{pretty, happy, funny, real} - Catching Up (We Had Birthdays!)

First some business.  Thank you for your prayers and well wishes for my grandmother who visited us about a month ago.  She recently passed away and I am headed out on Friday for her funeral.  Which is actually sort of crazy timing because my husband is out of town this week on business and will not be home until Friday night.  Thankfully a few good friends are stepping in to help out with our children until dad can get home.  Prayers are appreciated for safe travel for myself and Joseph back to Wyoming, for my husband's work to go well so he can be home in a safe and timely manner, and for our other children (who will be in a different state from Dan and I.  Crazy!).

{pretty}

When my dearest, sweetest husband got home from his last trip two weeks ago, he came in the door with these beauties.  They brightened up my little reading spot famously.

Do you know what else is sitting in my reading spot?  Loveliness.  Seriously this book is not only awesome in the reading aspect, it is so pretty.  The drawings throughout, the pictures in the back (that you can remove and frame!), everything about it is...pretty.  When I finish reading it I am planning on doing a fuller review, but until then...just order it yourself.  You'll know what I'm trying to say when you do. Oh, and notice the toes at the bottom.  I had a pedicure and they are still looking pretty.  I know.  Toes and this amazing book don't really go together.  Blame the photographer. ;)

 Ladybug had an end of the year tea party with her Little Flowers group.  The girls dressed up in their fancy dresses and hats and whatever else and drank real tea!  I'm so glad she has gotten to be a part of this group.

And Fritter started baseball, which has been a lot of fun.  This one is in the {handsome} category.  My heart melts to see a little boy in a baseball uniform.  So. Stinking. Cute.

{happy}

In other news we celebrated two birthdays recently (and I've become such a bad blogger that I'm just now getting to post about them).  My little Sunflower turned three the end of March.  I had big plans to make her a lovely chocolate cake, but then we all got attacked with a stomach flu and all my plans flew out the window.  (har-har).  So my dear husband came to the rescue and bought an ice cream cake and talked the store into drawing a monkey on our little monkey's cake.

Notice the monkey shirt she's wearing?  This girl loves monkeys.

The big kids are as thrilled with her gift as she is.

My Sunflower girl.  "These flowers are for Dad for when he gets home."

 And today is Froggy's birthday!  We celebrated on Sunday with his godparents and a homemade cake (yum!) since Daddy had to leave Monday for his trip.   Can he really be one already?!  Where has the past year gone?!  Today the kids and I marked the occasion with a bowl of ice cream after dinner.

 My little Froggy is almost always happy.  Even when he is stuck on top of Daddy's weights.

And really?  I can't get enough of chewing on his little cheeks.  Happy boy.

{funny}

I mentioned Froggy's cake was homemade.  Our favorite chocolate cake recipe is the one on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa can, and you cannot celebrate a first birthday without chocolate cake, right?  I had big plans to decorate his cake with a giraffe since that is the stuffed animal that he sleeps with.  I googled a picture and found one I thought was cute.  But after drawing it on with cookie icing (because that's what I had), my husband asked me why I drew a hyena on Froggy's cake.

He's right.  It looks like a hyena.  But it tasted like Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake. Let's pretend the name says Froggy.  I'm too tired to fix it.

 {real}

It's been real around here, that's for sure.  Case in point:

Rocks.  In the dryer.  Guess I should check pockets more often.

Laundry.  So. Much. Laundry.  It seriously does not stop.

 In other realness, we decided on a whim last Saturday to drive to the next big town south of us for a folk festival.  We thought there would be games and crafts and music and children.  No. No. Yes, and one of the stages a cross dresser was doing the "singing".  And another big fat no.  Nope, this place was full of old hippies and no children.  Our four were seriously the only ones there.  I'm still amazed by that fact.  It's a sad world that we live in when there are not enough children (or at least they are maybe not welcome, or their parents are smarter than we are and knew to stay away) to have fun at a folk festival.  How can you have a folk festival without the folks?

Anyway, so because we had driven all this way we had to find something to do.  My husband and the big kids did this:

In the far back boat is Dan and Sunflower.  Ladybug is in the middle boat, and Fritter is in the boat up front.

 ...while I stayed in the shade with Froggy and did this:

Must. Finish.  Book.

Mmmm...Cheerios.

 And I leave you with one last smidgeon of real life here in crazytown.  It's 11pm (actually it's midnight, but it was 11 when I took the picture), I'm still awake, but my floors are clean (and now I've actually blogged).  Hurray for me!

Go visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for other contentment.