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!

Our Tumbleweed Snowman!

Do you want to build a snowman? Well, we already did! After we got our family pictures taken (will be uploaded for the next post), I informed the kids that we were taking the rest of the day off from school to make our snowman. They all cheered at my announcement--especially Tirzah! Tirzah, Hardy, Acarith, Selah, and I loaded up in Tim's work truck to be in search of the perfect tumbleweed. We got as far as the street behind us--that stuff tumbles all over our neighborhood--and loaded the truck up with it.

Tim found the same pole we used last year and pounded it through the three tumbleweeds. Next, he got out two bottles of spray paint and covered the tumbleweed with it. 

I used two green ornaments for the eyes and wired them in place. Next I cut up, rearranged, and taped an old orange gift bag for the nose. I used red deco mesh for the smile and garland for the scarf. Then I took an old black scarf of mine that I never wore and made three big knots in it, which I hot glued right on the tumbleweed for the buttons. Tirzah donated an old hat of hers for Frosty and I attached it to the head with pipe cleaners. I thought Frosty looked pretty good!

The kids loved Frosty! They were so excited to have our own snowman. It's fun to watch the neighbors looking at our Frosty and Tim even saw the trash man take a picture of Frosty on his phone. Last year was the first time we made a tumbleweed snowman, and for some reason, I think Frosty is now a Larkly Christmas tradition.

Hope you all are enjoying the Christmas season!

Fall Pictures of the Larkly Kids!

On Thursday morning I looked out my kitchen window and noticed that leaves filled our entire backyard. It was true inspiration! I knew that was the day to be our fall picture day for the kids.

Acarith loves getting ready for pictures so that makes it easy for me. :)

Selah did a great job getting her pictures. As long as I told her she would get a treat for smiling, she did great! :)

Now this one was the challenge--getting both girls to smile and look at the camera at the same time! :) Seriously, I probably took at least 30 before I got this one!

Hardy is a natural at the whole picture process; he knows that if he does a good job he can be done in two minutes. :)

Tirzah is definitely a picture pro; she knows Mama won't rest until she gets some good pictures so even though she's not overly fond of getting her picture taken and re-taken, she cooperates to be done as fast as possible. :)

Seriously, I love these pictures!