Randomness of our life...

Since we are trying to sell the dog house, we moved it from its home in the back yard. I decided to turn the rather ugly area it was, into a flower bed. I'm quite excited because it is oddly one of the sunnier places around out house. I bought some landscaping bricks and built a little wall. I think it looks really nice. Now I need to get some dirt to fill it in. I'm excited to plan some awesome flowers there next spring.

While I built, Moose found a nice place to lay..."its like a beach!"

We "celebrated" our 2-year anniversary of working to bring Brother and Sister home on Oct 12, 2011. We just had chili, but we made injera to eat with it.

Some day, the other chairs will be filled with kids too.

I made Ethiopian honey rosemary bread for dessert. Yummy!

Wally likes to make stuff from Star Wars. His latest creation is Anikin Skywalker's pod racer.

Wally likes to model his various Star Wars stuff...pod racer, picture of light sabers, a Star Wars necklace, and a light saber. We have been enjoying taking weekend walks at Hickory Hill. It is so beautiful. If we get lost, we won't be hugging this tree...see those 4 inch spikes?

Wally loves parades. I wonder if he gets tennis elbow from waving the whole time. This parade was the U of I homecoming parade down town.

When Joel got home from church last week, he found quite a site...water was spraying up from from under our mailbox. The city was soon there (our neighbors had already called) to fix the broken water main. Oddly, our mailbox had been backed over a week earlier, but they didn't think it was related. What did our mailbox do to get such bad karma? Anyway, they dug it out, fixed the pipe and filled it in in about 1.5 hours. Wally and I only caught the very end of it. It was pretty exciting for Wally though.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Wally decorated Joel's birthday cake. These days, he works so hard on his projects. Go figure, Wally make X-wing fighters, a death star, and tie-fighters out of butterscotch chips. He also figured we had to use every candle we had in the house...Daddy is really old!

Wally planned Joel's birthday dinner...apparently the theme was orange...sloppy joes, candy carrots, and Cheetos. All that strayed from the theme was me and Wally's purple milk and Joel's blue milk. With that many candles, Daddy needed all the help he could get!
"I love you Daddy!"

"Seriously, underwear?"

"Sweet! I'll look like Murr!"

Joel did get Star Wars Episodes I-III. We have really enjoyed Wally's Star Wars obsession. Not because it is Star Wars, but because Wally loves learning about Star Wars everything and lives and breathes it.

Fall Fun in Iowa

Wally is still absolutely obsessed with Star Wars. We finally finished watching the last movie (well, the last original movie). At the end the good guys have a party to celebrate defeating the bad guys. So, Wally decided we needed to have a fiesta. He made decorations (see the round thing on the house) and we ate cake outside and sang and danced. I love watching Wally's mind with this Star Wars kick. One morning, Wally decided Scout needed some stuffed animals. He made quiet a wall around her so that the dogs couldn't see her. He is always thinking of others' happiness.

The other week was the high school's homecoming parade. All of the feeder elementary schools get to march in the parade. Of course, Wally had to do that. Here he is ready to go!

We only made it about a block before Wally was out of candy to hand out. He did have a great time though!

After about a half-mile, we stopped marching in the parade and watched the rest of the parade go by. Wally and his friend Sam never stopped waving.

That weekend, we went to "the farm." Moose was born to live at a place like this.

Maybe Wally too.

Wally needed his camera so he could take pictures of wild animals, like these geese.

We went on a nature hike, and had to climb over the fallen tree rather than walk around it. That's my boy!

We found a 2-headed dandelion. It is hard to see in the picture, but there were 2 perfect flowers that came off the same stem. I love nature! I was so afraid he was going to fall in, but the kid has peeing skills!

We found a huge tree that had recently been chopped down by beavers. They had to work hard on that one!

He can balance!

And he jumps!!!!

Fall is a beautiful time in Iowa. I'm so glad we've had the chance to enjoy it and are blessed with being able to go to this farm.

Wally's 5th Birthday

Wally's birthday was a few weeks ago, but here is a blog about it. Before I get to the birthday celebrations, I wanted to include a picture of our garden, and specifically our sunflowers. Wally wanted to plant mammoth sunflowers, so we did. They weren't kidding when they said that they grow to be 12 feet tall. The top of the sunflower by Wally is actually cut off in the picture. I feel like I am in "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" when I'm in my garden. I love it! To start off Wally's birthday celebration, he and I made cup cakes for him to bring to Kinderfarm. I figure it might be his only chance to celebrate his birthday at school. Since he wanted a Star Wars theme, we made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting (think black space) and yellow stars. The red hots were the stars eyes (??). And, well, sprinkles are just cool.
On the morning of his birthday, we measured him. He is just over 47.5 inches. Quite the huge kid! And, check out those abs!

At Kinderfarm, the birthday kid gets to wear a birthday crown all day and then take it home. Wally of course had to pose with Pearl the Pig. Notice his new Star Wars t-shirt.
And with the horses. It was very exciting one day as a new horse, Cashmere, arrived.

Cashmere is a very friendly horse. but Wally was not too happy when he ate the top off of his crown. Luckily, it didn't taste very good so Cashmere spit it out and I was able to grab it and tape in on when we got home. Whew!

That night, Wally got to open presents. He loves his harp from Reder and Ruby. He can actually play recognizable songs on it now that it is somewhat in tune.

Wally was maybe a little bit wired about his birthday.

When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner, he said, "Steak!" We weren't about to argue with that. How he has grown up. He used to hate meat, especially beef. Finally, he would eat chicken nuggets, so we would get him to eat beef and pork by calling them "special chicken dippers."

We had left-over cup cakes for his birthday desert.

Wally wanted a pinata for his birthday party, but they are crazy expensive! So, Wally and I made a giant paper mache "Death Star" pinata, that he painted like a rainbow. And, I just realized that we don't have a picture of the final product. He was proud and it worked well. If you don't count man-hours, it was a whole lot cheaper than buying one.

Wally wanted an X-wing fighter cake. I designed it so that the wings would be in the X position...

But, the graham crackers got soggy and the "shooters" were too heavy for my engineering, so the X-wing's wings were not spread. Wally still enjoyed it though.

For Wally's party, we set up a Jedi Training Center. We had the Jedis play in the sprinkler and then I would call them to the training center for a training exercise like "Leia, Leia, Luke" and "Yoda Says."

Their training was complete just in time as Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers showed up in the back yard (print-outs taped to trees, etc). The Jedis had to use water balloons to get the "bad guys" wet.

After Jedi training and the battle were complete, all of the kids (7 4&5 year-olds plus younger siblings) earned their light sabers in a small ceremony. Afterwards, the Jedis could color their light sabers. Then we had pizza and Galaxy Balls (aka melon salad) for dinner. The weather couldn't have been nicer, so we were able to eat on the porch.

Sadly, this is the best picture of Wally and his cake we have. It just was too chaotic to get all the pictures we wanted during the party. I guess that means we were all having a great time.

Back at the Jedi Training Center, Wally got to open his presents. The kid is spoiled. Luckily, he realizes how spoiled/blessed he is.

After presents, we concluded the Jedi training by destroying the Death Star. With 3 kids left, the rope tore through the pinata (good thing Joel had reinforced it). I volunteered Joel to hold it while the last 3 kids got a whack at it (thanks Honey!). Then it was candy, stickers, and silly bands for all.

We concluded Wally's birthday party with what turned out to be a blast...picking cherry tomatoes. The kids loved climbing through the tomato plants picking tomatoes and filling baggies to take home. This is why I have a garden, to be able to enjoy it with others.

I can't believe my baby is 5. He is turning out to be quite a big kid. Why have I been so blessed? I will never know, but I am.