June 3- Sterling had kindergarten screening. He was screened by Colton's old teacher. She told me he can go right into 1st grade. He did well with math-he counted up to 101 when she asked him to count for her--she told me she was hoping for 6! Lets hope he keeps excelling, I am not sure I will know what to do if I have a child that genuinely has a hard time keeping up.He is so HUGE compared to the other kids coming in to test! Sterling is counting down the days until he starts--he knows the EXACT date, not a day before or after. We went and got his 5 year portraits taken at Wal-mart later. This was a huge 'feat' for me since he never got his four year pictures taken, and his 5th birthday was in November-poor kid, he is going to wonder if I hate him ( I really don't Sterling)! We also did some serious shopping for my family's reunion coming up!
That night I went and walked the track-3.5 miles this time!~
They let us go look at the bear before they tried to tranquilize it--if you click on the picture you can see his head where the branches meet the tree trunk w/ his two little ears sticking out!
Wednesday June 4- Part of our summer schedule involves playgroup now. The little kids are all in a one afternoon nap-time, and the older ones are used to allot of kid interaction. It was a pirate treasure hunt at Riverfront Park. They made eye patches and hunted for treasure (some bubbles). It was fun!
When we arrived there was a plethora of fire engines, animal control, fish and game, and police officer cars. I wondered what the occasion was and then realized that a bear had decided to come to playgroup all the way from the mountains! He was really close up in a big tree closest to the field (smart bear...get down by the cool river). His fur was the color of Sterling's hair (a beautiful brown, red). It was speculated that he was an adolescent that had been driven from the pack by the dominating male.He was moving between the two mountain ranges. He slept most of the time, until they tried to tranquilize him out of the tree--then he started climbing up and down the branches for us! It was taking quite sometime to get him 'tired' so we had to leave before he "fell" out. But, it was cool to see the guys ready to catch him and how he reacted to the tranquilizer gun.
We also capitalized on the 'free lunch' program they do here at the school in the summers for the first time today-we are going to be regulars for sure! My kids get fed for FREE and my kitchen stays clean!
All the pirates looking for their treasure!
Our home made eye patches--Ryland kept his on all afternoon and never took it off, even in public!
The fish and game guy going to get another tranquilizer gun-the big bear won't sleeP!
Thursday June 5- Was girls game night. I got what I came with (by choice)-- which was off bug spray and bug candle for our reunion this LONG weekend!
Friday June 6- The PANIC set in. I almost had an anxiety attack that day when I realized how many things I needed to do by myself, as I had to plan the reunion mostly on my own--it was not anything I could turn over to others. Last minute catering fell through, as well as ordered crafts not arriving on time. Not only did I have to bring all the extras for the reunion but I had a family of 6 to get ready to camp for 3.5 days! Tents, clothes, flashlights, sleeping bags, coats, shorts....It was a good thing Dan was home that day to fight with! Really, despite it all-we made it work! That night we had two softball games which I re-injured my thumb playing in! If I could get the glove on then I was OK. I have not hit as good as I did the first triple header night--people keep catching my outfield fly's! aaah!
Shot taken at the Grand Canyon
My family lost a total of 133 pounds collectively!!! I am so proud of them.I placed 5th out of 14 for the biggest loser contest and pulled in with a loss of 5.11% of my body weight! Maybe some serious cleansing the week before and the dropped 16 pounds from it helped.Today (after) I am sad it is all done! Now what are we going to do with our summer? My family all lives far away from me, and rarely are all 9 kids together at the same time--- I like to keep them while I can. It is so boring now--so I better go find something to keep me busy--aaah Girls Camp!
Shot taken from the top of the mountain after getting off the ski lift!
5 comments:
You are the woman, girl! Sounds like the reunion was a blast! So good the weather worked out for you, too! It was 108 here yesterday-I know you're probably used to that, but man! I feel 15 months pregnant when it's that hot instead of 22 weeks!
Love you!
Erin
Oh, i hate it when i spend the time, effort & ingredients to cook something & it doesn't turn out. Unfortunately it happens all the time! =) Did you see the bear on the front page of the newspaper? That's when you know you live in a small town huh?! =) Your family reunion sounds super fun--we'll have to get ideas from you!
That's a funny cake story! I'm glad Dan had a back up.
Wow! Bears? Crazy.
Okay, because I love you so much I am laughing my rearend off at that cake. I was reading the post above it and thought "what on earth is that nasty picture below." I am so sorry that happened. You are such a kind wife with all of the birthday celebration. Happy Birthday, Dan!
Only you can tell such a funny story about a flourless cake! I love seeing pictures of your beautiful family
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