Alissa's big day

Our little Alissa is now six. Where did the time go? If you havent noticed, Alissa is a goof ball. She loves to be silly and make people laugh. On the flip side of that, she is also the most dramatic and pessimistic of the girls. We constantly have to reassure her of the positives in her life and to look at her blessings. If we compliment one of the other kids, she automatically thinks that means we dont think as highly of her. She is very hard on herself and wants to be perfect at everything. Hmmm...dont know where she gets that. Her constant attempts to be perfect have made her excel at most things she does though. She is a fantastic artist and does very well at her writing. If she does happen to make a mistake, she gets very upset about it. It just takes her a long time to build up the courage to try things, and keep trying them after a first failed attempt. Her latest proud accomplishment has been learning to tie her own shoes. It took a lot of encouragement and patience on our part to get through her frustrations of not being able to do it right away, but after all of that was out of the way, it was only a couple of days for her to get it down. Hooray!
In addition to all of that, Alissa also likes to take her time. I often call her "Snail-issa", because we are all left waiting for her to get dressed, or eat, or brush her teeth etc.. etc. She gets distracted easily and I often find her off in her own world. Maybe she's thinking of ways she can be perfect? But wouldnt it be great if we could all take more time in life? Unfortunately, I dont usually have twice the time to wait for her.
Overall, Alissa is a very sweet girl. She loves to cuddle and draw pictures for me. She is fun to play with, and Katelin has become her very best friend, which is great. I hope that sticks forever. She just requires a little extra love and attention, to know how important she is. So, without further adieu...the birthday details!
Since Alissa is now in school and making friends quickly, we thought it was time to give her her first friend party. The rule we have established in our family, is that every even birthday, you get to choose to have a party. I just cant do it every other month, so this makes it so I only have to host a part 2 or 3 times a year. Okay, so off of that tangent...

Alissa chose to go with a little pet shop party. Her actual birthday ended up being on the night of the pumpkin patch festivities, so we had to move it to the next day. That didnt mean we couldnt still celebrate a little bit though!

Alissa got to pick the dinner menu, which of course consisted of pancakes and eggs.

Then she got to open her family present. The other rule is that when you get a party, that is equivalent to your presents. They get one or two presents from the family, and the rest come from the party. Here is what she got from us this year...

She also got to open a package from her Grandma and Grandpa. It included a locking diary, a shirt, and a sticker activity book from her aunt. Thanks guys!

She had to wear the shirt right away. Then off we went to the pumpkin patch, and came back to have some cupcakes. We even added a candle and the birthday song to make it more official.

Then the long awaited day of the party arrived. The first thing to do while waiting for all the guests to arrive, was to decorate the table cover. Everyone claimed their spot and made a fun drawing in their place.

Let the games begin!
To start off was a good old fashioned game of Pin the tail...on the dog! Since it was a little pet shop party, we tried to have games that had something to do with pets or animals.

Alissa went first.

Katelins turn. I think this game was either too easy, or we had a lot of cheating going on! Look at how close most people got...with the exception of the two tails off in La La Land. They did it right! Way to go girls!

Next up, a duck race. They had a relay, where they had to put on these duck feet and race down and around a chair and back while quacking and flapping their wings.

Zack had to get his turn in too.

Then a twist on the game Duck, Duck, Goose. We played Lion, Lion Hyena. The lion had a tail sticking out of their pants (you can see part of it on Katelin), and the hyena had to get the tail.

The last game had nothing to do with animals. It was the one where they pass a present around in a circle to music, and when the music stops, the person holding it unwraps a layer. Zack got to be the lucky one who got to open the last layer, revealing the present inside...suckers!

After the games, Alissa decided she had waited long enough and it was time to open the presents. I wont show you all of them, but she got lots of things that she loved. Her favorite was an American Girl type doll that she now carries with her everywhere!

Even after all of the games and presents, we still had an hour to go. Never has a party gone that quick before. Oh well, maybe they will take a reallllly long time eating the cake...right?

Heres the cake, in the shape of a paw. Not my best cake, but it still tasted just as good. Ever since Madi's idea of putting pudding in the middle instead of frosting, we are converted to making every cake that way. Yum! Zack thought it was Blue's Clues, since it was blue. Shhh...dont tell Alissa that!

Blowing out 6 candles.

Well, with about 45 minutes to spare, we sent the girls out to play. Alissa decided she wanted a "spanking machine", so here she is on the tramp crawling under their legs while getting her birthday spankings. Crazy girl!

They just played and played until pick-up time, which was fine with the exception of a game of Red Red Rover, courtesy of Madi, who then ended up clotheslining one of the girls pretty bad. No more Red Red Rover!

Overall, I would only rate this party a 6. Appropriate for a 6th birthday I guess. I didnt come out of it feeling like it turned out great, like most other parties. The games were too quick and I didnt get the feeling that the girls were loving it. Maybe I underestimated their abilities. It seemed they were too old for them. If I knew the weather was going to be freakishly warm for October in Wisconsin, I might have planned some better activities to do outside. A pinata is always a winner. Oh well, Ill have to make it up for her 8th birthday.

A Happy Happs Happening

Yes, its that time again. Time for a trip to the pumpkin patch. Zack immediatly found this tractor and had to have a picture atop of it! Recognize this one? It was once filled with a different combination of four of our kids. Madi was replaced by Brylee this year.
Brylee was so not in the picture taking mood!

Another favorite...a truck!

The girls liked this little house.

After taking this one, Katelin said, "Ah Man, Im fat!" ...referring to raggety Anne. Still trying to get a smile...nope.

Zack in another truck with his best friend!

Woof, woof.

Hay ride time!

This happened to be Alissa's birthday, and someone had the idea to sing to her on the hay ride. Here she is clinging to me, but secretly loving it!

Brylee liking the ducks...

...but she wont admit it. Still no smile.

Why is that hole so big?

Time to go home with free baby pumpkins in hand! Yeah!

Confessions of a stolen camera!

When looking through my pictures, I noticed a few photos that were unfamiliar to me. I then realized that my camera had been "borrowed" for a photo shoot around the house. I found these amusing, maybe you will too! Im thinking there was more than one camera man involved here! Can you identify everything?

Growing up

In my attempts to update the blog, I realized I completely forgot to post about Madisons birthday. Maybe its due to the fact that she is getting all grown up and I just like to block it out of my mind. This is her last year in elementary school. She will be starting Young Womens next year! She now owns her own bras and deodorant! I am having a hard time accepting this. She will be turning into an entirely different and more grown up version of herself soon, and Im just not ready for that yet. I dont know that I ever will be. But I guess the comforting part is that so far, in spite of her parents...she seems to be doing pretty well.

She is smart, and always makes good choices. She is a great example to her family and friends, and knows when she needs to refrain from unwholesome activities. She told me about an inappropriate game that the kids at school have been playing lately, and reassured me that she would not take part in it. Im so proud of her for the decisions she makes and the young woman she will soon be. She may know more about the scriptures then I do soon, and has had her articles of faith memorized for over a year. Hopefully it doesn't go to her little teenage head and give her the over confidence to question me! Getting older often means wanting more expensive gifts. Some of the things she inquired about was a cell phone, her own TV, and a re-model of her room. The thing that surprised me most though, was a punching bag. Upon questioning her, she went on further to explain that she needed something to release her anger on so she "doesnt hit her sisters in the face". Okay, I said she was good, not perfect. There may be some anger management issues that need to be addressed. Thats normal for the oldest child who always has to deal with 4 younger siblings always driving them crazy...right? Right?

Okay, well she didnt get any of those asked for items, but she didnt come up completely empty handed either. The first thing we did was go out to dinner at her favorite restaurant, Texas Roadhouse. That doesnt happen very often as a family, so it was a big deal. She even got to sit on the saddle and get sung to...too bad I didnt bring the camera. But I did have the camera for all of this:

Present time!

Goofball
Mario Kart DS!
Zack got her a Zhu Zhu. She still likes that type of stuff too, but Im sure it wont last much longer! ):

A purse. She had been begging for one of these as well. Very grown up. In fact, a little too grown up. I let her sisters take credit for that one. I just couldnt do it.

I just love this picture. It actually makes it look like they love each other! (:

She really loved the purse....and okay, maybe she loves them too, even if they do drive her crazy at times.

Again with the Oreo cake. She came up with her own idea this year to make a chocolate cake with oreo pudding filling and whipped cream topping with oreos on top. Yes, it was delicious!

Candles in the shape of the number 11.

And lets not forget this outfit. Hat and shirt courtesy of Mom and Dad, ear rings from her best friend McKenzie.

Looking too grown up already. Goodbye last bit of childhood innocence. Goodbye.

Random

I noticed its been a while since the last post...a little over a month actually. I guess now that the kids are in school, it doesnt seem like that much exciting blog worthy stuff is going on. So I thought I would compile a few pictures from the last couple months to blog about, just to give you your blog fix. Some are from before school, others are things that have gone on since the kids started school.

I'd like to call these first ones: NAUGHTY!

Ryan leaves to church early in the morning to attend meetings. That leaves me to get all the kids ready. This is what happened while I was busy fixing hair one morning...

Yes, that is fingernail polish. Zack thought he would help get Brylee ready to go by painting her...well toes. He then left the nail polish open, and Brylee got a hold of it to finish the job.

Next:

Brylee climbing up the pantry shelves to get to the snacks.

This one isnt as naughty, just silly.

Zack and Brylee like to take the water bottle I use to fix their hair with, and drink from it. Brylee will occasionally try to squirt in in her mouth, resulting in a very wet face (shown here, but I dont think you can tell in the picture). She thinks its funny, so why not just let her do it? The naughty part comes in when they (Zack) use the water bottle to chase each other around the house and try to squirt each other...and everything else that gets in their way.

Next up: Bubbles

I wanted to get rid of this one container of bubble bath I had, and thinking it was almost gone, poured the rest of it in the bath. Then, attempting not to be wasteful, I rinsed out the bubble container, resulting in...well what else, but a lot of bubbles!? I decided to have some fun with them, since it doesnt happen very often.

Minnie and Mickey Mouse ears.

Santa Zack

a unicorn for Alissa.

This next set happened just a few days ago. We actually found this toad on the grass when Ryan almost mowed him over. It was actually the biggest one we've found here, so he earned the name "Bubba". The kids had him in a box for a couple weeks, and I finally talked them into letting it go. I set it free behind our trees in the back yard, and then I thought..."dang, I shoulda got a picture of him!" I grabbed the camera and tried to go back and find him, but had no luck.

After putting the camera away, and going back out side, I almost stepped on him! Bubba hopped all the way back to the house. I went back in to get the camera, and called Zack over to see him again. Here he is with Bubba the toad.

Brylee liked to watch, but dont try and make her hold him!

Katelin stated, "See mom...he likes us!" She never wants to let the poor creatures we find free. But I was determined that he wouldnt find his way back so easily next time. We decided to take him for a little walk down to the pond "swamp", in the nature preserve.

So, weve lived here 3 years now, and I have never actually gone for a walk through the preserve. They keep a trail mowed down through it, and its actually right in our backyard. It looked pretty this day, because it was full of wild sunflowers along the path. Then I remembered why we dont go for walks down there..mosquito's! It stays pretty moist from the rain, so the little buggers are everywhere! Thankfully, it is late in the year, so there werent as many, but we still got slightly attacked.

Brylee enjoyed it anyway...

Wait for me guys!

Madi, Zack and the neighbor, giving Bubba a good home.

If he finds his way back to our back door again, we may have a new pet toad living at our house!

Lastly, you may think it silly, but I was excited to be able to do this today...

Brylee finally grew her hair long enough to have her first braid! A french one at that! I know, its not great looking, but it will get better! Next time, I think I will try two!

There, fix done.