Ken's Birthday

This past week was Ken's birthday. I had to attend a conference for work in Portland so I missed his big day. Instead we decided to celebrate before I left. My mom and Huck were able to go to the conference with me. We stayed an extra day and had a lot of fun playing around Portland.

Ken loves bananas so I decided to invent a banana split cupcake. I used this recipe, and then played around with the toppings. The kids had fun helping me.

For his birthday Midge used her artistic skills and drew portraits of the family. She has turned in to quite the artist. She gave Ken all of her favorite drawings.

Leo made Ken a card where he made hearts and he wrote all of the things

he loved about his dad.

My first born turns 8

On Friday our oldest turned 8. How did that happen?

We decided to make her birthday cake out of rainbow cupcakes.

Midge takes her wishing very seriously.

I told Ken I wanted this picture to prove I was there. I am always the one behind the camera.

This picture shows you the rainbow cupcakes. You should have seen Little Miss's diaper the next day. All I can say is wow!

Midge wanted an ipod shuffle this year to go with her idog. I know she got them in the wrong order. She has had so much fun with them we can barely separate the two.

Things we love about Midge:

When she is in the mood she can entertain her siblings like no one else. Her brother and sister thrive on her creative ideas.

She gives amazing back rubs.

An unbelievalbe energy level. We have met very few kids who have her endurance level. Needless to say she keeps us on our toes.
She has a special connection with animals.

She likes to leave thoughtful notes and do sweet things for people.

She is very perceptive, and has a strong sense of right and wrong.

She is sensitive.

She is artistic.

She is smart and does really well in school.

She is funny and can crack us up.

We love you and are so proud of you and the young lady you are becoming.

August is the m

Picking Strawberries and Birthday Cake

I love this below picture of Midge with her freckles and long eye lashes. I think that she looks like strawberry shortcake.

We had a great time going to Herrick's Farm on Leo's birthday. We picked 4 full buckets of gorgeous sweet Oregon Strawberries. The kids always eat at least a pound of strawberries when we go. We always joke that they should weigh each of us before and after. Today we are going to have strawberry shortcake. I love summer fruit.

This was Little Miss's first time picking and she took her job very seriously. She insisted on carrying her own bucket even when it got too heavy for her to carry it.

She was a great little worker until she tasted the first one. Then we had to race to fill the rest of her bucket before she could eat them all.

Eventually she just sat down in the middle of the patch and started popping them into her mouth. All you could hear was her chewing.

This picture cracks me up because it shows what a boss she is turning in to. At this point she is telling me to leave her alone so she could pick by herself.

When we got back we had Leo's birthday cake. Little Miss is such a big girl now she feeds herself. I love the fact that on my new camera you can put it on burst mode and take a series of pictures. I just keep it on this mode most of the time because my kids move so fast.

Big boy Leo and his adoring ladies.

These next pictures crack me up. When Leo was one my sister snapped this picture of him on his second birthday.

Yesterday when I took this photo I remembered the older one. Not too much of a difference! I love that smile.