Mr. Handsome is now Mr. Wonderful

Before I begin my blog about my week, I want to say what a wonderfully, terrific husband God has blessed me with. He is an Engineer by trade. When one hears that word, one naturally assumes he can put together and take apart things on command. That is not the case with him. He is not into all that Tim the Toolman stuff. He is more cerebral in his living. Which is fine with me - a whole lot less accidents to deal with!! But last week, our dishwasher ran for three hours! Yep, THREE hours. We didn't know though because we had Revival and we were at church. We came home to a wet burning smell and immediately heard the dishwasher still running. So, Mr. Handsome told me not to use the dishwasher until we could afford another one. His beloved lawnmower also blew up over the weekend so we had these two things to take care of. OH - and we got a tune-up and new tires on the van last week, too. Anyway, He and Robert went to Webelos on Thursday evening and they decided to go to Lowes. Mr. Handsome called me from Lowes and said he found a floor model dishwasher for $150.00 less than a brand new one. (My Dad told us [he is the Great Oz because he knows everything.] not to spend more than $350.00 on a dishwasher. So guess how much the dishwasher came to with tax? You probably didnt' guess it so I'll tell you. $350.00!!!! Isn't that amazing how God works. We don't have to listen to the Great Oz rant at us because we overpaid for an expensive dishwasher!! So Mr. Handsome had them deliver it on Friday. And I calmly reminded him that Lindsay's party was Friday evening so he said he would come home and hook it up as soon as I got home from co-op. He did just that and I had no idea he knew how to hook a dishwasher up. But being an engineer he follows rules and directions to the letter. And that's what he did. So he's Mr. Wonderful now - well, he's been Mr. Wonderful all along but I needed a catchy title!! And I have a dishwasher that runs circles around our last three!! It works great. AND everytime one of the children opens it they say, WOW!! Look at the inside of that dishwasher!! (We are used to plain white dishwashers) It's all silver inside!! Yes, it's the little things that thrill us!

Onto my fun week. I have lots of pictures because it was our Lindsay's birthday. Now, I know people think I'm a scrooge but we don't do kiddie birthday parties for every single child every single year. Between us, my parents, and Taylors' parents, they have THREE birthday parties already. I would also have to do a birthday party practically every month starting in June through December and that is way too much. for me. And they get a special dinner where they get to pick their favorite meal. Nutrition is throw out the window even! Anyway, when they turn seven they get a sleepover party. Maddie's was a bust - all the girls were naughty and half of them got scared because I keep rebuking them and they didn't want to stay somewhere they had to follow the rules so they went home. But the ones that stayed had fun. Robert's was great - he had 13 boys who were so well behaved!! It was great. And Lindsay had 8 girls who also were very well behaved. There were no cat fights or whining or crying!! It was wonderful. I love parties and I love planning them. With Lindsay's I decided to make party favors because I was tired of wasting money on junk. I took her to Party City to pick out her decorations - Hello Kitty - and she wanted me to spend $25.00 or $15.00, not sure which, on a pinata. Why would I spend that much money on something that is going to be destroyed in a matter of seconds. I told her we'd make one (I posted pictures in last week's entry showing the beginnings of it.) So we did. And I renamed her Hello Mitty because she looks more like a mouse. See for yourself:

 Here is Kristinie the Great trying to hit the poor mouse, I mean KITTY!! Maddie and Beatrice spent the night at a friend's house.

And here is Birthday Girl trying to hit the KITTY! 

So, the pinata is made with a balloon, newspaper, paper mache, and duct tape for the bow. YES, they now make duct tape with patterns. Pretty cool, huh? This is not my grandpa's duct tape or the Great Oz's. Hey, maybe I should switch his duct tape with mine and see if he notices!! Ha ha ha - well, first I have to find his!! And then give up my duct tape which is from some dear friends - nah, I'll just keep mine.

Most of our week was spent preparing for the birthday party and doing school, as usual. We also started our first day of co-op. Every spring and fall the children attend classes on Friday morning for nine weeks. It's so much fun. The moms and dads teach the classes and boy, is it ever fun!! One of my friends and I are teaching two classes - a craft class and a Bible class. I really love the Bible class - it is I Spy Jesus in the Old Testament. But I digress - as usual. Back to the beginning of our week!!  

While I was busily making these (finished version down below):

 and the Pinata,

the children were busy doing this:

 Half a box of SAM's tin foil sheets later, they made place settings! And baking pans!

 Here is Lindsay hard at work (notice my curtains are not finished yet - Mr. Handsome is being polite and not noticing - I keep praying he won't notice so I can get them finished before Thanksgiving.)

 This is Beatrice's Bitty baby - it used to belong to Maddie. Bea named her Sara.

This is how Sara sleeps when Beatrice is doing school. WOW!! I wonder if Kristinie the Great would like to sleep like that for her nap!

 Play-doh - the toy I loathe and love!

Mr. Handsome entertaining Kristine so I can finish hand towels for the party.

And after all that business we still had time for the nursing home. See? Mr. Jerry's best buds!

Notice, Beatrice brought Sara with her! 

Later on in the week, I had to make the cupcakes. I'm pretty proud of myself. I normally am pretty procrastinatey (which is why this post is on Tuesday INSTEAD of Sunday!) but I am trying to grow up and out of that terribly bad habit. Lindsay wanted marble cupcakes with blue icing. Thankfully, she doesn't want fondant stuff, just the old fashioned sugar candies worked great for her. And let me tell you, those cupcakes were awesome. I mean, I know I shouldn't brag about my baking because I am not my grandma's granddaughter in that area but they were really good!! Thankfully, no one else thought so so I pretty much got all the leftovers! 

Not bad for a novice, eh? I just want to interject here to say that I love my children. They are so excited for anything I take the time to do for them that it doesn't have to look like Duff Goldman made it or Martha Stewart's crew decorated it. Lindsay loved every bit of her party. EVERYTHING!! I thank the Lord they are so grateful!! And here are the decorations. We, of course, hung up our festive pendant flags, which by the way, make pretty good curtains!

 See what I mean? I think I will leave them up until I finish the curtains!! What  joyous day that will be!!

 Here are all the girls happily eating their cupcakes.

I love this picture. They put Beaker in a blanket and lifted her up. Yes, that IS Robert off to the right. He and Mr. Handsome went to a football game so Robert could see his hero play quarterback!! 

 After the party was over Saturday, I straightened up a bit and we headed to Toy R Us so Lindsay could pick out her present from us. She picked out a Hello Kitty water cooler. She loves the thing. And today, she finally received her present from Dorothy and Oz: an American Girl doll named Julie!! I seriously don't think she has put her down and she is probably sleeping with her now. Anyway, the above picture is at a birthday party later in the day Saturday. Thankfully, I didn't have to cook dinner. Beaker is a hand talker. She can't say anything without her hands saying it, too. This is her trying to tell me something!

 One of Lindsay's quilt blocks. This is Sparky - he is the mascot for the kindergarten through second grade AWANA club.

 Rainbow on the way to church Sunday evening.

And again!

Well, that was some week. I love celebrating our childrens' birthdays. They enjoy picking out their favorite meal and picking out their cake or cupcakes. Sometimes they want a cake from Sam's instead of homemade. In three weeks, Beaker will be 3, and I can say after 9 years of potty training, I think we are finally done for the time being!! She just started going on her own to the bathroom. When I quantify the time spent doing certain things for the children, I am so grateful God gave me that time. WOW!! 11 years of diapers and pull-ups are finally coming to an end. Two still need them at night. 5 years of nursing. Maddie is getting ready to get her own phone. It is so great to see them all growing and see God working in their lives. I need to talk to Kristine to see what kind of birthday she wants. Right now it's Thomas. But next week it may be Clifford. Ah, yes, I am tired and rambly!! :)