Thomas Clock

Zurich was helping me un-pack stuff earlier this week and saw this clock. (Which was never hung in my house but kept for the works for projects such as follows).

He said, "I want a Thomas clock, Mom."
"Ok son."
He wanted Thomas, not James, I checked a few times.
So I painted the red part blue. It would have been smoother and easier with spray paint, but I don't have any so I used the acrylic paint I had. Two coats.

This face all ready existed on the internet, just waiting for me.
Found here, super cute costume idea.

So I printed it out to the right size and poked a hole for the clock works. Lined up the face and stuck it on.

Re-assemblage of the clock. Make sure when you do so that you line up the hands straight up at 12. So as to have the clock tell appropriate time when setting it. (You guessed it, I skipped this step and hand to take it apart to fix it.)
Simple enough. I thought about adding a little more detail stuff, but he was just happy as can be at it the way it was, so I figured I would leave well enough alone.


Three of his favorite things, clocks, Thomas and Cars. Life is pretty good.

When you are two...

Nothing is quite as disgusting to you as it should be. In May while we were prepping the pool, cleaning it out and repairing things, Nev found this a great place to play. She is such a water baby. She often changes into her swim suit in hopes that we will go out.


Now that we have the pool running, she loves it and has to be very carefully watched.

Seven Years

Olea is Seven
It happened just like that.
Newborn

1 year

2 years

3 years

4 years

5 years

6 years

7 years


For Olea's Seventh birthday, I removed the gum that had been in her hair for about two days (I was only informed of that being the reason she hadn't brushed her hair for a few days, the night before). She lost a tooth earlier in the day, her front tooth. So with her hair un-brushed, wet, and oily (for gum removal), and a missing tooth we celebrated. This real life folks. At least my real life and hers.

We had, at her request, cheese cake that had been decorated by her dad. After pulling out the candles Nev wanted to lick one off like the other kids were doing, later Gary found her candle half eaten on top of the ice cream bucket.


She opened her presents and seemed in good spirits.


Nev on the other hand could not understand why the princess dolls and lip gloss were not for her, this was devastating to her.


It was a rough day. I felt bad, I'd had a bad day too, but it ended with presents and cheese cake... that's good isn't it? While she was talking to Gary and I right before bed we started laughing at all of it. She burst into tears. After feeding the baby I went in to say good night to her and I was informed that this was her worst birthday ever. I wanted to say, welcome to growing up... but I told her to just think about the good things of the day, and not all the stuff that was sad. I helped her discover some good things and laid with her for a while.

Sit ups

He can't roll over any father than his side, but he can do crunches. :)

we're going on an aligator hunt

What?! you didn't see any? We sure did!

It's a Party!

I've been threatening it for years.
This year I figured it was time to get serious.

Earlier in the day I was trying to get the kids to clean up one of their messes and said, "I try to do something fun for you guys, but I need your help to get things cleaned up so we have space to do it." Olea commented, "It's not fun, it's CRAZY."
"It is crazy, but it will be fun too."

We needed to celebrate.
So I delegated the picking up of the party favors to Gary on his way home Friday night. I had dried a bunch of bananas the day before.

I made a cake and arranged and frosted it to look like a bunch of bananas. I am no cake artist, but I was pretty proud of this project.


After dinner we got started making party hats. We had unpacked a bunch of studio boxes and I found a German craft book that showed how to make party hats. Not like it is super complex but it was laid out in pictures and there is something super cool about seeing something in a book and then being able to make it. And due to time and resource constraints: making it your own.

During this time the missionaries came by and Gary answered the door, they asked what we were doing.
Gary said, "We're having a birthday party." "For who?" they asked.
Why Surgery Monkey of course!

The kids and I made hats while Gary and the missionaries looked through his mission pictures and stuff. Olea made hats for the missionaries. They had to be back in their apartment by a certain time so they missed cake and ice cream with us, but humored me with this picture.

(This will probably be one of the crazy things they write to their families about.)

Of course I can't yet find the spool of elastic appropriate for hat string. Zurich did complain that he needed a string but handled it well when I explained I couldn't find it. So we had some hat mayhem as they kept falling off.

We sang happy birthday and had cake and root beer floats.

I love that Gary put the candle on backwards for the pictures, but right ways for the stuffed Monkey. Gary had set the party favors out on the table and the kids kept asking who they were for. Our response (repeatedly), "It's Surgery Monkey's birthday."
Zurich was so cute saying, "Happy Birthday Surgery Monkey," while he enjoyed his cake and ice cream.

After Finishing up with the sweets, I explained that while it was Surgery Monkey's Birthday, he couldn't play with his hula hoops because he is just a stuffed monkey so they each would get one. This was very favorable to them.

The Hula hoops were inspiration from Olea who had asked for one after playing at friend's with one. She was pretty good right from the start.

Nev needed some help.

Without notice

Last night we bought Zurich new shoes. None of his hand me downs fit him any more. Tonight as he rolled his body witheringly against the side of his bed whining, "I just don't know how to sleep." I saw him and realized he's so big all of a sudden. I had figured a few weeks back that he was having a growth spurt because he was eating so much and hungry all the time. But still tonight, I was shocked by it's visual manifestation. My mom asked today if I felt like he was growing up with out my noticing it. She said she sorta felt that way about her first boy. I told her that she had shared that thought with me shortly before I had Nev as a precautionary tale.

It's a sad thought to me.

I have tried to keep up with the kids journals and be aware and appreciative of the experiences they have and bring to me. But life is so much clutter sometimes. I guess I feel like all my kids have grown up without me noticing. Just because I turn around and notice something like tonight, that he is taller, older, just like that.

My Olea turns 7 here in a short while. I'm getting old (relatively speaking) I know I am still a spring chick, but thirty used to be "adult" to me, old. And this year I turn 29. I am so grateful for the experiences I have had these years since getting married (because that's when I started to grow older) but it is still shocking to realize that so much time has passed so quickly.

And as I look at my "little" boy who is in so many ways a "big" boy, curled up asleep with his blanket snuggled underneath him on his floor because he "Just [didn't] know how to sleep," well, I get a little emotional.

My Baby Float