Ceci's Birthday Tea Party

Yesterday we had a birthday tea party for Ceci. It was the only day that worked for us in a six week period, and unfortunately the majority of our guests could not make it! Fortunately we had three of our favorite people there, and Ceci got her #1 wish...to be the center of attention for her party.

Geoff was Ceci's designated butler (he wore a suit at her request, and it was 95 degrees out!) And he played the role of "hat maker". Eat was a custom fit.

At your service.

Time for tea! I'll have a quiche, please.

Ceci's guests were (left to right): her mother, Tennie, Kylie Joerger, Adele, Morgan Baldridge, Cindy Joerger, and Mormor

The following pictures show Ceci in all her attention-getting glory...












It is good to be seven.

Farm Stand Revisited

Picking the produce, lugging it to the street, waiting for interested customers (Only 3 in 2 hours!), and giving all the money to Mormor (except for $2 in tips which they added to our "spare change" jar...working toward giving a Kiva loan). They experience a tough day in business.

Ceci is SEVEN!

I'm pretty sure Ceci will go off to college and I'll still picture her as a toothless 3-year-old. I deceive myself into thinking she is staying small, and that I'll always be able to carry her around. But then I see a picture from our year in France when she really was 3-years-old and I stare in amazement at how big she is now. Has she really changed that much during this so-called transition time? And then this past week it happened. A big adult tooth broke through and began to grow in the beautiful space that has been there for three years. I'll miss that toothless grin. Luckily she has her other big tooth to lose...that buys me a little more "little" time.

We had a great day celebrating Ceci. We took muffins to art class where the girls showed off their guinea pigs, painted, and then ran and played with the other kids for a long while.

After lunch we had her birthday treasure hunt and were first interrupted mid clue when we found a sick mallard duck sitting on our driveway. We tried to corral it, catch it, and finally settled for getting it to rest in a shady spot. Next we found a rat who was unfortunate enough to live in our garage and eat our poison, and it lay dying from desperate dehydration. Tennie ran to get it water, and was quite upset to see another living creature die. Geoff kindly removed it to its blackberry bush grave. After much delay, and amazing patience on Ceci's party, we opened the treasure of many presents. After that we went out for some gelato.


It was 104 degrees outside so Ceci went straight for the nearby fountains. Tennie joined in. Adele thought of the long car ride home and declined.


Geoff and the girls rode a little train.


Ceci came home and played Barbies with Geoff (quite fun to listen to) while I made some pizzas and salad, and Geoff's mom made a delicious lemon creme pie (Ceci's birthday request). Yum!

Ceci literally dove right in!

Ceci is pure sunshine in my life. I am so grateful for the privilege of being her mom. Seven great years...and looking forward to many great years to come!

Geoff is 40 today!

Geoff and I celebrated his birthday by going to Santa Cruz for the weekend. We haven't been away together in over three years so it was a real treat. (Geoff's parents watched the girls.)

We stayed in a little dive right on the beach where we went to sleep and woke up (all night) to the lullaby of seals. We spent most of the time at the beach, and at a little vegan/raw restaurant we discovered the first day and returned to four times! Tasty!

Geoff took a 2-hour surf lesson and did amazingly well!

The beginner class started on very tiny waves, but Geoff managed to get up most of the time. He wished he could take lessons for a week straight to really get the hang of it, and try bigger waves.



Here is to many birthdays at the beach to come!

Have you seen the Kid History movies? My cousin's husband and his brothers make these, and they have become quite popular. The latest one is about their super healthy mom and got an extra, knowing laugh around our house.

(My cousin's husband is the mom...)

New pets!

Friday we went to the Auburn County Fair to see the guinea pigs (Tennie and Ceci had guinea pig fever). We stopped in to see the cows, goats and pigs too.



Saturday the girls worked all day cleaning out the bunny hutches and preparing for new critters.

A little sawing to the bunny box created a new little hide-out

And then a trip to the pet store...

Ceci's Benjamin

Tennie's Louis (Louie)

Adele's guinea pig is elated to have new friends, and they are handled, bathed, fed, and socialized as much as new guinea pigs could be.

Let me say that these pets (aside from Kipper, our dog) are 100% taken care of and paid for by the girls, from hutches to hay. They are very careful pet owners!

How do they get enough money? Allowance. Starting at age three they got a quarter a week, and they get a quarter raise each year (Ceci is now at a $1 a week). And then there are the foot rubs for sale, commissioned paintings, and occasional farm stands. They feel jipped with their assigned tooth fairy (other tooth fairies are sooo much more generous), but have grandparents that come up with a lot of extra jobs (cleaning grandpa's house is extremely profitable). Somehow they scrounge up enough to get what they want.

Welcome Benjamin and Louie!

Back to School Party

On Monday night we had our Back To School Party, and this week we've been inching into a little more structured learning. We have a busy fall planned, and the girls are excited about all the action. I sort of like simpler days staying home, but those days may be harder to come by as the girls get older!

Our party theme was Every Day I'll Do My Best (inspired by a picture on nieniedialogues)

Oh, I forgot to mention that Rapunzel stopped in...

Tennie made cake pops

And Rapunzel thought the lemon was sour...