Happy Birthday, Little Pumpkin!

It’s hard for me to believe that my not-so-little girl turned 3 this October.  This year we celebrated Tacy’s birthday at the local pumpkin patch.

We are so lucky to have this pumpkin patch nearby.  It is such a fun place to visit each autumn.  Since the older monkeys’ birthdays fall in the the spring and summer, we have never had the chance to host a party here, but Tacy’s October birthday is just right for a party in the patch.

I especially love that I didn’t have the task of cleaning house before the party!  Instead I was able to focus on preparing a few snacks and some pink pumpkin decorations.  I served apple slices with a creamy, caramel dip and some “Harvest Hash” made of various cereals, pretzels, candy corn, and Reese’s Pieces.

As a special keepsake for Tacy, I had the party guests leave thumbprint pumpkins on a canvas that I painted to look like a pumpkin patch.

This pumpkin patch was loaded with activities for the kids to enjoy.  There were hayrides and corn mazes and everything in between!

Tacy’s favorite thing to play on was the horse swings.  She rode this little horse quite a while.

Tacy also had fun climbing and swinging in the hay barn.

The kids were having so much fun playing that it was difficult to round everyone up for cake and presents.

I know you were probably expecting great things from me as far as cake decorating goes, but we had been in Canton, Texas the 2 days prior to Tacy’s party, so I didn’t have time to decorate a fancy cake.  Tacy didn’t seem to mind, though.  Her only request was that the cake was pink on the inside.

Tacy received several cute books this year.  She also got a Barbie, art supplies, Kinetic Sand, a guitar, a toy puppy, a doll, a toy keyboard, Legos, and some clothes.

She even got a how-to book on babysitting grandpas.

While we were in Canton, I picked up matching T-shirts for me and Tacy.

Lucy made a couple of popsicle stick dolls and wrote the sweetest birthday note for Tacy.  It almost made me cry.

Tacy really enjoyed getting to spend her birthday playing with cousins and friends.

Happy birthday, sweet Tacy Mae.  We love you so much!

Lindsey

Measuring Up

Every three months or so, the Tool Man leads the monkeys to our closet to record their heights.  It’s always a competition to see which monkey grew the most. 

Even though I lovingly refer to Lucy as the runt of the litter (she’s a tiny, skinny mini) she really has shot up over the last year.  When I see pictures of her from last year I am amazed at how much she has changed. 

You might think from this picture that the monkeys were about to go for a swim, but not so.  Tacy just prefers to wear bathing suits instead of real clothes.

Tacy was proud to show us that she had grown nearly 3 inches.  Wow!  She’s getting so big.  Definitely not a baby anymore :(

And then there’s this big, ol’ boy.  Ty is always comparing his height to the Tool Man.  He still has about 5-6 inches to grow before catching his dad, but that doesn’t stop him from checking nearly every day!  While he may have to grow a little more vertically before reaching his dad’s height, Ty has caught the Tool Man in shoe size.  Ty is now wearing a size 8 1/2 in men’s shoes, and he is also shopping for clothes in the men’s department.  Boy, that makes me feel old! 

Like Tacy, Ty had also shot up three inches since his last measurement.  His appetite certainly reflects his growth.  He eats from the time he wakes until the time he goes to bed - a proverbial bottomless pit.  Just recently Ty has discovered Little Debbie Nutty Bars and Oatmeal Cream Pies.  He can easily plow through a box of each (plus a couple gallons of milk) in a week.  That makes for a wicked grocery bill.

As it turns out, Tacy, Lucy, and Ty measured almost exactly three, four, and five feet respectively.  A little stair-step of monkeys!  Pretty soon baby Tib will be joining the measuring fun. “Who is Tib?” you ask.  Oh, she’s just another monkey I had during my blogging break.  Lol.  I will introduce y’all to her soon, I promise.

Lindsey

All-American Girl Birthday

 

Hello, y’all.  Today I want to share some photos from Lucy’s 7th birthday party.  This year we celebrated Lucy’s birthday a couple of weeks early because I was expecting a baby the week of her actual birthday.

Months ago Lucy decided she wanted an All-American party.  That’s a terrific theme for someone whose birthday is in July.  There is no shortage of red, white, and blue party supplies at that time of year.

Since I was 8 1/2 months pregnant, I recruited some help prepping for the party.  Ty and Lucy were in charge of making white chocolate dipped pretzels.  As you can see, Lucy couldn’t resist doing a little taste test of her work.

I made myself keep the food and decor pretty simple for this party, but I did want to give Lucy an awesome cake.  It’s been quite a while (years) since I’ve done any serious cake decorating.  It was nice to know that I still had it in me!

Like I mentioned earlier, I kept the decorating pretty simple – red and white table cloths, a few streamers, and some stars scattered around the tables were just about it.

Y’all know nothing says America like a hot dog feast!  Along with the hot dogs, the party guests enjoyed corn on the cob, strawberries, chips, and dips.

In addition to inviting her friends to the party, Lucy asked the girls to bring along their favorite dolls.  Lucy and I made some patriotic, doll-sized tutus and hats as party favors for the girls.  During the party, the girls also made personalized necklaces for their dolls.

While shopping around for party decorations, I stumbled across a package of cupcake sparklers.  Score!  We stuck a sparkler in the top of Lucy’s cake while we sang Happy Birthday to her.  It was awesome!

A few gifts Lucy received for her birthday were manicure supplies, Bath & Body Works products, a jumbo pack of gel pens with a Scripture coloring book, doll clothes and accessories, a pair of sandals, and a pretty little gray kitten.  We adopted the kitten from a local shelter, and he has turned out to be the sweetest cat I’ve ever seen.  Lucy named him Whiskers.

Happy birthday, sweet girl.  We sure do love you!

Lindsey

Life on the Farm

*Note:  I originally wrote this post waaaay back in April of this year.  However, when I tried to publish it online, I received an error message and have been unable to post anything in the last 4 months.  Thankfully, I finally fixed my technical issues today, so I am officially back in the blogging business!  So even though this post is terribly out of date, I decided to go ahead and share it with y’all anyway.*

Hey, y’all.  Remember me?  I know it’s been months since I lasted posted anything on this blog, and I feel just awful about that.  I could spend a lot of time apologizing and giving excuses and filling you in on the last 4 months, but I won’t.  Let’s just talk about the present, shall we?

Thanks to the arrival of my favorite season, spring, our family has been spending a lot of time out of doors lately.  We have all been enjoying the warmer temperatures and longer days.  I just don’t know how people who live “up north” deal with all the cold.  I need heat!

So what have we been busying ourselves doing?  Well, like all good country folk, we’ve been hard at work gardening and farming.  And by “we” I mean mostly the Tool Man and occasionally the monkeys and rarely me.

The last couple of years we have taken a break from gardening.  The Tool Man was just too busy to keep it up.  But with a new job and schedule this year, he was eager to dig in once again and exercise his green thumbs.  In an effort not to overwork ourselves, we decided to keep our garden small and simple.  We planted six short rows of our favorite vegetables – one row of potatoes, one row of tomatoes, one row of squash, one row of peppers (for pepper jelly and salsa!), one row of zucchini, and one row of snap beans.

When it’s time to hoe or weed, the monkeys magically disappear, but when it’s planting time they are super excited to work in the garden.  They love digging their fingers (and toes) into the soft dirt. 

Even little Tacy Mae was eager to get some dirt between her tiny toes.

You might can tell from our wardrobes that these pictures were taken a couple of months ago.  It’s just taken me that long to write this post.  Our garden actually looks nothing like these pictures any more.  It’s now lush and green with huge squash plants and head-high snap bean vines.  We’ve also harvested our potatoes and have planted a couple of watermelons and cantaloupes.

We’ve had several new animal additions to our farm this year.  I’ve been begging the Tool Man for a goat for years now, and he finally gave in.  Back in January we bought this little pygmy goat when he was just 2 weeks old.  My super creative monkeys decided to name him “Goatie.”  How original is that?!  We just love Goatie.  I guess you could say he is a free-range goat.  He can push through his gate, so he comes and goes as he pleases.  Honestly, it’s a bit like having another dog running around the yard.

Of course we have several new feathered faces strutting around our yard this spring.  In addition to a dozen more chicks, our coop now houses 1 turkey, 2 rouen ducks, and 3 geese.  Whew!  That’s a lot of birds, but we sure do love having them around. 

The only negative to having all the birds is that the ducks and geese were wreaking havoc on our garden.  They mowed down an entire row of peppers and zucchinis, so we were forced to build a fence around our garden to keep out our feathered friends.

Thanks for hanging in there during my absence.  Hopefully I will get back into a regular blogging schedule soon.  I do miss sharing memories with y’all.

Lindsey

All I Want for Christmas

Surprise! I’m back.  Sorry about the recent break from blogging.  Between schoolwork and housework and prepping for holiday fun, I haven’t even thought about my blog lately.  But when I woke up bright-eyed at 4:30 this morning, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to sneak in a post.

I’m still doing a terrible job of taking pictures of the monkeys.   But there was no way I would miss capturing a few shots of Lucy pulling her first front tooth a couple of weeks ago.

Now believe me when I tell you that it was high time for this tooth to come out!  Lucy’s front teeth had begun to spread apart, and this tooth had migrated to front and center.  Not only had it centered itself up, but it insisted on protruding from between her lips.  Lucy loved to close her mouth with only that tooth sticking out past her lips.  More than one person told her that she looked like Nanny McPhee.  (By the way, we’ve never seen than movie, but I hear it’s a good one.)

After a few unsuccessful attempts to pull the tooth with her fingers, the Tool Man decided to give the old floss trick a try.

Despite our best attempts to get the big moment on video, Lucy snatched out the tooth a split second before the Tool Man could push record.

Good ol’ Tacy Mae was there by Lucy’s side, cheering her along.  She’s such a funny girl.

Now that looks much better.  No more wayward, hillbilly tooth!  Lucy is super excited that she can now drink from a straw without actually having to open her mouth. Oh, the perks of missing teeth!

Lucy’s second front tooth will be ready to come out soon I think.  Who knows?  She may indeed be needing those “two front teeth” for Christmas this year.

Lindsey