Gater's Third Birthday and a Trip to the Museum

I think the next several posts are not going to totally be in chronological order. I don't know why, I think I just got bored with that. Anyway, perhaps you would like to see what we did for Gater's 3rd birthday.

Daddy took the day off work in honor of her birthday, since Joman had cross-country training that night and there wouldn't be enough time to celebrate otherwise.

Miss Rose dressed Gater in an appropriate princessy-dress (the same one Miss Rose wore for her fourth birthday -- a Princess Party!) and off we went on a special outing.

We made a re-run to the Cincinnati Museum at the Union Terminal. I took the kids there in May for a free school function, but we weren't there five minutes when Roks threw up, so we hastily left. He was mortally disappointed, as the museum is expensive and we hardly ever go. This time, we bought a membership. Clever of us, hey!

We thought the little girls especially would have fun in the Children's Museum part. It really is a super-fun place, all hands-on and interactive.

It was a crazy noisy place when we were there, overloaded with preteens who were loaded up on pop-tarts and off their medication for the summer (true story, I heard it in the bathroom,) but the little kids managed to have a really fun time, anyway. There was a shop to buy groceries from, a cafe, a house, cars to drive and fill with gas, a post office, mailboxes at every station, a nursery, a veterinary office, a water discovery center, buildings and construction "vehicles" and so much more.

One of my favorite parts is where they have all different kinds of homes, from all over the world, to go in and have a look at. That was really interesting.

As an aside, I kind of want a yurt.

Roks and Bert got to visit the state where they were born! Western Australia. This was a display of some Aboriginal folks who live up north of the state, and below, is a letter the little boy wrote about Perth, the capital city where my little boys were born.

Pretty cool!

I guess all the continents were represented, and there were drums and thumb pianos and all sorts of things to play with.

Gater and Bert spent the most time at the veterinary clinic. They looked at x-rays and examined their animals.

Roks got to play at his dream job in the cafe. He constantly talks about having a restaurant. He informed us that when we die, he is turning our house into a restaurant. There was more to that conversation, which was very funny, but I can't remember it now.

He can be a bizarre child.

When we got home in the afternoon, we had cake-and-present time. Gater had requested a "Dora Princess" cake, and that is what she got. It occurred to me that I post a lot of pictures of these type of decorated cakes, which are so simple and cheap to do that a broke monkey could do it, and perhaps I should do a tutorial. I will try to do that tomorrow.

Miss Rose had made a whole box of Easy-Bake Oven mixes for Gater. It was a great effort, and Gater was so excited to receive them. We haven't baked any yet, but we will.

And Gater's present from Mamma and Daddy was her very own big-girl Princess Bed, with all the beautiful Princess bedding. She has been sleeping in a crib this whole time, and she was finally ready to move up.

I think she had a great birthday.
Happy Birthday, Gater!

Joe's 13th Birthday

Joman's 13th birthday followed right after Wannie's first. It still happened to be winter, and a long winter at that, and we opted to postpone a real party until nicer weather arrived. Unfortunately, the weather just hasn't ever gotten nice enough -- that, or, well, the party just hasn't been organized due to Mamma's er, disorganization. One of those two things.


But anyway, we did have a little family party for Joman.
One advantage of having a rather large family is that every day is a party.
Right? Right.
If we want it to be.


The little girls were all ready for another round of cake and ice cream.


And Bert was, too.
Joman had gone out with his grandparents earlier, for a meal of his choosing, and then we had....something, I can't remember what, that he liked, at home for dinner.




Miss Rose was still flashing the grill. She has since gotten her braces off, and has the most gorgeous set of pearly whites, but I'll show you those later.
I mean, we are still back in March, here.


Since it was Joman's birthday, let me tell you about him. Well, first off, he has grown about a foot over the past year. And he has still, in all his thirteen years, only lost his temper the one time. He was eight when it happened.
I'm serious.

He is truly the most laid-back, easygoing, happy person you are ever likely to meet.
I don't know where he gets it. I guess he is a lot like his dad, only with more hair.

He got contacts for his birthday, and wow, do those bright blue eyes shine.

Happy Birthday, Joman.

The cake, by the way, was his request. He was watching the Duggars on tv one time, and they made this cake with ice cream sandwiches and cool whip and butterfinger bars and chocolate and caramel topping. It was so easy and a huge hit.

Here is the recipe.

Wannie's Birthday

In March, our baby Wannie turned ONE!

We still haven't had a proper Turning One Birthday Party for her yet.
I guess at this point, we probably won't.

But we did have a cake and a little party for just her and us, on her birthday.

For some reason, our kids all seem to choke on their birthday food. I have a whole series of photos of Roks when he turned one, and gulped a whole scoop of ice-cream, in one painful swallow. I'll dig those out and scan them in some time.

Wannie's cake had an extra-special inside, pink and white swirls. She really didn't care but the other kids were properly impressed.

Miss Rose's 14th Birthday

Speaking of young ladies and cake, Miss Rose turned 14 this year. Can you believe it? She really is a young lady too, no bratty teenager here.


For her birthday, we had a party with cousins and friends.
Miss Rose requested no gifts necessary, but of course most people brought her a little something. In this picture, the little "something" was a card with three sets of zipper earrings, which she really wanted.

Gater was a little unclear about whose birthday it was -- a cute tiny helper, though.


Miss Rose had enjoyed Gater's Aussie-style party so much, that she wanted one too. So we laid out a table with the most delicious things -- lamingtons, sausage rolls, fruit and cheese tray, cream cheese and sweet chili sauce cracker tray, fruit salad, whipped cream, mini bacon quiches and blue cheese tarts, jam and cream pikelets, honey joys, twisties and tortilla chips, bean dip, veggie tray, chocolate truffles, and even some Aussie biscuits and Aussie lollies like raspberries and pineapples and strawberry-and-creams, and violet crumble. Oh, and the pavlova!

And the sunshine punch, and for fun, flower tea.

There may have been more, I just can't remember.

I loved Enid Blyton as a child, can you tell why?


We had a store-bought cake as well, because my second (and third) pavlovas just would not set up. Oh well, never mind, there was enough of the one for everyone to have a taste and fall in love with.

When the parents came with their families to pick up the daughters, there was plenty left for them to try everything too, of course. Ha ha!

At any rate, Miss Rose had a fabulous party with her friends and family, and it was a gorgeous sunny day as well. A good day all round.

Happy Birthday, Miss Rose.

Oh, and if you are interested, here are our BFF's at the best Aussie shop in the USA:
SIMPLY AUSTRALIAN

Bert's 4th Birthday

Halloween kicks off a fairly busy season for us which stretches through to the end of March. All the holidays and birthdays, and people visiting from overseas -- it all happens at that time of year.

So a few days after Halloween, was Bert's 4th birthday.


On their birthdays, we let the kids eat anywhere they want to, and sometimes we have a party. Bert opted to have his party at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and they were pleased to host.


Bert wanted pancakes and bacon and sausage and eggs for dinner. So that is what we did. We packed up all the food, and went to Grandma and Grandpa's, and cooked it all up. We had quite a few people for a small party, including relatives, but eight of them were us. Anyway, cooking pancakes for a crowd is not as easy as cooking casserole for a crowd. But it worked out and Bert loved it.

The hardest thing for Bert is that his birthday is the last of all the birthdays in the family. Then Christmas is not too long after, and then he has to endure seven more birthdays where none of the presents or cake are his. Poor Bert! But he is so happy when his birthday finally rolls around.

Gater's 2nd Birthday

Gater had an Aussie-style birthday party.

I had to put the camera back to color settings for her party, of course!

Mini-quiches, curried egg sandwiches, cucumber-cream-cheese sandwiches, pumpkin scones, devonshire cream scones, homemade sausage rolls, lamingtons, fairy bread, and other assorted lovely Aussie-style edibles were laid on the party table. A very delicious Sunshine Punch (in the pitcher) has made many appearances on our table since then. I believe the recipe used to be on Rhonda Jean's Down--to--Earth site, but I haven't been able to find it since then. The basic ingredients in ours, for a gallon, were: two cans of Jumex apricot nectar, a heaping tablespoon scoop of frozen apple juice concentrate, a good splash of lemon juice, a big can (48oz?) of pineapple juice, 2L of Sprite or ginger ale, and if there is any space left, top with orange juice. :-)

The only things missing were party pies and those little red sausages in sauce that we used to love so much.

Obviously, it was a good time.

Funny to think that less than one year ago, Gater was sitting in this high chair, wearing a bib! She is way too grown up for that now.

It never seems like we have bought that many presents until everyone else comes and the kids start opening them all. Then, all of a sudden, it turns into a lot of stuff. :-)

This was truly love at first sight. Baby Susie (Shooshie) has rarely left the Gater's side since. She's been lovingly adorned with all manner of sticky decoration, dressed, undressed, hugged, kissed, thrown, remorsefully sobbed over, tucked in, dunked, and fed; but she's never been forgotten for more than ten seconds.

In keeping with the tea-party theme, Gater received a sweet table-and-chair set, and a whole lot of dishes, cups, cutlery, pots and pans -- and the most adorable vintage hand-embroidered tablecloth, from the antique store.

Gater has enjoyed all of her presents over this past year. You hardly see her without her Minnie Mouse purse -- especially the phone, she LOVES the phone -- and her table, chairs, cooking items and "chocolates" get almost daily use. She was a little rough on the breakable dishes at two years of age, so we put them up for a little while, but she's much more mature now, so it may be time to get them down for her again. Bert loves playing tea party with Gater, too, so it's a win-win.

This is a very poor picture of a very fabulous concoction. A mixed-fruit, whipped-cream-topped-with-passionfruit pavlova. This was the Gater's birthday cake, and I ought to have made two.

The three gorgeous girls. We're so proud of them!

Our sweet Katy, two years old already! And -- that was nearly a year ago. How is it that sometimes the days never seem to end, and yet the years fly by!