If You Give Girl A Watermelon...

Heidi's Pioneer Party

Having read the entire little house series, some of the Betsy-Tacy books, and thinking about reading Caddie Woodlawn, we determined an old fashioned pioneer party was in order for this years celebration of Heidi's birth. We made invitations from the same Holly Hobbie tracing kit I used for birthday invitations as a child.
We set up our screen tent with plenty of freshly picked wild flowers as decorations. Originally,I had pictured using only what the pioneers would have had access to for our table, but Heidi was insistent that birthdays meant balloon napkins and party hats, NOT bonnets!
She was delighted, however, to wear a pioneer dress.
Even little cousin dressed up for the party!
We started the party by making bread and strawberry jam and shaking cream into butter. As you can imagine, it was a little bit busy during that time frame, thus there are no pictures to document the cute little loaves of bread and jars of jam we made to send home with the guests.
I did manage to snap one before the party, however, of the little muslin dolls I made for the girls to take home (the boys made rafts, but I hadn't prepared very well, so they didn't turn out so well).
Heidi had requested that the girls all sew dresses by hand for the party. Since I wasn't prepared to help each girl make a full sized dress for herself, I suggested the dolls and sewing dresses for them seemed to go over just fine.
Heidi was a bit disappointed by the hair color for her doll. "I'm more strawberry blond Mom." I, however, was thrilled to have found a yarn color in the thrift store which represented something more akin to an actual hair color than the shock red I've had to make do with in the past.
We also slaughtered a chicken.
The insides of which were of great interest to the children.
Then, we snacked on bread, butter, jam, watermelon, and...
chocolate, chocolate, chocolate ice cream cake.

Heidi enjoyed her delightful gifts.

But the crowning event of the party, that which Heidi had anticipated with great longing, was washing clothes.
We brought out an old two basin laundry tub, a scrub board and a clothes line and let the kids enjoy.

It might seem like a bit much, but I'm afraid I overly enjoy planning parties around a theme. I had to work hard at holding myself back from making soap and candles and... well, you get the idea.
And, I love to make wonderful memories with these children that I love.
Happy fifth birthday Heidi!

Happy Birthday Heidi!

Can it really have been five years ago that you made me a momma?
This time with you flies by much too fast.
I want to grasp each moment.
Hold it.
Cherish it.
Savor.
I blink, it's gone.
Instead of clinging to what I cannot keep, may I pour out.
Pour in.
To you.
To Hannah.
To Levi.
Show you True Life
That we might have an eternity in which to worship Him.
Together.

Levi's First Haircut

I have the most adorable boy on earth (and no, I'm not biased), but even I could see his hair was getting a little long.
So I got out the scissors, set him on Daddy's lap, and went at it.
And I was amazed by what a grown-up looking little boy I had!

It Must Be Baby Week On The Farm

First chicks, now we're trying again with kittens.
Meet Heidi's "Queen" and Hannah's "Flower" (she says it "wower"). We *think* they're girls.

We Call Him "The Roomboy"

Since the advent of the scootch a couple of weeks ago, Levi has affectionately become known as the "Roomboy". Like the Roomba he cleans the floor in random patterns then returns to his base(Momma) for an energy refill.

Levi: 10 Months

Hat courtesy of Uncle David.