Birthday Bliss

I have a TWELVE YEAR OLD!!!  Just like having Jessie move on to Junior High, I can’t believe it, but I’m excited.  Abbie helped me make and decorate some ladybug cupcakes for Jessie’s birthday this year.  The kids were all so very sweet and thoughtful to get her special things.  Abbie and Spencer got some really soft yarn for her to make some more baby booties.Mark some bobbins to wind her embroidery floss on for friendship bracelets.  She also got a face painting book, a crochet book and the movie Tangled.The next morning we had a family breakfast to celebrate Grandma and Jessie’s birthday.  It was so much fun to have breakfast instead of dinner.  We made some Pumpkin Apple Muffins (we even rehydrated our food storage dried apples and used them because I forgot to get apples at the store).  These are some of my new favorite muffins for lunch after church.  I think last time I made them I ate 5; but don’t tell anyone.  We also had pancakes and bottled pears.  Here are Jessie and Grandma sharing the one candle I could find.

A few more presents.

Jessie got a new pillowcase and bracelet with the Young Women values on them and a horse drawing book with a “mannequin” horse and foal.  Mark commented that it should be called a “horse-equin” instead because they weren’t a man.

After breakfast the decorating began.  Jessie was so excited to try out her new paints.She painted off and on all day long.  Every time I turned around someone was sporting a new design.  They loved it and so did she.The kids went out to dinner with Ken because Jessie and I had her last Activity Day activity – a mother daughter dinner.  The waitress thought the kids had been to a parade, but they told her they had just been at home.  I think that left her a little confused.

Spencer loved his mask so much that he sported a new one for the next three days. And even brought the neighbor boy over to get one too.  We later found out that his mom had  to make him a cape that day so he could be like Spencer.Neil LOVES pineapple.  Rachel gave him the two cores to chew on and he was a happy sticky mess.  Nothing quite like a good fresh pineapple.  Oh, I’m making myself hungry again.This was a failed attempt at a face painting session. I can’t remember what it started out as, but it ended up as a nice five o’clock shadow for our local roughen. Mark and I have been working on this helicopter together and we’re so close to being done.We made cake to take to Ken’s grandma for her birthday last Sunday.  It was such a beautiful day that we got to enjoy dessert and present opening outside.  It was fun to listen to Ken’s dad tell us some stories about Grandma’s dad afterwards.

Neil is becoming quite the walker.  It is so fun to watch him grow.  The kids love it too and that makes it double fun for me.  He and Abbie were pushing the suitcase up and down the hall just laughing and laughing.  He is also my drool monster.  I don’t remember my other kids being so …..so….wet!For our Mother Daughter activity we had taco salad for dinner and then played a fun game where the Moms and daughters answered questions about each other.   Then we asked the other person what they thought the other had answered about them; if the answers matched they got a sticker on their score card.  At the end, for each sticker on your card you got to add a topping to your ice cream sundae.  Jessie and I got 6 of the 10 questions right.  We were pretty excited about that!

Oh, I also thought that you might enjoy trying those tasty muffins.

Apple Pumpkin Muffins

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup cooked or canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 cups finely chopped peeled apples

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Combine eggs, pumpkin and oil; stir in to dry ingredients until just moistened.  Fold in apples.  Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups.  Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.  Cool for 10 minutes.  Makes almost 2 dozen.  (I don’t think I had to cook mine quite that long so maybe check them at 25 minutes.  Also a rubber spatula has been the easiest thing for me to use to fold the apples in.)