How To Truly Appreciate A Banana

A Photo Essay, By Lanaya

Not-So-Little-Sister

Lanaya has been rapidly closing the weight gap between herself and Trey.  Watch her face as you scroll through the following photos of the two of them "sharing" a book.  Trey better watch out, that's all I'm going to say.

This is my favorite.

Don't keep the girl from her books!

The St. Patty's Birthday Collision

Bryce gets into his birthday falling on St. Patrick's Day in a big way.  So, green food is a must.

Blake is not a fan of unnaturally green food, so I've learned to make two batches.

The important thing here is that this little man was thrilled with his green German pancakes w/ green whipped cream.

And this year was off to a much better start than last year (when he didn't like anything I made, even though it was everything he had personally requested).

I let the mac n' cheese stay orange.  But we did have edamame and a green smoothie.  Success!

We're all about candles and wishes.  Your birthday only comes once a year.  You should blow out all the candles you can on this one day.

And then it was finally gift opening time!

I love that sweet smile.

He has been begging for a robe for forever.  He was thrilled.

Trey and Lanaya getting in on the gift action.

Remote control car from Blake's parents.  He was pretty thrilled.  And everyone was highly entertained watching him learn to control it.

 Sometimes Trey really reminds me of Gollum.  That's not wrong for a mom to say, is it?

 We love our Brycie Boo.  I can't believe he's already 6!  He has really zoomed through Kindergarten in a big way.  He loves to read and write (we probably have Kayli's good example to thank for this!).  His stories are highly entertaining, if not a tad embarrassing at times.  He is ridiculously cute and sweet with Lanaya.  Her face completely lights up when he comes around.  She adores him.  We wish he could be a little more like this with Trey... but, I guess brothers will be brothers.  He and Kayli are still the best of friends and it's so fun to watch them play and laugh together.  He sometimes drives us all crazy, but we're blessed to have him in our family.

Potter Party

Bryce had a birthday party.  Harry Potter themed, since that is the current obsession 'round these parts.

First came the sorting hat.  With Professor Snape in charge.

It was magical.

Everyone who wanted got the Potter scar.

Here they are--the Hogwarts bunch.

Next, they got their wands and we made magic.

Wooo-ooo

Ooo.

And then, Potions Class

Which looked a lot like the Dry Ice experiments from the other day.

Only this time, we used Unicorn Horn

And leech juice, and beetle's blood, and poison, and I forget what else.

and I forget what else.

Oh, but there were brain seeds.

We were growing a new brain for Professor Snape.

You'd have to see it up close to understand.

But it really did look like brain tissue.  The kids enjoyed it anyway.

And here is the cake.  That didn't actually involve any cake.  Because I finally convinced the birthday boy that he doesn't actually like cake (so we don't wind up with a ton of cake that no one wants to eat). This is what he requested instead.

It's a giant ice cream sandwich.  Chocolate chocolate chip cookie on the bottom, regular chocolate chip on top.  Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in the middle.  Mini M&M's all around the edge.  If I were making this for adults and more concerned about presentation, I would have at least doubled, maybe tripled the amount of ice cream.  But, it was for kids, so we went the more practical route.

Every single one of his gifts included Legos.  He was ecstatic.  And we've been provided with hours of fun.

Meanwhile, Lanaya was really unsure about Professor Snape.  I might have been wearing a wig myself, as Professor Trelawny.  And it was all a little weird for our baby.

Mostly because she just wanted her own turn.

She kind of looks like a Cabbage Patch Kid.

She likes it.

Daddy and His Girl

One sad side affect of Blake's surgery is that he doesn't get to hold Lanaya as much any more.  Because he's not really supposed to.

So, we try to find opportunity for them to get in some bonding time anyway.  She thought his sling was a pretty cool toy, too.

Daddy also put in a request for Lanaya to have a mohawk.

She felt a little bashful about how adorable she looked.