Laura's 6th Birthday

Late last month Laura turned 6 years old!

As with most children, she was absolutely excited about her birthday.

She requested blueberry pancakes for breakfast. She's always loved blueberries.

She's also extremely fond of emoji's and had been wanting one of these pillows for a long time!

I found her this antique desk at an auction I went to and she loves it! It sits next to Michael's desk and she has it all filled with her little pens and papers and things. So cute!

Laura wanted to go out to lunch for her birthday so she and I went to Cracker Barrel together.

Two little friends came for some cake and tea in the afternoon. My rule is big parties are only for certain special birthdays (5, 10, 13, 16 years). Somehow birthdays still turn into multiple day events even with that limitation.

The very happy birthday girl.

On Friday another friend was here to play and Grandma came to take Laura to spend the night at her house! Laura was very excited about having her own overnight!

She and Grandma went to see a movie together.

And then they ate dinner at Grandma's house.

And picked some flowers in the garden:

On Sunday cousin John got to come for another birthday celebration (along with half the boys from church, well, it seemed that way.....):

The two cousins had a lot of fun together!!!

John had carefully made a lovely card and was helping Laura to read it.

Then there were presents to open including this lovely dress made by Auntie C!

And then came a very fun present -- pompom makers!

Everyone got in on the action!!!!

And they all got in on the cake action too!

Laura has continued to enjoy the pompom maker very much!

And now birthday time is over and it is on to being 6!

Laura Turns 5!

Laura turned five at the end of last month. It seemed the right age to have a party.

 So we had a Peter Rabbit birthday party. We started by coloring pictures of Peter Rabbit as everyone arrived:

 Then we got everyone playing musical chairs -- I think this was a first for most of them!

Precious friends:

We moved into the kitchen to play Pin the Carrot on the Bunny.

This bunny has plenty of carrots!

I took them upstairs to read the story of Peter Rabbit while my mom hid eggs for our Jemima Puddleduck egg hunt:

Here is the group, ready to find all the eggs! (The weather was cold and rainy so we had the hunt inside.)

Then it was time to move to the tea table:

And enjoy some bunny cupcakes:

Oh yum!

Meanwhile we added a few things to their egg baskets -- bubbles, flower pens, and real seeds to plant!

 I love watching little kids enjoy tea!

Laura's favorite part, of course, was opening presents!

It was fun to see her enjoying herself with lots of friends around.

An up-close of the bunny cake which was an emergency re-bake since my lamb cake bit the dust. It was easy to create since it only used half of a layer cake.

 In keeping with the theme, I used a tea towel and fabric scraps that I'd collected from my goodwill outlet visits and made this quilt for Laura. The back is a vintage white sheet that has blue roses on it.

Here's Laura on the morning of her real birthday. She had to wait all day to open her presents from mom and dad and grandpa and grandma.

In the afternoon she requested that we spend time making something in my craft closet (the bunny she is holding below), reading books, and having a tea party together. I was happy to comply!

And now the next question on her mind is, "When is cousin John turning 6?" Ha ha ha!!!

Laura Turns 4!

Laura turned 4 on Sunday! She feels SO much bigger! So many things are easier now that she is FOUR!

I succeeded in making a lamb cake with no disasters! I followed Susan Branch's instructions to the letter and it worked like a charm!

Laura loves blueberry baked goods so we started her birthday out with blueberry muffins!

 After church the family gathered for a few presents and cake! Laura was very particular about how she unwrapped her presents and said charming little things about her gifts.

There were books, sticky notes, paper, pens, paints, etc.

And friends came with a beautiful doll to pass on to Laura. Don't they look alike?

The birthday continued into the week with more presents arriving by mail, being sent over from Cousin John and a visit from Grandpa. Now Laura is saying that her birthday will come again after Christmas. The years go by too slowly for little ones....

Laura's Adventure

We are home from Laura's hospital adventure! Here she is on her arrival yesterday, excited about her trip to the doctor's!!!

Laura spent much of her early months terrorized of doctors and hospitals so it is a big encouragement to us that recently she has taken to loving the doctors. Much, if not all, of this is due to the lollipops she gets at the Pediatrician and the presents she gets at the hospital! Here she is with some of her new presents, including a lovely quilt!

The staff members are very good at helping children understand what is going to happen and giving them time to get used to the equipment. We hadn't realized how long Laura's surgery would end up being. It was nearly as long as her heart surgery! However, the surgeon found nothing unexpected. Laura was born with a hole in her skull at the back of her head which should not be there. Through it came a blood vessel which also should not be there. This left her in danger of a large hemorrhage should she bump her head. In our family, she had a high chance of such an accident!

Laura's surgeon is so amazingly kind, humble, loving, and careful. We also found out that she is the daughter of a hairdresser and so spent extra time carefully combing Laura's hair so she would only need to cut away the very least amount of hair and she made the incision in such a way as to avoid strange parting in the future. Apparently, this surgeon also spends time shampooing her patient's hair to make sure as much of the blue disinfectant as possible is removed before the parents see the child!

 Here is the little baby after leaving recovery and getting settled in our room.

The afternoon was spent resting while Laura was asleep, and tending to her needs when she was awake. Both arms were strapped into guards so she had no use of her arms for nearly 24 hours.

This was Laura's first time for facetime from the hospital. What a great invention! She loved it!

Laura was much better this morning and we spent the morning playing games on the phone or ipad. A friend told us about "Easy Bake" and Mommy could hardly let Laura play because of her own interest in this very fun game.

By noon Laura was ready to hit the road and go home!!!

Once home she had a captive audience while she unpacked all her gifts from the hospital!

Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts for us! Laura is doing so well, although still in pain and probably will be for several days. We are ever mindful of the mercies of these "minor" problems compared to many of the trials faced by those at Riley Hospital. Even Laura's various issues cause us to appreciate all of our children all the more.

And now for some rest, I hope!!!!