All in the eye of the beholder

Emma wanted a castle cake for her birthday party with her friends. I tried, but when it was done, it looked more like a skirt for a princess -- with turrets!

Too many ideas in my head without a really good sense of direction and a limited amount of time. It makes me laugh! The children enjoyed it, whatever it was.


Here's the butterfly cake she had for our family party for her. (She's sporting some of her presents: clip-on earrings and fancy, very fun to spread all over, lip gloss.)

Scout excitement

Matthew graduated from the Webelos den in May. Here he is walking across the bridge to Boys Scouts. You can see his "Arrow of Light" award on the table. He was very proud to receive it with his good friend Riley.


Here is the cub master and his new 11 yr old scout assistant leader. See the paint on Matt's face? He was pretty colorful as they "marked" him with paint representing all of his virtues, present and hoped for.


Josh and his good buddy Joseph (they were born only hours apart!) enjoy presenting the colors.


Joshua was very proud of his pinewood derby car, Sunflash. (His dad liked it, too!)


He won 2nd place for speed in a race where the top five cars had a racing time spread of only 0.1 second! I think he lost only two races, and those by only fractions of a second.

Progress?

Progressed to more than 100 hives each morning, held at bay with Zyrtec while we wait for results from blood work to see how easy the return to "normal" will be.

Thankfully Zyrtec takes the edge off. Hurray for little miracles -- and patient, loving children!

Some memories are stressful

I've been coming up with hives again -- 20 or so each morning, and the rest of my skin kinda tingly/itchy all over. It isn't bad at all, but there is a remembrance awareness that makes it worse than it is. Do I need more rest? Is it allergies? Why is my body having an auto-immune response?

One last pic from March -- two great friends!

Emma and Dan on our tire swing in the backyard.

Presently, Dan looks pretty similar, with a bit more summer tan. Emma has cut her hair since this photo to barely shoulder-length and is also sporting a bit more tan and a few more freckles. Her bangs have almost grown out to match the rest of her hair -- Hurray!

Wow, I sure love these guys! How grand it is to have my wondrous, five great children!!!

March 19th pics

On the last day of Spring break we went to a park downtown. However, we hadn't counted on the weather being soooooo very hot (98 plus degrees outside! In March!! Welcome to Texas!). Here we are with snow cones and lunch in the shade.


Finding an indoor children's museum was a BIG bonus! The children loved checking out specimens. Notice Daniel's snow cone "lipstick."

Long overdue pics from Spring Break in March

Rodeo on Wednesday, March 17th


Free ice cream cones! Daniel's biscuit sample is temporarily forgotten. (Red helps the children stand out in a crowd.)


Petting Zoo


Did the deer like the salt on Daniel's sweaty face? Dan laughed and laughed!


Here's a handsome boy!


Josh looking for holds on the climbing wall.


Isaac giving me a smile in the glare of the sun.


The caterpillar was a huge hit!! Thankfully so, because I told the children they could only go on one ride. By the time we looked at all of the rides that were available, we were maxed out. Carnivals too often are too loud, too visually busy, and feel like an invasion of peace. We had our great ride, plus one other for Daniel, and went home happy.


Notice Dan's delight and Emma's resigned/preoccupied look. He couldn't ride on the caterpillar, so this jaunt was just for him.


Getting tired . . .


One last show -- Whiplash, the Cowboy Monkey! See him in the black hat? He rides a dog and rounds up sheep. Hmm... did it help that the dog is a sheep dog? Whatever the case, we enjoyed the show a lot! (Our vantage point was poor for picture taking.)