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!