Birthdays, Continued {Celebrating with Elwoods}

We invited the Elwoods over for a hotdog cookout / birthday party in lieu of our usual Birthday Bowling Bash. We had to reschedule our original date of the 6th because of wind and rain and storm, but the 13th turned out to be perfect weather to hang out in the shade and visit and play and eat together.

Callie's drawing of what she wanted her cake
for the party to look like. We worked on it together
on Friday afternoon in anticipation of the party,
and I think it turned out pretty dang close! (Scroll
down to see - I never took a pic of just the cake!)

When I asked her about the menu for dinner, she requested
funeral potatoes "that I can make by myself" as a side to the hotdogs
we had planned. And she did just that. They were delicious!

She also wanted fruit salad and she helped cut
and mix it all!

bonus video!

"talent show talent"

Callie had her heart set on having a talent show as part of the party, and all the cousins

were so gracious to participate. We had standing biking, funny jumps, climbing across the swingset,

and this little number from Cal (she had prepared a poem, but got a little stage fright when it came

down to sharing it).

So happy to see cousins!

Matchy matchy yellow squared cuzzies.

Babes. (Just missing Maggie who was with Shelly on a little
girls weekend.)

Time for presents!
(She got some fun things from Grandma and Grandpa
Elwood like Aqua Beads, a little canvas tote and fabric
markers, binoculars and a cute outfit; plus stamps and
envelopes from Kylie and a homemade scarecrow for
the garden and a fruits and veggies Old Maid game from
Grace.)

Cake!

Coop was enjoying his dad's plate (and ice cream!).

Birthday tote and fabric markers - a perfect gift
for this art lover!

Tried on the outfit - so summery and bright!

Had to document the decorations! They turned out
so cute!

Happy birthday girl, right here.

Birthday Campout

Since we couldn't have a friend party or a birthday bowling bash this year, we decided it would be fun to go camping (Callie's request). We talked about camping the evening of Callie's birthday, but since the weather was so unseasonably cold that day (when Sam woke up and looked outside at the gray foggy clouds he said, "It looks like a winter day!") we pushed it back till Thursday and changed our venue (from up near Monte Cristo to lower elevation North Fork Park). A fun coincidence was learning that Grandpa and Grandma Blanchard were planning to be camping that same night in anticipation of their upcoming trip to Yellowstone (they wanted to make sure all was working properly with their trailer after being in storage over the winter so they needed a test campout before the real deal). We ended up going together and it was such a fun time! (The kids were constantly saying, "This was way more fun because Grandma and Grandpa came!")

We caravanned to the campground on Thursday afternoon around 4:00 (after Gregg finished working for the day) and found shady sites next to each other in the Corrals Loop of the campground. Since we had each planned separate campouts and just combined them at the last minute, we cooked our own dinners but ate them together in Paul and Kim's site. We had canned beef stew and grilled cheese sandwiches and cherries; they had tinfoil dinners. We visited and explored and wandered around the campground and sat around the fire and had a lovely time. There was most definitely also popcorn, banana boats and s'mores involved post-dinnertime. Cal was intent on seeing stars, so she stayed up till almost 10:00 before it was dark enough to see many (even in our dark sky park! - that's what you get for camping so close to the summer solstice, the days are just so long!) Sam tried hard to last that long, but was just too tired so he went to bed "early" by himself in the trailer; he was out in a minute!

We found some nice shady spots in the Corrals Loop
in North Fork Park (our first time camping there,
even though we hike in the park all the time).

Nature journaling by the campfire.
(That's the fancy sounding title - they were just
happy to find the notebooks and markers grandma
had in the trailer and got busy doodling and drawing
to their hearts' content.)

A handy trail through the trees connected our sites.

Grandpa got busy branding messages
in scraps of wood using his marshmallow
stick.

We even got to use a color pack in
the fire to make colorful flames!
That was a highlight for the kids.

How we always pose for pictures togther.

Friday morning we woke up in our cozy trailer, ate some breakfast (cereal and fruit and hard boiled eggs) and did more exploring around the campground. The kids played wild chicken in the corrals down the road with Grandma while Gregg and I hiked a road we've been wanting to explore for a long time. We ended up at the Environmental Center disc golf course (right where we thought we'd be) and made a loop out of our return by taking the waterfall trail back. It was fun to connect some dots that we had seen on the map but had never seen on foot and to do it as a little date hike was just an added bonus. Around 11:30 we packed up and drove back home. Easy peasy camping squeezy.

Good morning, Cal!

They loved playing and reading in
Grandpa and Grandma's trailer.

With Grandpa's help, Sam rigged up an elevator
for Teddy using his helmet and a ratchet strap.

He's obsessed with ratchet straps lately, so of course
he latched on to them in camp, too.

We knew this would happen, and sure enough
he was out for the count shortly after we got home.

I think Birthday Camping is a tradition I could definitely get behind!

Callie's 7th Birthday

Happy birthday to our 7-year-old! I feel like I sound like a broken record with starting every post with something about how covid is changing our lives, but, well, it is. Thankfully the kids have been taking things in stride, and Callie was totally understanding when it came to the changes we had to make in regards to her birthday (like no friend party this year). I think we were able to manage a pretty fun day (week) and there were plenty of smiles and lots of birthday cheer for Miss Callie June.

Sam worked hard to choose and wrap and line up all these gifts
for Callie to unwrap on her birthday (just like they did for my
and Gregg's birthdays, too; apparently it has become something
of a tradition to have this couch filled with gift bags for the month
leading up to a birthday in our house). And Callie's teacher sent her
home with her birthday balloon and glasses at the end of school, so
she got to participate in that classroom tradition even with a summer
birthday.

First up: the Sam gifts. Lots of cars and balls
and doo-dads from around the house. It's very
sweet how much they love to give whatever they
can.

And now for the main event! One giant present!

What could it be?

bonus videos!

"a bookshelf of her very own + fidget spinner"

(I thought I was so sneaky hiding a few more presents on the shelves!)

Sam's comment at the end about "maybe you'll get another one" is because

he wrapped up his own fidget spinner (that Cal gave him for Christmas) in one of

his many gift bags for Callie's birthday. I had overheard a conversation between

them about "maybe you can order one for my birthday" earlier in the month, so Gregg

and I secretly did just that and planned to have Sam give it to her, but forgot to tell him

about it. I thought it was sweet that he would give her his since he had no way of buying one

himself. These kids, I tell ya! They're good folks!

Major bookworm status here!

A book! (Imagine that!) The only Calpurnia Tate
Girl Vet book in the series that our library doesn't
have a copy of for some reason.

bonus video!

"glitter flip unicorn shirt"

And now more presents from Sam

Birthday breakfast of sourdough pancakes
and sausage.

We have to have a birthday poster shot!

Cal's request for the day was to "do art projects all day" . . .
(here we're watercolor painting paper to make paper lanterns)

. . . "and cook!"

Her kids cookbook had a recipe for wraps
that combined art and cooking - we made "paintbrushes"
out of celery and string cheese and they "painted"
ranch, ketchup and mustard on their tortillas before
rolling them up with ham and the string cheese.

Ta-da!

And ta-da!

Next up: homemade oreo cookies for birthday
dessert!

And last but not least: birthday dinner!
Meatloaf, sweet potato fries and zucchini!
(She's getting really good!)

Oh, and one more bonus gift that I had forgotten about
earlier - a bag o' books.

After dinner oreo time!

Happy birthday, my girl! I love you so!

And now for a little snapshot of what Callie is like as a newly minted seven year old! (I just looked back at the list I made for her sixth birthday and am so amazed by how much of it is exactly the same!)

• can read at level Z (6th-7th grade) but still loves "easier" books that she can speed through like Heidi Heckelbeck, Junie B. Jones and Owl Diaries (those are like comfort food for her), also reading tons of Ramona, Clementine, Calpurina Tate, Wayside School, etc. (It's hard to keep her in books!) Also loves reading the whole Friend each month the day it comes and old Highlights and National Geographic Kids from her stash in her bedroom.
• teaching herself cursive (can write her name!)
• writes awesome essays about all kinds of topics (plants, animals, birds, insects) and won her first blue ribbon for one in the art fair at school!
• loves making lists and signs (I find them all over the house)
• talks and draws and writes and reads a lot about ballet
• getting really fast at running and quite an excellent disc thrower for her age
• nearly always whines and complains and moans about going on a hike/walk/bike ride, but always always loves it once we get going
• has lost two teeth with a couple more top ones getting loose
• loves art the most - lately she will find art/craft books at the library and scans through every page looking for a project to do and then she does it! (And she's really good at adapting the project using things we have at home: this week she made a beach "clock" out of a paper plate (instead of a wooden clock face) and a push pin (instead of a little clock kit that should be attached to the back to make the arms move) and she was so thrilled with the result.)
• also loves science (ditto with science project books - case in point: a solar oven this week!)
• mastering adding big numbers (I taught her how to "carry the one" even though that is "old-fashioned" math and she loves to keep score during games like Yahtzee), and figuring out some other cool math tricks like multiplication
• loves to cook (math, science and art all in one!); says "if you can read, you can cook" and it's pretty true (though I still have to help her get things down from high places and pour milk from a heavy jug, and put things in and out of the oven, etc (she did ask me the other day when the first time I used an oven by myself was - I told her maybe 9? I think she's counting down the days!)
• still figuring out how to interact with friends (and not-friends), especially in a school setting; she is getting pretty good with Sam, though they definitely still have their sibling moments
• mastered flying a kite by herself, still loves monkey bars (even after a months-long hiatus from parks), has started "callie-pulting" out of the swings on our playground
• curious and eager to observe and learn whatever she can
• sometimes gets to stay up a little later reading in bed (and sometimes stays up later even if she's not supposed to! - it may be time to adjust her bedtime a bit later?)
• leads the lesson for FHE nearly every week, with the help of the outlines in the Friend Magazine
• grateful and generous and brave and kind

Watch Callie grow:  6 years | 5 years | 4 years | 3 years | 2.5 years | 18 months | 12 months | 11 months | 10 months | 9 months | 8 months | 7 months | 6 months | 5 months | 4 months | 3 months | 2 months | birth