Sydney's Baptism Day

 This was an amazing experience for Sydney.   After she was baptized, she was absolutely beaming.  After waiting until it felt like we could talk without ruining the feeling,  I asked her what she was thinking and she said "I'm speechless."

Grandma and Grandpa Barker and Aunt Autumn also came into town for Syd's big day and made her feel very special.

Happy 8th Birthday, Sydney

Sydney celebrated her 8th birthday in style.  She had definite ideas about how she wanted it to go down.

1.  Miles and I ate lunch with her at school on the Friday before her birthday.

It's fun to see her with her friends and I always like spying on the other kids' lunches to see what other family's dole out.

2.  On Sunday, her birthday day, she had breakfast in bed.

2a.  Then she opened her family presents.

3.  On Thursday, she had her friend birthday party.  She wanted a "book theme."

It was really fun to put together (I can't believe I'm saying that).

The invitations were actual library check out cards from the olden days.

She wanted a donut birthday "cake" ("If You Give a Dog a Donut"???)  --- 

.... everyone else wanted the donuts, too. ....

Heavy heavy hangover ...

 The lunch spread: it ended up being thrown together -- but take note:  the sandwiches were supposed to look like books.

The kids played games related to "Books".  One was a spin off of that baby shower game where you have to eat baby food and guess what it is.  Only, this time they each had a spoon and passed a pouch of baby food around while a book on tape was playing.   When I stopped the tape, the person holding the baby food had to eat a bite.  That was fun to watch.  Some kids were grossed out and others faked loving the food.

The hit of hits, though, was a treasure hunt using books.  Sydney made library cards for each friend.  Working in pairs, they had to check out books from the library in between clues to find the location of the next clue.  Kids were busily scurrying all over the house for a long time while I sat in my quiet library waiting for children to check out books.  This was a low-stress birthday party!!!  They were practically entertaining themselves.  My favorite part was making a "ka-ching" sound when I scanned their library cards on the lego scanner.   If there was a backlog for checking out books, they had to wait in line.  Just like in a real life library.  They were eating it up.

Once each team had all their clues, they turned their clue cards over to find a word scramble.  That's right -- two games in one.  Each scramble revealed a title of one of Sydney's favorite books.  First team done got first pick on the prize.  You guessed it:  a book.

They went home with book bags they'd made (conveniently still very wet with paint) and other goodies -- like Bookworms! (Gummy worms -- thanks pinterest).

Anyway,  that was the secular party.  Coming up ... Sydney's Baptism which was the following Saturday.

Clara's Hair Salon

A picture paints a thousand words.

Above n' Beyond Meet

Debate Notes

Talmage was assigned the negative team arguing why people shouldn't be allowed to climb Mt. Everest.  His card is an interesting mixture of 21st century (internet reference) and prehistoric times (Anasazi-like pictographs).

1 o'clock church.

I think Briton took these photos on a random Sunday morning.  Except there's a block of cheese on the counter, so that makes me second-guess the timing.

Cleaning out the closets

I had this box of plaster of paris for a now-forgotten project that never happened, taking up real estate in the hall closet.  It was finally time to evict.  The kids stuck tidbits of this and that into the wet plaster.  So I got rid of not only the box of plaster but also a bunch of craft junk.

Snow.

Happy New Year

Last Sunday, it started snowing during church.  You should have heard the ecstatic cries in the hallways when church ended.  We snapped this picture as soon as we got home.  I really like the hues of the greens and blues and greys in this picture.  As you can see, Briton grew taller than a house this past year, too.


Today it's snowing again and church was cancelled.  Clara asked, with a puzzled air, "Is it General Conference?"

New Views

alphabetical order

Frozen pond

Icescrapers

Oregon Gardens

The Oregon Gardens has a beautiful Christmas light display.  We checked it out the day after Christmas with some friends who live a couple doors down.  Here's the evidence, however, that these posts can be misleading.  Scroll through the pictures and when you get to the bottom, answer me this:  Are these kids having a good time?  Does this look like it was time well-spent as far as "fun" goes?

If you answered: "yes", you probably did so with  a degree of hesitation because of the way I asked the question.  And that would be quite savvy of you.   Out of context, you might be tempted to think that these kids live a life of pure pleasure.  To see how the evening started ... I dare you to click on the link.  Go on.  I dare you.

"What did you get for Christmas?"

Flashlights!

 Clara has the stance down perfectly.

 Briton and Clara had a grand time putting together Legos.

Briton brought G&GB's Jeep back from Utah.  It took awhile before the kids realized it was their Jeep, not just a  similar one.
 (NB:    most of the other Christmas presents this year  came from the grandparent's nicely-timed downsizing efforts.  We've been playing A LOT of Mystery Mansion, Dungeon Dice, Life, Bonkers, and etc..).

We had a few special guests on Christmas morning.  e.g. Frosty came ...

... and so did Rudolph.

Clara gave Sydney Olaf-worthy sunglasses. 

And she gave Clara a Santa hat.

Hey ... re-arranged you can get "ChrisTMaS" with their initials.
Santa delivered these sweet indoor sleeping bags.


Miles likes the maze book.

Clara wouldn't get out of hers from then on.  She sat in it sniffing Mr. Sketch markers the rest of the morning.

"Twas the night of dear Christmas, and all through the house ..."

Anyway  whew.  Did looking at that make you tired, too?  

It was a fun day to focus on the kids and enjoy being together as a family.
See you in 2016, Christmas.