Kyrie Turns 9

Kyrie's birthday has come and gone. She loves a good celebration and even drew me a picture of how I should decorate her cake. She knows what she wants. Her dad was in New Orleans on her birthday so we had a celebration at a restaurant with Grandma and Grandpa and their friend Mrs. Guthrie. Later, on the weekend, we celebrated with her dad.

While he was away, her dad did leave a treasure hunt with presents at the end. Here is one stop on her hunt.

A note from dad with more clues.

She asked for red velvet cake!

Little Triumphs Among the Failures

I had BIG hopes for this summer. I always have big hopes. And that is the triumph of hope over pessimism in me.

My husband always urges me to only project doing what I can actually accomplish. But where is the challenge in that?

This summer I set out with a number of goals for the family. Among them was teaching the older two to make a meal each week. This would take methodical instruction in different cooking methods. I had the book, I had the drive. We would work on breakfast, lunch, desserts, dinner. But while my time became more and more limited, my son took up my passion and sought new instructors. 

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We have also worked for the past several summers on teaching Ben to ride a bike. (I use "we" in the sense of our marital union; we being the other half of me.) He has stubbornly resisted. This year did not start out promisingly with Ben declaring as usual that accidents happen on bikes and there is no need to be able to ride one. But a trip to Mackinac Island in May where bikes are the norm of transportation (the alternative being horses and feet) and a decision to come back in July and bike the island, did the trick. Once he decided it was a worthy reason, he learned in no time, and in our elation, his dad took him to "look" at bikes. And came home with a new one. He biked 8 miles without incident on our trip to the Island.

My last goal, to teach the kids to do more chores, feels like it has stalled. They did work on learning to clean the bathrooms with me early on, and Kyrie took on some of the weeding yesterday to earn a little money. It turns out Evie loves to husk corn. But the basement is still a pit and the girls room is actually starting to smell a little and it has me feeling a little stymied. But still there is the bathroom.

So maybe all my expectations weren't met. I still call this summer:

The Triumph of Hope.

Happy Birthday Young Lady!

Kyrie had a birthday that came and went in a crazy busy time. She is officially 8 and pretty proud of this accomplishment. She is my precious extrovert who can't get enough of people. She thoroughly enjoyed her birthday in every way.

Sisters

Excited over new headbands!

Birthday Photos

Birthday breakfast

The cake

This is Prita, the Gotz doll she chose over American girl.

Opening an art kit for Prita from her godparents

Happy Birthday Kyrie!!

I love this photo of my baby girl because this is just about what her expression was when she came out. She looked right at me; no newborn daze. I felt she was looking into my soul.

She is 7 today and so ready for the hoop-la! She has her first flowers, balloons, a cake planned, lunch out with grandparents. A full day of celebration.

We are so blessed to have this spunky, soulful, intelligent, hard-working and resourceful girl in our life.

Happy birthday Kyrie!

My 6-year old

Six years ago on a very rainy Sunday, Kyrie Aislinn entered our lives. She did not come without aplomb...she did a 180 and flipped her body around after her head had come out so that she could see the voices above her. We should have known right then that she was going to be a firecracker.

She has been preparing for her birthday for well over a month now. She has put in requests for foods, gifts, friends she would like to see. She demands to be celebrated. Her love language is gifts and so I have packed away things she needed (e.g. school supplies, new underwear, second-hand clothes I bought months ago that are fall/winter) so that she could have plenty of gifts on her birthday. She had a sushi lunch with just her daddy on Saturday and she has requested shrimp, rice, and noodle soup on her birthday. She asked for a pumpkin pie instead of cake. (We are having that with her godparents on Friday night and so today she pushed it and asked for an apple pie for tomorrow.)

She already found her hidden birthday balloons and she has requested to be visited by friends both far and near (our little empress).

She brings joy, verve, and celebration into our lives. And I'm so grateful for her.

Family Time

We took a break from routine and took advantage of an off-season special at Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City. We had a nice time but I was not awed by the Great Wolf experience. Partially because my kids do not "love" the water and tend to be very cautious. (Ben never went on a slide that wasn't in the toddler pool; Everleigh didn't go on a slide until the second day.) The water park was fun though and Mike, Kyrie and I had a great time. We have only these three pictures of Kyrie who was brave on Day 1; Day 2 was too much fun to drag a camera along.

Fall in Northern Michigan

Great Wolf is a spendy venture (we stayed one day) and while the rooms are bigger and more family-oriented than most hotels, they leave a lot to be desired. A stool for children to reach the tall sink (or how about a shorter one)? The kids had a bunk bed fort with a TV with a VHS player, a novel idea. But a VHS? If not a DVD player, perhaps provide a few VHS tapes. When we checked in, our room was a chilly 65 degrees, which did not get me off on the right foot. It was fun, but the experience is spendy enough that it seemed like it should have been even better.

Kyrie at Great Wolf

Northern Michigan is beautiful and we had a fun time as a family. Now I'm going to focus on less getaways so we can have a real family vacation sometime in the next couple of years.

Our brave one

Oh yeah!

Haircut

This haircut actually occurred two weeks ago. We've been busy.

Easter

Ready for church

Easter basket

Decorating eggs

First outdoor egg hunt

Ev called it "Hide and seek eggs"

Snow Progression

Snow Day 1 (Light snow)

Snow Day 2 (Really, it isn't Minnesota):

Our driveway

Day 3 (Ice, Ice Baby):

The first casualty but just a beginning.

And then the power went out while I'd been neglecting laundry. And then it got cold and dark and there were no more photos.

Snow! Snow! Snow!

Riding Bikes

Happy Birthday Kyrie