June 10 – Happy 5th Birthday, Claire!

Through the years, our girls have developed a fun birthday tradition.  About an hour or so before Grandma and Grandpa arrive, I (or more recently, Rachel) spend time preparing the birthday girl’s hair and dress for a grand entrance.  Once Grandma and Grandpa are here, the birthday girl descends the stairs in all her glory, while the rest of the family claps, whoops & hollers over the lovely birthday girl.  It’s a fun tradition that we all look forward to and it always makes for some great pictures.  Here, Claire is obviously enjoying the attention from Grandma and Grandpa, who are admiring her lovely hairdo, courtesy of Rachel. 



I’ve always said I think every child should have at least one doting grandparent, or at least an older adult who fawns over them like a grandparent. 

Claire requested Calzones, green beans and pink lemonade, so we added Doritos and fresh strawberries to the menu.  The table looked great in all its pinkness.



For her birthday cake, she requested Pumpkin Cake.  Her favorite?  Well, not necessarily.  I don’t think she’d ever even tried Pumpkin Cake, but that was her repeated request.  (It turned out really good; I used this recipe.)

Before we started lighting the candles, Mom and Dad spotted Grant making his move on some glaze that had dripped down onto the cake server.  They got the biggest kick out of that and had me grab the camera.  Why didn’t they think things like that were funny when I did them as a child???

Then it was on to the gifts and boy, was Claire excited (as was her compadre)!

I mean, really excited!



Did I mention she was excited?

Yes, it was quite entertaining and gratifying to watch Claire open each gift.  She literally got that excited about everything – from pencils to sidewalk chalk to coloring books.  Soo cute!

Probably the biggest hit overall was the Rapunzel wig we got her.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful, effervescent girl of ours!

Mom & Dad ended up leaving around 10:00 and the kids didn’t calm down and go to bed until 10:30 or so.  Tomorrow, we head down to Mom & Dad’s for the June birthday celebration.  While we’re there, Glenn & Mick are going to be helping Dad put together a new shed.  Glenn wants to get an early start to beat the heat.  And now I wonder:  what is the likelihood of a family of 10 getting out of the house by 7:30 am?  That’s what I thought.  Stay tuned …

Thursday, June 9–Lunch at LePeep’s

Thursday gave us another productive morning, then on down to 71st & 465 to meet Andrea & Abbie, just back from Togo, West Africa, where the family spent the last 10 years as missionaries.  They’re stateside for 9 months, then back to Africa, but this time they’re moving to Rwanda. 

The four of us had a nice, leisurely visit, eating, chatting, nursing (well, Trent was the only one who nursed, but he nursed enough for the group.). 

Abby and Courtney, cousins a few times removed.



Trent would not stop staring at a nearby customer, so we took this picture from an angle to try to look more natural.  :-D

 

We really had an enjoyable time.  Between homeschooling, mothering and great book recommendations, Andrea and I had no shortage of topics to discuss.  In the 14 or so years that they have been married, I really haven’t had many opportunities to visit with Andrea, but I feel like she’s a friend, as well as a relation.  Of course, once you realize you’re talking to another Jane Austen fan, there’s an instant connection.  :-)

After lunch, Courtney and I went to Wal-Mart to finish up Claire’s birthday shopping.  While on the way home, I got a worried call from Rachel, who spotted a helicopter landing on our road!  A year or so ago, we saw a police helicopter nearby when a couple of car thieves were hiding out a few miles from our house.  She was concerned it might be police, but I told her it would probably be marked as such.  I really didn’t have an explanation for it. While we were talking, it lifted up, then a truck pulled up where it had landed and the helicopter landed on the truck!  So strange, and I felt bad that I couldn’t do anything to calm her since I had no idea why there was a helicopter sitting on a truck just at the edge of our property.

I continued talking to her while we were driving home and she eventually realized the helicopter was spraying the fields.  Ahh!  Now it all made sense.  I do remember last year seeing a helicopter spraying distant fields.  The fields immediately surrounding our house have always been sprayed by a traditional airplane crop-duster, but I guess they’re using a helicopter this year.  Since I had the camera with me for our restaurant picture, Courtney was able to get some pretty good pictures of the picture as we were coming up on the house.





Here’s the helicopter landed and, I suspect, getting reloaded with chemicals.  Comforting thought.





I don’t think I can overstate how captivated Grant was the whole time. 



How cute is he, with his hands on his hips?  :-D

Wednesday, June 8 – Furniture Makeovers, and Pastor Mark comes a-callin’

Wednesday was back to normal … ahhhhh.  Well, almost.  Once a year, our shepherding elder makes a house call to talk one-on-one with each of his “shepherded” families (I guess that’s what we’re called?).  This time, Kim came with Pastor Mark.  We made a gallant effort of school in the morning, but by lunchtime, there was a smell of chocolate chip cookies in the air.  (I have miles to go in the area of hospitality, but I can make a mean chocolate chip cookie.)

To add to the excitement, the afternoon also brought a much-anticipated UPS truck by the house.  Last week, I bit the bullet and ordered a new slipcover for a couch we recently got from Heather & Ron, who got it from Grandma, who bought it new.  The couch is a nice addition to our piano room, but I wasn’t crazy about the upholstery.  Kelly (my own personal Martha Stewart) told me about a website she bought slipcovers from. So, I went ahead and ordered some.
 
In our excitement to put on the slipcovers, we did have the presence of mind to take some before pictures.

And here are the afters ………. <drum roll please>

Not too bad, eh?  Actually, we love it!  Now we’re eyeing more candidates for slipcovers … like the giant chair-and-a-half in the piano room.

Tuesday, June 7 – Leotards, Tippy Toes and Ballerinas. Oh my!

So, Tuesday brought the long-awaited, much-anticipated BALLET LESSON DAY!  This was a day they had been counting down to since I made the official registration phone call almost 2 weeks ago!  Sarah, Brooke & Claire actually came downstairs that morning at 7:00 a.m., they were so excited. 

Unfortunately, I had to work for a few hours (ahem, to help pay for these ballet lessons!).  My first Friday of the month was pre-empted by Abby’s birthday party, Monday was reserved for Erica’s cast fitting, so that moved my work day back to Tuesday. 

My best-laid plan was to leave work by 3:00, get home by 3:45, spend 45 minutes getting last-minute things ready for the lesson, which starts at 5:00.  Well … you know what they say about the best-laid plans…

After enjoying a quiet, but productive several hours at the firm, I was summoned late in the afternoon by some Accounting ladies who needed some help.  I spent the last 45 minutes of my work day helping them and then trying to scoot out as quickly as possible, amid some idle chatter.  I think I mentioned three times “Well, I really need to go take the girls to ballet…”

I had to swing by the Orrs to pick up Alix’s leotard from their mailbox (I’m sure the mail carrier was scratching his/her head) since the leotard we ordered for Courtney hadn’t arrived yet.  By the time I got home, it was 4:30 and Rachel was finishing up the last ‘do (hair buns for all).  We had a few wardrobe issues (dirty leotard, Claire’s tights several sizes too large, etc.) which were all taken care of en route.  They actually all looked great by the time we got there at (4:58).  Unfortunately, in the mad dash to rush out of the house (why is it so often a mad dash???) I forgot to grab the camera!  <smacking forehead>  I was so disappointed, but I hope to remember it next time, and I’m sure they’ll all look just as beautiful.  Everyone did well and their classes are small – which I love – partly because I won’t have as many obstructions between the camera and our ballerinas.  ;-) 

And lastly, since I can’t have a picture-less post …

Monday, June 6 – Casting Call

Yes, it was the day of the cast.  Our first child to be fitted for a cast.  I took Erica to OrthoIndy, and friendly Dr. Berrios was the pediatric orthopedic specialist who saw her.  This was the same Dr. Berrios, by the way, who saw Kate when she broke her leg as a 14-month-old.  Dr. Berrios was friendly and informative, and the busy office took us from check-in to the waiting room to radiology to Dr. consultation to cast fitting and back to the car in 60 minutes.  I really thought it would take hours.

From a choice of about 10 colors, Erica picked out a neon orange cast, reasoning that it was a “neutral” color.  I think it is a great choice, because the chances are greatly reduced that someone will accidentally bump into it.  On the way home, we stopped at Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and the cast generated several comments and questions about how she broke her arm.  :-)

The cast is made of fiberglass, rather than plaster, so it can get wet in a chlorinated pool or shower.  Thankfully, we have both!  The technician said Erica should probably wait 2 hours before she got it wet for the first time, so approximately 1 hour and 58 minutes later, Erica was asking to swim.  There were a few delays, because everyone wanted to get in at the same time (no small feat!), so about 3 hours after the cast was put on, Erica was in the pool!



In the next 2 pictures, she was explaining to Sarah how they put on the cast.  :-)







She has had only minor itching and a little bit of soreness.  The doctor says they will re-check it in 2 weeks, and she will wear the cast for 6 weeks.

Broken Bones and Ballerinas

So it's been a very eventful couple of days, eh?  Friday found us driving here, there and everywhere.  We started out early Friday morning in our "Birthday Party Bus".  Erica, Kate, Laurabeth and Danielle had been invited to a birthday party down near Mom and Dad's.  We picked up the other 3 girls, then headed down.  After dropping them off, we drove by Bruce & Mona's and spent a short time visiting Matt & family, who are in Indiana between mission trips.  Then it was over to Mom and Dad's.  After lunch, we took a walk through the field to visit the Craig's new barn.  Incredible with an amazing amount of stone for the foundation and some very old barn beams used in the construction.  When we got back to Mom & Dad's, Dad's Father's Day gift was just being delivered:  a new John Deere mower!  We admired that for a few minutes, then loaded back up and picked up the birthday party girls. 

From there, we came back home for a couple of hours, then drove over to church for a cookout.  The Elmores were in town, so it was good to see them.  While we were there, Erica was running and playing with the other kids when she had some sort of a collision with another girl.  She spent the rest of the evening in quiet tears holding her arm with an ice pack on it.  There was quite a bit of swelling, but aside from that, it didn't look too bad.  By lunchtime on Saturday, however, she was still in quite a bit of pain, so we decided to take her to Lafayette for a Med-Check.  Rachel went with Erica and Mick to Lafayette, while I took the rest of the gang to Noblesville to get ballet slippers for ballet lessons which begin this Tuesday.  While we were there, Mick called and told me there is, in fact, an in-line break.  So, she's wearing a brace until we see a specialist to find out the next step.  I'm holding onto hope that the brace will suffice and there won't be any need for a cast, but I don't know much at all about broken bones, so we shall see. 

I had to laugh last night when she was complaining about having to wear the brace to church today.  "It just doesn't look very churchy."  :-D  That's a girl for you.  Stay tuned for ballet lesson pictures after Tuesday.  :-)

Trent at Indiana Beach

Just have to add these of our little guy!

(Don’t you just love that one?!)