Lydia's GOLDEN Birthday Celebration

SIX years old on the SIXTH of May. A perfect Golden Birthday. 

This girl has been planning her birthday celebrations for six months, I'm not even exaggerating. And do you know what has been at the top of the list each time she's talked about it? A special golden birthday cake. Her description of the cake that she wanted: "I want a unicorn on top, with narwhals all around it, and then dog bones all around the side on the bottom... and GOLD everything GOLD for my Golden Birthday." I wasn't exactly sure how to make the vision of a six-year-old's perfect golden-unicorn-narwhal-dog bone birthday cake come alive, but we did our best and in the end she told me that it was better than she had even thought it would be! (Thank you YouTube cake decorating tutorials.) 

We try to do "friend birthdays" for our kids on their odd-numbered birthdays, and family parties on their even-numbered birthdays - but she was really disappointed not to have a friend party for her golden birthday, so we told her that she could invite one friend to come with us to a fun place. She had been planning to go to Classic Skating, but then her school did their PTA skating night the Monday before her birthday so we had JUST been there. (And we haven't told the kids yet, but we bought a summer-pass to Classic Skating because they loved it SO much. But we couldn't use the pass yet, so we didn't want to spend the money going there when we were going to spend so much time there this summer.) Lydia chose instead to go to Boondocks because she wanted to go somewhere that she could earn tickets and buy prizes. We loaded just a couple of dollars on their cards and let them play games, and then gave them some time to play on the playground area. Part of me thinks we just should have gone to Classic Skating anyway, but the kids had fun and I think that Lydia felt special. (At least I hope she did. There were some other kids having real birthday parties there with balloons and cake and loads of presents. I know she would have loved that, but I hope that what we did do was good for her. Oh, and David did help all of the kids win little balls from a claw-machine, and that was probably the highlight! 

We also had an extended family party with both sides of the family. Cal and Sue, Amy, Kevin - Scott and Lori, Melissa, Blake, Matthew, Brooklyn, Jacob - and the Coopers, too. I am ashamed that I didn't get any pictures of anyone at the party. But they were there and Lydia felt so loved and I feel so grateful to have so many people around us who love us and our children. 

I did snap this one picture of my parents playing with Caleb, which was SO cute. And Ashley posted this picture of Cal reading books to Hailey and Elsie. 

It was a great celebration. A golden birthday for a golden six-year old. She's worth her weight in gold to us. And if we could, we'd give her a gold medal. Having her in our life is luckier than striking gold.

 I hope this girl feels all the love we have for her in our hearts and that she carries it throughout her whole life.

Easter 2016

Today we celebrate the victory over every fall we have ever had. - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Easter is such a beautiful holiday. The older I get, the more I love it. I understand and appreciate the significance of Christ's atonement and victory over death and hell a little bit more with each passing year and I'm so grateful for the chance to focus on and celebrate that incredible gift. This year, especially, with the passing of my Grandma Walker so close to Easter, I feel the greatness and sweetness of the victory and love my Savior for his sacrifice and love for me and my family. 

The first Easter sequence of Atonement and Resurrection constitutes the most consequential moment, the most generous gift, the most excruciating pain, the most majestic manifestation of pure love ever seen on Earth. - Jeffrey R. Holland

This year we tried to follow some of the examples on lds.org on how to celebrate a christ-centered Easter and I really loved it. For family home evening we talked about Palm Sunday and Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem and made our own palm leaves and did a hosanna shout welcoming Jesus into our lives. I didn't take any pictures, but I love the idea of talking about the events of the week leading up to Easter as we celebrate.  

We also did a few other things to celebrate, including some of my favorite traditions. 

Cooper/Peaden Egg Hunt

This is mostly just us tossing a bunch of eggs in the backyard for the kids to "hunt", but they love it - and I do, too. I'm so glad we did this again this year. Also, getting five kids to sit still and look at the camera is really difficult. (Regardless of whether it's taken before egg hunting or after.) 

Easter Hunt in Wyoming

I posted about this when I posted about my Grandma's funeral. But after the services, we took the great-grandkids back to the ranch and let them do a big egg hunt in the backyard. It was so fun. Also, my mom bought the kids stickers, a stuffed bunny, and a chocolate bunny on a stick. Child heaven. Lydia carried her things around all day and fell asleep eating her chocolate bunny in the car on the way home. (The stuffed bunny has also taken it's place as the favorite toy right now, even edging out Panda on occasion.) 

Easter Baskets

Mostly filled with books, plus a couple dollars worth of candy. When we were talking about Easter and Easter baskets with Lydia I told her that mommy and daddy were going to fill a basket for her as a way to celebrate Jesus. It got a little hairy a few times when people would ask her if the "Easter Bunny" was going to come, and she'd tell them that her mom and dad were the ones to fill the basket while in hearing range of the other children. But the Easter Bunny is creepy, and isn't connected to real-easter at all, and let's be honest - If I'm not going to do Santa - I'm certainly not going to do the Eater Bunny, right? She was thrilled when she saw her Easter basket in the morning. 

Easter Sunday Church

 It was a beautiful testimony meeting and wonderful day worshiping the Savior. Also, I asked David to take a picture of me and the kids (he was sick, boo). He was able to take exactly one picture before the camera died. But it turned out about as good as any picture I get of us these days. I love these children of mine. 

Walker Family Festivities

We try to do a dinner each month with our Walker Family. Melissa not only hosted and served a delicious dinner, but she also put together an egg hunt for the kids. They loved it.

 There were so many eggs, but even after they had put them all in their baskets - Austin kept asking "more? more?". It was a hit. 

 

Also, not pictured - we had a nice Sunday dinner with the Peaden Family on Easter. We're so blessed to be surrounded by so much family. 

We loved celebrating Easter this year. We love our Savior and the blessings that come from following his example. 

"Our Savior lived again. The most glorious, comforting, and reassuring of all events of human history had taken place - the victory over death." - President Thomas S. Monson

Somtimes we do green things.

Today is St. Patricks day. No leprechauns came to play tricks on us, and there weren't any elaborate parties to be had. But we did turn some food green and make some little rainbow skewers.  I think that it's fun to celebrate holidays. My family always had green pancakes or eggs or milk in the morning, and maybe something like green pudding and rainbow toast for a snack. (Rainbow toast was a childhood favorite where my mom would add food coloring to milk and let us "paint" on bread before she toasted them for our snack.)  I feel like my mom was the queen of keeping things low key and child friendly but still adding fun and excitement to our childhoods.

St. Patricks Day was doubly fun because we got to celebrate with the Coopers, too. :)