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Birthday

James’ Birthday

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James turned 18 the beginning of November. I have a very hard time coming up with gift ideas for my older children, as a rule, but this year I came up with the perfect gift idea–something he had been talking about for a long time. Watch the video here to see what we gave him!

He ate all of those saveloys within two weeks!

His littlest sister gave him a bag of jelly beans she picked out for him. He made a game of tossing them to his younger brothers; if they could catch them, they could eat them, but if they couldn’t, he ate them!

Birthday

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Yesterday was my birthday. It was a perfect day–a normal day! I did school with the children in the morning, and that went well. We’re winding down our school year already, finishing a few of the subjects for the year, so we don’t have as much to do. In the afternoon, I got to play in the garden for awhile, and got some more things planted. Then, I cooked one of my favorite meals in the evening (steaks from a steer we raised, roasted kumara/sweet potatoes, and Silverbeet/Swiss Chard, with a delicious dessert I hadn’t made since I did Home Ec in high school). I was amazed at the gifts my family gave me. Mr. Sweetie gave me that beautiful bouquet, Elijah gave me a bay tree, and James gave me a lavender plant. Then, Gayle brought in a gift, which I didn’t expect: he replaced the touch lamps on our nightstands, which came with the house and were much the worse for wear since they were loved by a toddler, with new ones! I feel very spoiled.

Birthday Party!

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We had a birthday party a couple of weeks ago for two of the boys—the third and fifth boys, whose birthdays are just a week apart the end of September and beginning of October. It had to be postponed for several days from the original date selected, because the older boy was sick, and only one friend ended up being able to come. That was disappointing, but we made the best of it. The weather was horrid—cold, rainy and windy, so they had to play in the house. They played Elephant Stop for awhile. In that game, one person is blindfolded, and counts to, maybe, 30, while everyone else moves around. Then, the blindfolded person calls out, “Elephant Stop!” and the others must stop wherever they are. They are allowed to move any part of their body besides their feet. Some boys climbed up on the bunkbeds!

After that game, we moved out to the garage to  break a pinata that the older birthday boy made. It was supposed to look like a sheep. It was great fun, as usual, to watch the participants trying to break the swinging pinata!

 

Birthday Party

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I am not one to plan a wonderful birthday party, but Seth turned 12 today and we had a small party for him.  He got to have a friend over for the night last night, and another friend’s mother brought her children for a couple of hours this morning and then took the first friend home with her so his dad could pick him up.  I had imagined that the boys would spend their time playing outside–but it started raining this morning!  They were out for about half an hour, but then came in.  We had to quickly think up inside games for a group–not my forte, either!  They ended up playing Musical Chairs, and then Elephant Stop, which is a fun variation of Blindman’s Bluff.  After that, they each made an individual pizza, and while the pizzas were baking they played Pin the Tail on the Donkey.  I learned how not to do that!  I had printed out a donkey, on four sheets of paper, and they felt the edge of the paper.  Then, they felt each other’s tails and used them as a reference point to put their own on.  I decided that it would have been better to trace the donkey onto a larger sheet of paper, and then draw the tails on with pencil or marker–have to make it more challenging for my crew!  They seemed to have fun, though.

Musical Chairs–down to the last two!

Elephant Stop

The birthday boy with his cupcakes!

Enjoying his ice cream!