Twenty Years and TOCTWD

This is Mommy's 20th year with HP. I just received my little pin in the mail the other day. I was truly amazed at this. It seems both an eternity and a blink. How can that be? 

And it was TOCTWD! In HP-acronym-speak, that means it was Take Our Children To Work Day!

Great turn out, and a great experience!

Last year, Aleaha just remembered walking around and getting a lot of candy. This year, she got to meet Bill and Dave! (OK, their cardboard cut-outs -- but my kid knows which one is which, and I'm proud of that!)

There were LOTS of things to do that were science-y. We loved that!

Aleaha asked if I had ever met Dion. No, but she can say she has (sorta).

Sillies.

Miri LOVED using the voltmeter to test the battery. "Just like Daddy does all the time!!" She verified it met the 9V criteria.

And using calipers was also a big hit!

Lunch was great - the kids got to pick out items to build their own boxed lunch. They ate like I haven't seen them eat lunch in a long time!

Decorating cookies was fun too, of course. 

We ended the visit with a stop at the pond to see the ducks.

Seeing the baby ducks was a special highlight. 

And it was a nice reminder of what this is all about....the big ones teaching and raising up the little ones right!

Glamping Girls

The girls have spent several nights lately in the tent. 

They tend to over-prepare a bit.  (Wonder where that trait originated?) Lots of blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals were involved. Lantern (battery-operated) plus two back-up flashlights were at the ready. 

I asked Aleaha if she had a pair of socks to put on her feet to be sure she would be warm. "Yes, Mommy. I have four pair right here in my duffle bag!" 

And Miri had packed for several days and nights. Yeah, good thing. They were sleeping 30 feet from the front door. 

Daddy made a good-night visit and pulled his usual stunt -- riling them up to the point of extreme giggles!

Shoo Fly

The boys are in the upper pasture, and the flies have gotten nasty. So it was time to suit up.

Jake is not particularly fond of wearing his fly mask. I check each night, and he often has found a way to take it off. 

Waiting on Mommy & Daddy

A casual weekend lunch at our favorite al fresco bistro, known as Our Back Deck. Miri is the waitress, and Aleaha is the chef.

She does a lovely job taking our orders.

But she got a little stressed when she wasn't sure how to spell "olives".

A lovely lunch - chicken salad sandwich, figs, and green olives. Just want Mommy requested!

Great American Pastime for Father's Day

We had a family outing to a baseball game to help celebrate Father's Day. And we happened to run into Miri's buddy Kaden and his dad. So we all sat together. Miri and Kaden hung out together, and there might not have been much game-watching going on. 

Can you tell they are related? Reminds me of this, this, and this.

Gotchya!

These two ran around quite a bit, but they sure had a good time. We all did!

Miss Miri

Her PT has concluded. At her last appointment, she worked really hard and showed how much progress she had made.

Playing wheelbarrow and going over the obstacles was a great challenge.

She really liked playing the variety of swings. Her abs were really tired, though. 

Two teeth came out within one week! Tooth fairy is broke.

She is quite the kid!

Birthday Girl!

Mommy went to take a picture of the birthday girl early in the morning, and she was missing from her bed. Turns out she woke up at 5:30 and went for a little quiet personal time on the couch.

She enjoyed a great collection of gifts, many related to her love of arts & crafts.

She's a beading machine lately!

And a rock hound.

Mommy took the day off of work so we could take a trail ride and do some other fun things together. So up to the horses we trekked. Jake and Shorty were easy to spot, but it seemed Quigly and Arby had disappeared from the pasture. Oh no, did we lose horses? Was the fence down somewhere?? No, they were just laying down and were hard to see. Funny boys.

We led them down to the trailer, 

and got them ready for the ride. (Funny to see her ponytail as she brushes Shorty.)

Saddled up and ready!

(GrammaBon, notice the new cowgirl blingy shirt? Thank you!)

(Aunt Peg, notice the saddle?? We've been waiting since this time!)

Awesome ride!

We had a mighty good time. 

Great view at the top.

Cuties.

We took a new path on the way back.

Back at home, she got right into her jewelry-making projects.

Later we had her choice for dinner: Chicken drumsticks, large couscous, and broccoli. Then we finished with a beautiful lemon cake.

I am so over the pressure to bake these myself every year. I mean, if that's how we choose to spend 4 hours, that's fine. But if we decide we don't have time to make it, we relish the chance to buy a special cake. And isn't the point to have something special?

She was pretty happy.

A great day!

Silhouette of Handsome

Quigly in the shade. Such a lovie!

Aleaha's Birthday Party: Oodles of Noodles!

After much planning and a lot of complaining about all the cleaning up and organizing Mommy required, it was finally time for the party! It was a small group (6 kids all together), which was just right, as the theme was a "Cooking Party!"

We made homemade pasta, fruit skewers, and decorated cupcakes. What a whirlwind time!

The girls all listened intently as we reviewed the recipe.

None of the guests had ever made homemade pasta. But they got right into it!

Aleaha has a friend in her class who happens to have a little sister who is Miri's age. So Phoebe was a great companion for Miri throughout the party. The little girls used a special dough to make cavatelli, and they were amazing at this!

They immediately worked out a system and needed very little help. One would feed in the dough whlle the other cranked the handle. 

Wren was a master at getting her dough such a good texture.

She could roll hers super thin and long. She made awesome spaghetti!

So much fun!

Athena and Holly worked together and made a huge batch of fettucine. YUM!

Zelda and Aleaha were hard-working girls, literally cranking out beautiful pasta!

They found it was sometimes faster to work together on the same machine.

Everyone got in the act for the final batch. 

We made 6 pounds of pasta!

While the pasta dried, we turned out attention to making fruit skewers. Very fun!

And then it was time to enjoy the pasta! Some liked red sauce and meatballs and cheese, while others preferred good ol' plain, kid-style noodles with just butter.

They all declared it was definitely two-thumbs up!

YUM

And for the finale, it was time to decorate the cupcakes. Each girl had a small container and 7 cupcakes to decorate (6 to take home, and one to devour on the spot).

Such a great time!

Who can resist the chance to make cupcakes!?

Fun!

Artistic AND tasty!

It was a fun party. We carb-loaded, and it was all wonderful.