Independence Day, 2013

Independence Day dawned overcast and cool this year. And I was happy. For some reason, my outside pictures often turn out better on cloudy days. So, this year, there are lots and lots of pictures!

Heading Out

Everybody was so excited to go down to Grandma and Grandpa’s. Here’s little Trent, who was “Born in the U.S.A.” :-D He actually wore that thing for quite a long time that day. I was surprised! He’s getting older. <<sniff, sniff>>

Grant is getting older, too, and is able to contain his excitement on big days like the Fourth.

 

Since the girls are getting older, they’re able to help plan for big days like this. Courtney really wanted to do some red, white and blue fingernail painting, so there were lots of patriot fingernails “on hand” ;-)

The nail designs got more fancy as the day went on.

The Fourth of July Carnival

At Mom and Dad’s, the kids took the carnival idea from last year and expanded on it.

There were booths for making “Independence Day books”, “Independence Day wands,” a beauty salon booth and of course a nail salon. Unfortunately, there were so many kids manning the booths, that there weren’t a lot of customers to visit the booths, so there was a lot of sitting and waiting.

and waiting …

and waiting …

and waiting.

Not everyone was bored. The nail salon stayed busy.

As did the beauty salon.

But the most popular attraction was the face painting. The wait time was quite lengthy. And with good reason; the results were pretty amazing.

 

Here’s Claire, well on her way to becoming a cute bunny.

There was also a very cute clown.

One of the most requested designs was an animal of some sort. There were several puppies, which we managed to line up at one point for a photo.  Good doggies.

Here are some close-ups of Isabella’s face paint (courtesy of Glenn), which was pretty amazing:

 

Later, caving to intense peer pressure, Claire wiped off the bunny face and decided to become a puppy, too.

Kate painted this beautiful black stallion on Sarah, which looked so much like Walter Farley’s Black Stallion.

 

Noah, in true boyish fashion, requested a snake.

Second in popularity to the animals were requests for patriotic symbols: flags and fireworks.

  

  

and even a patriotic butterfly

(I couldn’t pick just one picture of Brooke here; she’s way off the cute-meter.)

When it was Grant’s turn, he asked Kate to draw a mustache “like this” and, with his fingers, traced curly swirls on his cheeks. I’m not sure where he saw a mustache like that, but seeing the final product was the highlight of the day for me.

 

Oh, wait, I almost forgot about Magnum P.I. (a.k.a. Dad). Definitely in contention for highlight-of-the-day moment for me. The background is this: a few days earlier, the kids caught some of an episode of Magnum P.I. Several of them thought Magnum P.I. looked like Grandpa! Back in the ‘80s, when the show was popular, Dad had a mustache similar to the actor, Tom Selleck. So, Dad asked Kate to paint a mustache on him, as a nod to his separated-at-birth twin, Magnum P.I. Hilarious!

Desserts

(or “One of These Things is Not Like the Others”)

I would be remiss if I did not mention the desserts. Desserts are very near and dear to this family, and any excuse to get together is a good reason to make lots of tasty desserts. Holidays usually bring out the Very Special desserts. This year was no exception. Jennifer made some very cute, individually-wrapped homemade ice cream sandwiches. Heather outdid herself in this department, as usual, and made some adorable, and equally delicious strawberry cupcakes.

We made Texas Sheet Cake, homemade vanilla ice cream, white chocolate dipped strawberries and the traditional Flag Cookies.

Kelly made a delicious 9 x 13 Ice Cream Cake, strawberry pretzel salad, a big container of Oreo Muddy Buddies (picture courtesy of Kelly’s Pinterest board), which were devoured before the day was over, in spite of their being very rich.

And last but not least, this interesting creation:

Hee-hee-hee. Makes me giggle just to look at it. :-) The story behind this is that one of the kids was in charge of making the flag cookies (Kelly and I usually each make one batch), but the dough was too crumbly to roll out, so they improvised and, thanks to some too-runny icing, came out with this modern-art version of our American flag.  :-)  Do you see it? I’m sure Picasso would be proud.  :-)  I got a kick out of teasing Kelly about this dessert, which sat on the dessert table untouched for most of the day. Eventually, someone cut some squares out of it and I’m told it was quite tasty. No worries, Kelly, your reputation as the Martha Stewart of the Midwest remains untarnished. Your blog is testimony to that!  :-)

A Few Shots of The Littles (and of the Big People having as much fun as The Littles)

What would a summer holiday be without braided pigtails? Can’t have enough of those!

Trent, hamming it up, as usual. I seriously have no idea where he gets these moves. Look at Avery cracking up in the background!

 

And then there are the big kids, having as much fun as the littles.

After pushing several of the little guys on the swings for awhile, Chuck finally joined in on the fun … and Trent sprinted over to help push. 

Some of the teenagers thought the swings looked pretty fun, too, especially when you’re all linked up together. :-)

Seeing this picture reminds me of another Fourth of July, several years ago, when I took a picture of the same four kids. What a difference a few years makes! They’re not all in the same order (except Avery, of course), but it’s pretty easy to tell who’s who.

After he saw Kelly passing out scoops of Ice Cream Cake to the kids, Dad decided to see if he could pull one over on Kelly and get his own scoop. Amazingly, she never caught on!  ;-)

And here are our own Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, cutting a serious rug to Brooke and Sophia’s rousing rendition of “Heart and Soul” on the piano. Too fun!

 

We finished up the day with sparklers and fireworks at the Orrs’.

The interesting blues in this picture were created from a couple of the kids swinging around their blue glow sticks.

     

Thanks to Courtney for taking the pictures of the fireworks (purchased by Glenn, set off by Luke) as I was sitting inside the Orr home for much of the show with two little boys holding their hands over their ears.  :-D

Happy Fourth of July!

Brag time

Last Friday, Rachel competed in the 2013 State Fair Young Hoosiers Piano Competition. You won’t hear her talk about it (unless you ask her, and then she would just smile and nod and say it “went well”) because she is quiet and modest about these things. However, being her (less quiet and modest) mom, I have the distinct right -- nay, even the duty – to tell others about what a great job she did in the competition. :-)

This year, her instructor, Ms. Kim, suggested she perform songs in 4 different categories:  Sonata, Tchaikovsky, Bach and Classical. The Sonata was a Beethoven piece, Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major. I remember when she first heard this song, she doubted she could ever learn it. She really pushed herself to get through it, and spent many, many hours working on this one section:

Clip of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major

Really, this short clip is indicative of how well she played each of the four songs. She was very focused and afterwards, admitted she “wasn’t really that nervous.”

We expect to find out within the next week or so whether she advances to the Finals. Each song is judged separately, so if she does advance, it may be with one piece, all pieces, or any combination. We don’t make any assumptions about whether or not she’ll advance; of course, we feel like she did very well, but the contest is very competitive and the judges have lots of criteria they judge on.

Ms. Kim has a very pragmatic approach to competitions: the goal shouldn’t be to win, but to get a piece to the point of being “competition-ready.” That is a goal we were happy and proud to watch Rachel accomplish last Friday.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above …“ James 1:17

Lord, we thank You for Your gift of music.

“The Little Blue Truck” by Alice Schertle

This is a new book that we got Grant for his birthday. As you can see, Trent is a fan. :-)  Through the years, we have accumulated lots and lots of books for young children, but we’re always on the lookout for new books when birthdays and Christmas roll around. Sometimes, I think the only good books are the ones that are at least 25 years old, but then I find a new “classic,” and my faith in modern storytelling is rekindled.

And how sweet is it that Claire was reading it Trent? Rachel found the two of them like this the other morning and I’m so glad she was able to get this picture!

Catching up a little

I wonder how many other bloggers do something like this: in the midst of some funny/interesting/amazing event, she thinks to herself “I’m definitely going to blog about that!”  She takes several pictures and vows to blog about it as soon as possible. And then a couple of days go by, and something else funny/interesting/amazing happens, more pictures are taken, more vows made, more time goes by. And eventually, it all fades into the background.

So, I have a few quiet moments this morning (have to get up pretty early around here for that to happen) and I’m browsing through the photos on the laptop from the past few months and suddenly, this seems like the perfect time for a summary-type post.

So, while this may seem quite random, there is a common thread: all these pictures are from the laptop. How’s that for a theme? And before I start to feel too smug about getting this blog post done (finally!), I remind myself that there are actually lots more pictures on the other computer. Yikes! Oh well. Gotta start somewhere!

The Worleys visit the Worleys.

Back in April, we got together at Grandma Worley’s for a cookout. It was a mild, beautiful day, which is really amazing, considering the fact that 2 weeks before, we had a lot of snow! The kids had a lot of fun running around in the woods and playing in the little pond Uncle Rick put in.

What the girls probably remember most about that day was finally getting to meet cousin Nicole’s newest little one, Zavier. Sweet little guy who was happy to be held by all.

Back in the late 1970s, Mick’s dad bought this property from his parents that is located right next to theirs. He built the house just beyond some woods that separate the two properties. I took several of the kids on a hike through the woods and climbed up a little rise to show them this:

the beautiful pond that Mick’s Grandpa Worley put in decades ago. Mick spent many happy hours fishing on and around this pond. I went with him several times (caught a really big largemouth bass once!). I’ll never forget the time we were fishing and spotted a large, black snack slithering through the water in the general direction of our little rowboat!  For a split second, I didn’t know whether to stay in the boat or jump in the water and try to make a mad dash for the shore! We have great memories of being there, not the least of which were the many, many visits with Mick’s wonderful Grandma Worley. (Mental note: need to write a blog post about Great Grandma Worley!)

There’s nothing like visiting something from your past and finding that it looks exactly as you remembered it. I think that’s pretty rare.

Two Bruce cousins come for a visit – because six girls in the house just isn’t enough.

Back in April, Heather and Ron took a rare vacation, so two of the girls stayed with us. Anna divided her time between her caregivers and Mom and Dad.

They were here from Wednesday through Sunday, which meant lots of playing, giggling, late-night chatting and even quite a bit of work on a new production: a sequel to that great classic The Secret of the Vioin.

Alix and Kate joined the fun on Saturday night, so Sunday morning getting ready for church was fun. :-)  I really wanted to get a picture of the girls getting ready, but I was too busy and didn’t make it upstairs for a picture. Rachel said it was quite a spectacle to see everybody jockeying for position in front of the mirror.  :-D

Several nights during their stay, Erica entertained the younger girls with a show featuring many of their stuffed animals. The star was an interesting stuffed dog of Ellie’s named “Diddly” whose name, for some reason, was changed to “Old Joe Crotchety” for the show :-D This all usually started pretty late at night and went on for quite some time.

She had quite a rapt audience.

  

They spent a couple of days working on the drama, and I must say, as they get older, their costumes and props are getting much more elaborate and authentic-looking.

 

The acting ability is even improved: more dramatic.

 

The Bruce girls will be staying with us again towards the end of July, so hopefully they’ll be able to finish this elaborate production then. Filming delays are common in the industry, of course. I’m sure the final product will attract lots of attention and accolades at area film festivals.

Mother’s Day.

One of the fun things about this Mother’s Day was that all six girls sang together for the first time at Grandma Worley’s church. They sang “Sweet, Sweet Spirit” and did a wonderful job! Grandma was beyond thrilled and made us promise not to buy her any more Mother’s Day gifts. “The girls singing was my gift!”

One of these days, I want to go back through our pictures (yes, even the print photos <gasp>) and put together a collage of Mother’s Day pictures with Lois. We’ve been going to church on Mother’s Day with Grandma Worley since the girls were very young; I can’t even remember when we started doing it. I think it would make a fun collage.

And then it was on to Mom and Dad’s. I’m sure we were laughing at the kids in this picture.  :-D

That’s all for now. More to random, picture-filled posts to come!

“Little Miss Spider at Sunnypatch School” by David Kirk

Many years ago, this was a well-loved bedtime story at our house. Sadly, it went the way of so many books these days: the binding quickly wore away, separating the book into several parts and we eventually had to throw it out. Sometimes, I can make adequate repairs to a book’s binding with packing tape, but often, it’s a lost cause. Modern-day book binding is one of those topics that I occasionally rant about. Like so many other products in today’s marketplace, it is very cheaply done with no concerns about how long the product will last. I think about how many great family books have been lovingly passed down through generations and I worry about this and future generations. What will be left to pass down? We have some very old books which have been graciously given to us or bought at antique shops and their bindings are almost always in very good shape. But many of the books we’ve bought new since we’ve started our family usually last just a year or two before the binding starts to fall apart. Frustrating!

Back to this happy picture and the book Sarah is reading. We found this copy at the library the other day. The illustrations in the book are very unusual – to the point of being distracting -- but if you look closely at them, they are actually quite clever and detailed. Trent probably just likes the fact that the story is about a spider. He likes bugs!