Acarith's 6th Birthday Party!

Can you believe this girl is six years old? Acarith said she really wanted to be Queen Elsa from the movie "Frozen" because, "Elsa has white hair just like mine." Well, not quite; since Elsa's hair is much longer, I bought two blonde hair clip extensions and braided them into her hair. She loved having long hair for her party!

She loved her Frozen cake. We made "blue ice candy," a real simple recipe where you bring water, sugar, and corn sugar to a boil. Once it's boiling, you no longer have to stir it and when the candy thermometer says 300, you pour it into a jelly pan to cool and harden. We flavored ours with lemon, and it kind of tasted like jolly ranchers. It was easy and yummy!

A friend of ours showed up at the party and gave Selah an Anna dress that her daughter had outgrown! I love this picture of the girls!

We invited about 8 other kids (plus Acarith really wanted her junior church teacher Mrs. Ellis to come). The kids loved playing "Hot Olaf" (like hot potato) while Tirzah played the piano. 

All lined up to play "Pin the Nose on Olaf" game.

I think the kids loved the "Snow Party" the best! For Christmas I had bought Tim a snow machine, and Acarith had the bright idea to ask her daddy if he could "play" it for her friends at her party. Tim put it on the house and hooked it up to a switch, so whenever everyone entered or left the "castle" (our house) they would be in the snow. It was so cool! (No pun intended:))

Acarith loved her party. It was fun to just have kids over for the evening (and Mrs. Ellis). We are so thankful to the Lord for giving us our sweet, beautiful girl!

 

 

 

Ruth Ann's 40th Birthday Party!

Some birthdays just come and go with simple gifts and maybe a cake. This birthday was not one of those! Wow--my 40th birthday was very fun and special. The days leading up to my birthday, Tim told me to be ready for a day of birthday surprises. The night before, he accidentally spilled the beans on the first part--we would leave in the morning to drop the kids off at school and a friend's house (thank you Naomi for watching the girls!), go to Phoenix, shop and have lunch with our dear friends Dave and Grace Hardy. We had a great time!

 

After our time in Phoenix, we picked up the girls, went to our house (Selah needed a nap), and Tim picked up the two older kids. Back at home, Tim told me my other surprise was ready. He made me lay on the couch with a blanket over my face until I heard laughter and , "Happy birthday, Ruth Ann!" It was my parents! They had driven five hours up to be with me! (What made this so surprising is that I had just been with them for the weekend to celebrate dad's birthday and had come home 3 days earlier.) It was great to have them be with me on my special day!

I loved my birthday present from Tim!

For my birthday party, Tim came up with a unique theme--a "WD-40th Birthday." He asked friends to please brings gifts that would stop squeaks, oil rusty parts, and etc. On Friday, the day after my birthday, we had an open house party at our house for my birthday from 1pm -6pm. Actually, the guests started arriving at noon and the last group of friends left at 9:30!

The kids loved seeing Grandma and Grandpa, even if they only stayed for one full day. They left Friday afternoon. Thanks dad and mom for coming to my party!

Awwww, couldn't resist posting this picture of Acarith crashing by the end of the night!

I made one of my favorite cakes--Hawaiian cake. It was my mother-in-law's recipe. It's yellow cake topped with a cream cheese/pudding layer, crushed pineapple, and then whipped cream. I used 3 cake mixes in my big sheet cake pan and was surprised to see it all gone by the end of the night!

I do want to say, I felt very special on my 40th birthday. All my family, friends, phone calls, cards, texts, and gifts--I feel so very blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. Thank you to all who made my day very special!

Making a Gingerbread House!

About five years ago, I attempted to make a gingerbread house with Tirzah and Hardy. The gingerbread house kit came from Home Depot and turned out to be a disaster (the "house" couldn't even stand on its own without collapsing!). I told myself I never wanted to do another one again. Well, since Acarith really wanted us to do one, I bought a simple, pre-assembled house kit for $10. I loved how it came in "house form" and all the kids had to do was decorate it!

 

 Acarith decorated the front of the house. She took great care to make everything look great!

Hardy got one side of the roof and house, while Tirzah got the other side. Tirzah also made a wreath out of green fondant (that came with the kit) for the back of the house.

Selah's job was to roll out the fondant in the powdered sugar and also to squish the candies. If you know how energetic she is, you know this was a perfect job for her!

Ta-da! I thought it turned out so cute! I made the Christmas tree and remembered I had a bag of cookie crumbles to fill it in around the house to make snow. Honestly, a pre-assembled kit is the way to go. All of the kids had a good time making it, and I announced it would become a new Larkly tradition--as long as the stores continue to sell the pre-assembled kits. :) Didn't they do a good job?

Hardy's Volcano Project!

Tim made a deal with me when Hardy told us he had a volcano project at school--Tim would make the volcano while I did the presentation board. Agreed! Tim took a cone and spray foamed it. Later they spray painted it brown and Hardy added finishing touches with another brown and red for the lava.

I asked Hardy's teacher, "Okay, I know how parents get carried away with these projects. How much do you want the parents do?" She smiled and said, "Just enough to help him get going and little helps along the way."

I drew a volcano in pencil on the presentation board and labeled the parts with color names. Hardy had a ball painting his volcano!! He did great! Later, he labeled the parts and added information on cards to put on the display. Hardy told me the funnest part about his volcano project was me and Tim helping and spending time with him.

Dressed as a Mad Scientist, Hardy gave his presentation in front of the whole school this morning. He was kind of nervous and so cute to watch!

Our whole family made it to the event. Tirzah sat with her class right in front of us.

I had Selah sit with Tirzah when Hardy's turn was coming up so I could take lots of pictures. 

What an eruption!! The night before, I had Hardy hot glue 3 rolls of mentos into two bunches. When he went to bed, I decided to make sure they could drop into the soda because they looked really bumpy and uneven. Unfortunately, his bunches wouldn't fit because they weren't very even. I took them all apart and re-hot glued them so they could be in two straight lines. 

For eruption time, Tim helped Hardy open up his 2-liter of Diet Coke, and all Hardy had to do was drop the two bunches of mentos into the soda. Ka-boom! It was fun!!

Tirzah turns 10 Years Old!

Happy birthday to our amazing daughter Tirzah! She turned 10 on July 21st. This girl wanted cupcakes for a party after church and she helped me every step of the way; with her help, we made these cupcakes in an hour-and-a-half! Since Tirzah loves cats, we tried to resemble our cupcakes to look like an orange, black, and white striped cat.

To celebrate her birthday, our whole family went to "Out of Africa," a wildlife park about 20 minutes away from our house. The park, which does not like to be called a zoo, was awesome! And if you go in your birthday month, you get in free! Since Hardy also has a July birthday, he also got in for free.

 

At first, Hardy was shy about petting an 18 ft. python but then he did and couldn't stop! He enjoyed it so much, he bought in the gift shop a stuffed snake. I thought it was so cute when he asked the lady ringing up the order, "Do you offer any birthday discounts on stuffed animals?"

Tim and I had a great time as well. My favorite part was I held in my mouth a four inch celery stick to a giraffe and the giraffe licked my entire face in the process! Tim also really enjoyed the giraffes and since he is the official snake killer in the family, he did like petting the 18 ft. python.

Selah kept commenting on how everything smelled bad! She was hilarious--and, since she is obsessed with babies, when she heard girl zebras are pregnant and have babies their entire life, she loved the zebras.

Acarith is the child in the family who is not an animal lover. Afterwards, when we asked her what she enoyed, she said the elephants. Selah, smart as a whip, picked up on it first and said, "Wait a minute, Acarith, you can't say that. There were no elephants!" Acarith then said she did NOT like the snake (I will admit I bribed her with a candy bar to pet it, to which she did!). She finally admitted the giraffes "looked nice."

If you know Tirzah, then you know she enjoys everything. Her favorite event was the Tiger Splash. Of course, because Tirzah loves tigers! Out of Africa was the perfect outing to do with her for her birthday!

Yep, she even got to feed some meat to a tiger! That really made her day! I love this girl--her energy, her positive attitude, her sweet spirit. She truly lives up to her name which means "delight."

Afterwards, we came home, enjoyed a marinated steak dinner, and then a fun swim in the pool (it was 102 today). What a great time we had! Happy birthday Tirzah! We love you!

Hardy's 8th Birthday!

Hardy turned eight years old on Thursday, July 14th. Since we were going to be out of town for his birthday, we celebrated a small party with some friends the day before. The party was a blast! We enjoyed ice cream sandwich cake, "Yoda" soda, light saber attacks on the trampoline, water balloon wars, swimming in the pool, and his friends especially loved the zip-line, which Tim had rigged that starts from the tree house.

Hardy really wanted a Star Wars party. You can see that Tim got in the party spirit as well!

A July birthday in Cottonwood means water fun! Hardy and Tirzah spent two hours filling up water balloons for the party. We had water bombs, cherry bombs, and all sorts of colored balloons popping around the house! (And a side note--in this picture you will see some new concrete Tim put in around the house. It looks great --I don't think there's even one crack in it--and the kids have enjoyed skateboarding and roller skating on it.)

The water balloon wars was fun! We also had buckets and a hose in case someone, especially the birthday boy, stayed dry!

    For Hardy's birthday on Thursday we went to Freedom Station in Prescott. We have been in Cottonwood for 11+ years and it was our first time going! After Freedom Station we went to In 'n Out hamburger for Hardy's birthday dinner (he loves cheeseburgers!).
    Last year, Hardy was very sick on his birthday--he was running a 103 temp for five days straight. We are so thankful he no longer has those fever episodes. He said in the van on the way to Prescott that last year on his birthday he wondered if he would even make it to his ninth birthday! Oh, poor guy! We are so thankful for his life. We are so thankful to have a boy in our giggly girl household. We love you Hardy--happy birthday buddy!

Selah's 3rd Birthday!

Our Selah Joy truly is such a joy to us and everyone who knows her. She loves pink and polka dots, so she decided a Minnie Mouse cake would be the best way to celebrate!

The night before Selah's party we had just come home from church. Before we walked into our house, she pointed to each of her siblings and said, "Tomorrow, you, you, and you will all watch me open my presents!" Oh, how we all laughed! She was so excited when presents time came!

Selah always (well, almost always!) does a great job smiling for the camera. I love how she puts smiles on everyone's faces.

 

In the midst of the craziness, it was Tim who remembered for us to get our picture taken together. A few years ago I was looking through some albums and noticed that on several of our kids birthdays we weren't in the pictures with them. We decided that from there on out we would try on every kids' birthdays to get our picture taken with them.

Selah loved her third birthday party. It was so cute to ask her how old she was and hear her say, "I'm fwee now!" :)