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!" :)

Acarith's Birthday Party!

Acarith for her birthday wanted a candy castle cake. She wanted the cake to be strawberry with a strawberry filling and cheesecake inside. I took my 12x24 cake pan, put 2 strawberry cake mixes in it, baked it, then divided it in half. I used another cake mix to make two 9x9 round pans for the top. I also made a 9inch round cheesecake. For the filling, I took 5 cups of chopped up strawberries, 5 T. of cornstarch, and 1 cup of sugar and boiled until thick. The square bottom part I made a cheesecake pudding filling. Whew! Then I froze the cakes and refrigerated the fillings until I was ready to assemble.

My mom was able to be with us and she really enjoyed watching me make the cakes and was a big help with washing the dishes. Acarith, Tirzah, and Selah enjoyed licking all the spoons and bowls when it was time. I made towers for the cake with rice krispie treats, formed them into circular tubes, and then dipped them in white chocolate when I was done. This way, I figured those who only eat gluten-free could have a treat. I dyed the white chocolate purple and dipped the sugar cones in it then put candies on the bottom.

Ta-da! Presto--a cake appeared! Well, not quite! On Saturday morning, the day of the party, I had the fun part of assembling it all. I put skewers through the rice krispie towers to hold them in place (Tim also was a big help with this!) Used coconut dyed green for the grass, lined the cake with gumdrops, added some finishing touches with my purple frosting, and it was ready to roll!

Acarith loved how the cake turned out! It is hard to believe my girl is now five years old! She is such a sweetheart. Sometimes with her being the quieter child she can get lost in the shuffle, but her sweet spirit shines through and wins over the hearts of those who know her.

Tim found a play castle at a garage sale just a few days before the party!! It was great--when her little friends arrived they could play in it or color it. That castle was a hit with all the little kids. I'm thankful my husband is a great garage sale bargainer!

The party went smoothly. The kids all behaved. The cake was tasty. Definitely had a great party! I'm so thankful for the incredible girl the Lord has given to us.

Tirzah Attends School!

Since the beginning of January, Tirzah started attending school at Verde Valley Christian School. It's a branch of Verde Baptist Church and located here in Cottonwood. Most of you know that up until this point she has done the video school through Pensacola Christian Academy. I just want to share with you as to why we made the switch. First of all, we discovered the school has a great tax credit program, making the cost for tuition very affordable. Second, last semester we noticed Tirzah getting stressed out doing school with all the siblings around. Yes, she had her own schoolroom but it was difficult to keep all kids out of that side of the house for six/seven hours. Several times I actually caught her crying because she wanted the experience of real school and real students (not virtual). And third, when I went to check out the school, I interviewed with the principal and met several of the teachers. God gave me peace--a peace I can't explain. When Tim went to the school, he felt the same peace. 

Tirzah is doing great at school. Her teacher loves her and is the spiritual mother of the school. I can't say enough wonderful words about her. Tonight, Tirzah acted out a part for Mrs. Potts, the teapot woman on Beauty and the Beast. She did a great job!

We had so much fun attending the spaghetti social and pie auction tonight at the school. I made a sweetheart cookie pie and it sold for $200!

Hardy in this picture tried bidding on a pie. He really wants to go to the school too but can't because the second grade class is full. Hardy understands that; he was so cute tonight and really made an effort to make friends with some of the other boys his age.

 Our whole family had a great time tonight! I'm excited about the new friends we have made and looking forward to a great year!