Busy Week...and It's Only Wednesday

Birthday Girl
We celebrated Rachel's 6th birthday today. She was so thrilled to finally be six. In addition to this milestone, she also experienced another milestone earlier this week...she lost her first tooth. Ever since she saw other children report losing a tooth, she has been so anxious to lose a tooth also. Her tooth started to loosen this past weekend and it finally popped out while she was eating an apple earlier this week. The Tooth Fairy made her rounds to Rachel that night and she left some money and a new toothbrush for Rachel. Since this was her first tooth loss, I wanted our dentist to check it out to make sure all is well since her new tooth was coming in behind the tooth that just fell out. He assured us all was well and confirmed by x-ray that she had a few more teeth that would be coming out soon as well since new ones were already working their way in. She even has a 6-year molar cutting through in the back already. While at the dentist, she got a call from her special friend...Ellis. He was calling from the U.K. and it was around 9 pm so I asked the dental hygenist if I could briefly interrupt Rachel's teeth cleaning so she could take the call. Rachel was so thrilled that she got a call from Ellis.

Since we have a trip planned to go to Disney World soon, we didn't want to plan a big party event at home. However, I have learned a valuable lesson. I will never celebrate a birthday during a weekday again...it's just too hard. If someone's birthday falls on a weekday, we'll just celebrate the weekend prior. We didn't plan to throw a big bash but did plan to take her to dinner to a place of her choosing and then to have cake and ice cream at home. But, the problem was that I also needed to make cupcakes for her class today. And, make a cake for tonight. Needless to say, I was behind the power curve. Her cake wasn't my best creation....it was done so quickly I was happy it turned out as well as it did. It tasted great...just not my best decorating. Of course, she was absolutely happy with the cake (chocolate cake and chocolate icing...of course). She wanted princesses on it and thank goodness I happened to pick up some Disney Princess miniature dolls at a Dollar Store last year and had those handy to add to the top of the cake.

And, we didn't send out invitations nor plan anything elaborate as I mentioned before. Instead, we told some of our neighbor's children tonight that they were welcome to come over for cake and ice cream. Now, there is an easy way to get party guests. :-) Our niece, Mary Grace, was also able to join us. We had a good crowd without the formality of an official party which made it so much less stressful. They had no need to bring presents and we had no need to prepare in advance per se to entertain.

After cake and ice cream, the children (including Jeff) went outside to play wally ball. And, later they returned inside to play some video games before heading home around 8:15 since it is a school night.

Rachel had a great day at school and at home. It's hard for me to believe she is six already. Her favorite color is still pink. She still loves spaghetti. And, if you ask, she'd tell you she'd prefer to live in our RV rather than the house. She has her parents' nomadic personality.

I forgot to mention that she still has her blue blanket that she snuggles with. She is like Linus when she is at home....her blue blanket that she has had since she was an infant is her comfort item. She has now named it "the blue."

Getting Ready for the Fall

I wanted something to decorate the house for Halloween and for the Fall. Unfortunately, so much of the Halloween stuff is gory so I was having trouble finding something that would add some Halloween/Fall decor to the house without the scary aspect. I decided to buy a small fake tree and decorate it with orange lights, some pumpkin ornaments, and some fall leaf garland. We also bought some scarecrows and fake pumpkins to sit under the tree. It actually turned out to look quite nice. And, Rachel, Anna & Mary Grace made a haunted gingerbread house for the fireplace mantel. I also found a couple of other lighted items for the living room. It was a big hit with the children visiting tonight. They loved it.
And, once we pass Thanksgiving, the small tree can become a Christmas decoration....with a change of decor of course. :-)

Weird Cat

As with anything else, we seem to attract the strange and unusual....our pets certainly fall into this category. Simba likes to eat with his paws in his food dish. I don't know why her does it. But, it drives me bonkers because it scatters the food on the floor. And, he plays fetch and he also likes to play hide-and-seek. I guess the thinks he's a dog?

And, no, a smaller dish won't make any difference. He just makes a bigger mess if he has a smaller dish to put his paws into.

Parent and Child (PAC) Time

Anna's school had a PAC function today at school. We walked to a local small barn where the children learned a lot about cows. I actually learned a few things myself. Did you know that female cows don't get udders until they give birth to their first calf? And, did you know that a female cow is called a heifer until she gives birth to her first calf? After that, she is then referred to as a cow. I didn't grow up on a farm so it was educational for me too. Hey, I learn something new every day!

After the farm visit, we went back to her classroom where we made butter. Again, I learned something new. All it takes to make butter is heavy whipping cream and a small Tupperware container. I'd estimate each child had about 1/4 cup of cream in their container. You place the lid on the container and shake container with the heavy whipping cream vigorously for about 10 minutes. After that, it begins to form butter. For a while it just looked like foam, then all of a sudden it started to form butter. The teacher gave each child and each parent a piece of bread to enjoy with the butter. It was delicious! Some people added a bit of salt but I preferred it unsalted. I'll have to do this some time at home with Rachel. I think she'd enjoy it. It's definitely an interesting activity to do with young children.