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on Poppa’s birthday

By Tricia on July 18, 2013 in Birthday Celebrations, Family, Handmade Holidays and Celebrations

Today started quietly, as I saw him sneak past our bed and heard the squeak of that first step down the stairs which gives everyone away. I pulled myself out of the bed after a busy night with Matthew of mostly no sleep again. I peaked my head over the banister and whispered to him…. Happy Birthday, try to come home early! I will, he said and with that he slipped out the front door.

We spent the rest of the day organizing the loft area to house all of the kids folded clothing, hats, scarves, sweaters etc. This is one of our biggest challenges in a family of our size. Too much clothing and not enough places to keep it which means there is always a mess of clothing somewhere and it really makes Poppa unhappy. The perfectionist that he is has to live with the mess that I am and I know it is hard for him. What better gift could we give him than to clean up or act, I hope to share the final redo tomorrow, Friday.

As early afternoon approached, I left Nick in charge and went to the market to get some fresh salmon to make Poppa his favorite meal. Raviolis topped with a parmesan cream sauce accompanied the buttery, melt in your mouth salmon in a lemon butter sauce.

Then I pulled the angel food cake out of the oven and we filled it with fresh whipped cream and raspberries. The kids laughed and said that I should have called it a raspberry tallcake instead of shortcake. I put it together atop my favorite cake plate, one that Poppa and I bought in the early years at an Estate sale and still my favorite though I now have many.

As soon as he blew out the candles, we gave him the gifts we have been hiding from him and then the kids all hugged him at the same time which turned into a free for all of kids trying to get into the inner circle of hugs with Poppa trying to kiss and hug each one.

He hates pictures and I warned him that if her made silly faces, I would post them here so here you go! Happy birthday my love. Thank you for the man you are and the father you have become over the years. We pray that Our Lord will bless us with a very long life to enjoy your company.

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Party in Candyland

By Tricia on February 5, 2012 in Birthday Celebrations

ignore those pots of bare earth on the right. The chickens found out that I grow herbs in there and had a snack but forgot to leave some for us.

Another birthday party has come and gone. All the planning and creating and one hour after the final party guest is gone you can hardly find one reminder that we had a party today. Poppa got us all going and in 2 hours the entire house was clean as a whistle (I wonder who started that saying? do whistles get clean that often?). It feels good to have everything clean but it was hard to keep myself going when all I wanted to do was collapse on the couch.

Looking at these picture of Olivia, I can hardly believe she is really 3. In one way it feels like I hard her a life time ago but on the other, I can’t believe how fast time is going by. She woke up this morning and asked me if she was the birthday princess today? As we put up decorations and got all the goodies in place, she kept asking me the same question.

We usually have everything picture perfect for parties but this time, one of our friends showed up on time (but we were running late) and it was so awesome to hand some party decorating responsibilities to someone else while I flitted about getting everything else done in time for the rest of the guests arrived (thanks Helen Ann).

The kids spent the morning creating the candy land walk way from duct tape and then sliding on it in their socks. I think it may be my favorite party decoration. I was pretty sure the kids would inhale all the candy before I could get a picture but even after everyone left, we put away 5 bags of candy. I have no idea what we will do with all this candy expect that it may resurrect in some Easter baskets. I do not offer our kids candy very often but once in a while I let them have it and boy did I let them have it. Not surprising, they were just as interested in the fruit as the candy (except for Olivia).

The cake is admittedly not my best work but it was still too warm to ice,which I had to do anyway because guest were arriving. I wanted the icing to look rustic as a backdrop to the rock candy but it came out a little too rustic (code word for sloppy) and by the time I got a picture, a few fingers had been dipped into the cake.

The thing I liked most about the cake was watching Olivia’s unsuccessful attempts at blowing out the candles. It took about 5 puffs to take the first candle out and the next puff took out the rest. She looked so big to me in her candy stripers dress (more on how I made it on Thursday’s Stash Bash) and somehow even after playing down by the pond, the dress still looks kind of clean.

When the last guest had said their goodbyes, I sat in the dining room staring at the confetti on the floor and thought about how fast Livie is growing up and then she came to me and said “Well Momma, I guess I’m not the birthday princess anymore”. As I stood their looking at her dirty face and dress, I could not imagine a more perfect birthday princess.

Thanks for stopping by to see her party and also for all the encouraging comments and emails this week.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)

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