Happy Birthday A, Peace!

It is official.  A is 8, isn't that great?  We celebrated her birthday yesterday with a big peace sign party!

David made an amazing peace sign cake that actually lights up!

You push the peace sign button and the cake sparkles!

 And of course, there were crafts.  The kids were able to paint tulips, dragonflies and hearts.

Washable paint of course.

 I love this photo!

I especially love that you can really see D, C and A (blowing out her candles).

 Grandma and E.

My happy girl.

A received a homemade peace outfit from some of her friends among many other presents.  Thank you so much to everyone who helped celebrate my A.  My kids are now 0, 2, 4, 6 & 8 - easy to remember.  That is until May!

Lilla Rose Winner and Reminder

Congratulations to Darlene, the winner of the Lilla Rose Flexi giveaway!  You have been contacted and have 48 hours to respond.  And for everyone else, don't forget to check out my Lilla Rose blog party here.  Again, I cannot stress enough how much I love my clip and use it!  Now, off to finish decorating for the big bash today (A's 8th birthday party).

Updating Our Silhouettes

D and E are on the wall!  I made our first family silhouettes January 2009 (yes, 3 years ago!).  Back then it was just the five of us.  I had originally intended to update them every January.  Well, that didn't happen and here we are 3 years later and we have added two more kiddos!  I only updated the kids.  I haven't had a chance to do David and I but honestly we are both very similar - it is the kids who dramatically change!

 

Before

 And After!  What do you think?

 The photos I took of A, B, C & D

First, I print the photos on normal computer paper.  David helps me scale the kids so they are the proportional size to each other that they need to be.  Then I rubber cement it to black card stock.  I carefully cut out the photo how I want it, peel off the photo, flip it around and rubber cement it to white card stock.  Place it in the frame and done!  Super easy.

 After I peeled off the photo, flipped it and framed it - end result.

E's silhouette

Every time I look at these it reminds me how much my kids favor each other :)

Tummy Time

I am so in love with my children.  They make me laugh, they make me cry, and all in all they make me a better person.  This is E's tummy time from the other day - I cannot believe how fast she is growing :)

 Getting her head up

 Side view

 Looking at her apple.

 Stretching to see the elephant.

And all the kids had fun making a train in our living room.  A and B are pulling their whistles...choochoo!

Corn Chowder

 Our dinner tonight

The weather is a bit colder (33 today vs. 74 yesterday) so I thought it would be fun to have something warm for dinner!  While this was not David's favorite meal thus far it was pretty tasty for a chowder.  Thank you Sylvia :)

Here is the requested recipe: 

Ingredients:  2 cups peeled/diced potatoes, 2 packs (10 oz each) frozen whole kernel corn (broken apart), 1/2 cup chopped onion, 1 can (16 oz) cream style corn, 1 Tbs sugar, 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1 cup water, 6 diced slices of bacon (omit if vegetarian :)

Basically put everything in your crock pot and cook on low for 4-7 hours, pretty simple.

Creations with clay

The kids had so much fun playing with clay yesterday and today.

 Their giraffe

 Creating...

 I really like the reindeer and robot.  

Daddy helped some :)

Our dinner tonight

 Corned Beef and Noodles

I am a lot less familiar with corned beef than with most other meats but this one looked easy and different.  I guess I am liking variety.  And now that I am discovering some sides (and believe it or not desserts) that I want to make in my crock pot I am wondering if Sylvia needs a friend.  Thoughts?  Do you own more than one slow cooker?