A Royal Birthday

Tomorrow is Juliana's fourth birthday.  My sweet girl sped through another year and I'm left marveling at the loving child she is.

We celebrated today though, with a princess party with some friends.  We had party prep last night and Nana slept over to have a special visit and help wrangle the kids while we got some things finished.  I had been able to finish the marshmallow wands but needed the majority of the night to work on her cake.  My first foray into fondant was... exciting.  I was caught unprepared a few times and had to make a few quick design changes, but ultimately I was pleased.  Homemade marshmallow fondant covered a funfetti cake frosted with buttercream.

It's amazing how many imperfections you can hide with flowers. 

This morning I headed out to the restaurant before everyone else to start setting up. Our first "girls only" party, I was able to pull out all the frilly stops and pinked-out our restaurant.

The wildflowers came from our backyard!

I got the craft/baby table set up and moved on to setting out the food.

We had chocolate nutella scones, crackers with meats and cheese, chicken salad sandwiches, fruit skewers, mint lemonade, strawberry wafer cookies, and the birthday girls' junk food of choice -- cheese puffs.  Arguably the most popular food at the party. 

We brought all of the girls princess dresses and hung them up to share so every guest was able to wear a beautiful dress (or two or three).  The last thing to set up was our princess play table.  We brought every castle, tower, and house we had along with a bin full of princesses and furniture for free play.  This was a last minute idea but probably the best one I had.  There was rarely a time when the table wasn't occupied.

Our guests arrived as we hung the last decoration.  We said goodbye to the guys (who went bowling instead), and set to getting everyone in their proper princess attire.  Once dresses were donned we moved to the craft table to decorate princess hats! My sister supplied the idea and my Silhouette cameo made short work of cutting out the paper hats.  

Crayons and glittery foam stickers were flying as they worked, making their own beautiful accessory.  Next up was face painting!  Hearts, rainbows, butterflies, ladybugs, and robins' eggs decorated a dozen sweet cheeks.

All that creativity worked up an appetite so we headed to the table for lunch as Beauty and the Beast played in the background.  

After some serious munching and a bit of running around outside we started some games.  First up was The Missing Slipper.  The girls were told that Cinderella had visited but had lost one of her slippers!  I showed them the one we had and set them off on a hunt to find the other.  Team work prevailed and they were all eager to play again.  After a few hunts we sat down to play Pass the Poison Apple;  a new twist on one of our favorites, hot potato.  We passed a ruby red apple around in a circle and when the music stopped whoever was holding the apple fell asleep!   

(Many thanks to my awesome sister, Meg, for brainstorming with me!)

As everyone started winding down we pulled out the cake.  The girls came to the bar as we sang Happy Birthday and Juliana blew out the candles. 

 Pieces were passed around along with cups of ice cream, just to push the sugar rush over edge.  ;)

As our guests readied to leave we handed out treats of a pink star wand, marshmallow pop, and strawberry cookies to each pretty princess.  We so enjoyed sharing this special day with wonderful friends.  

A Greening Thumb

We started growing tomatoes about 5 years ago.  Just four plants, all the same variety, as we introduced ourselves to the idea of gardening.  The next year we were excited to get started and added a few pepper plants to our small plot.  Each year we added another type of vegetable and increased the area we worked in.  This year is the first where we feel we have an actual garden;

Fenced more for protection from young children than rabbits.

what started as one small raised bed has transformed into a plot with two 11x4 beds, one 13x1 border, four pots, one half wine barrel, and a wildflower patch that's around 20x5.  Oh, and a mini greenhouse and compost bin.

This year we're growing lots of squash and zucchini.  We had some last year and it was really delicious.  I've yet to get the kids to eat zucchini in anything other than sweet bread, but we're working on it.  

We had dwarf sugar snap peas growing in the other half of this bed but they were wiped out by wilt or root rot.  We were fortunate that the variety we planted was an early producer and we had a few weeks filled with sweet, tasty pods.  A favorite of everyone in the family we were sorry to see these die so early in the season.  The kids and I went out yesterday and pulled all the dead vines.  Once they were gone and all weeds had been removed everyone hopped in for some play.  Dirt castles galore!  They've asked to plant pumpkins in the now vacant space, so we're off to see if we can find some sugar pumpkin plants!

While they played I walked the garden pulling weeds and checking for disease.  Our two potted bush cucumber plants have started showing signs of powdery mildew so I'm trying a milk solution to keep it at bay.

We had trained our pea plants to grow up tomato cages (instead of in rows) so once the peas were removed I transferred the cages to our pepper and tomato plants.  Peppers don't normally need cages, but a little support never hurts.  

Our carrots and scallions are growing nicely.  We pulled a couple of carrots to check their size and, though they still have a ways to grow, the kids declared them delicious.  The other end of this bed has what remains of our bibb lettuce.  

We tried growing some loose leaf lettuce, a Paris Market Mix, but were severely disappointed.  It grew well but tasted spicy and bitter.  I'm anxious to try some new varieties this fall.  

Our herbs are doing well; basil, mint, dill, and thyme make their home in our half wine barrel.  It's pretty, but I feel the barrel would be more useful for potatoes. 

Along the edge of the fence we've planted a row of dwarf sunflowers.  A few have already bloomed, most are still growing.  The size difference in the leaves however makes me wonder at the mature size of them.  

At the back of our yard we've planted a wildflower patch.  A hummingbird and butterfly mix, it's set to bloom toward mid-late summer with flowers reaching between 18 and 24 inches.  

The variety of flowers that we'll get is completely unknown; there was no listing on the bag and an internet search has provided no hints.  We're watching anxiously though and finishing up a rock border to try and keep our very invasive bermuda grass from taking over.  

At the back of the patch, all along and through the fence, are blackberry vines. Planted in our neighbors yard they have migrated through to ours, pushing their thorny vines between fence slats and sending new shoots up from below. We've tied them back a well as we can and are watching pretty white flowers appear along 30 feet of fence line.   Too large an area to net, we're hoping some flashing tape will deter birds from our harvest. 

This year has been so much fun for all of us.  From the planing, to staring seeds, transplanting, even weeding, it's been a wonderful way to be outdoors together and has provided most of our natural science lessons.  This just gets better and better. 

Now We Are Six

We had a great party yesterday to celebrate the twins turning 6. 

 Our pirate theme party was a hit, most literally when it was time to do the pinata.   It held up surprisingly well, allowing 7 children to cycle through 3 times before the twins took off their blindfolds and went to town.

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We're  looking forward to what this next year has in store.  Love my Wonder Twins!

Baby O' Mine

How is she 15 months already?  

I mean, I know that time moves fast; nothing shows the passage of time more clearly than the growth of children.  But still... look at all those teeth!  That shaggy hair!  She is changing so fast and a recent post by my sister reminded me that I won't remember most of the little things if I don't get them down somewhere.  

1. She's already trying to run.  She's been walking fairly well for a couple of weeks now and her pace is quickening exponentially.  

2. She make the cutest scrunchy face when she doesn't get her way.  Her nose crinkles up and lips pout out to show her teeny teeth.  Of which there are many.  

3. She loves her siblings, frequently coming over to join in play or to cuddle.  They compete to see who can make her have the biggest belly laughs.  

4. She has become very emphatic in her communication... and loud.  This child has quite the vocal range.

5. In addition to "Mama" and "Dada" she says "Cuh-cah" (cracker) when she's hungry, and "HI!" She also sighs "Ahh" and waves her hands up and down when she's all done. 

6. She loves to play chase; sometimes after her siblings, sometimes away from me as soon as her clothes are off to change.  

We all pretty much want to squish her all the time.