Number 10

This is always such a busy time of year for our family as it is the season of vacations, holidays, and birthdays. Daylor's 10th birthday is at the end of September. It gets harder as the kids grow older trying to pick out themes that are age appropriate and still fun. Daylor has been playing the piano for a couple of years and absolutely has a gift for it. He's written multiple songs and insists on practicing at least an hour a day. So, in light of his enjoyment of it he chose to have a piano/keyboard theme.


Now, we are not the type folks that go all out for parties. I have some friends who throw their kids AMAZING parties for their children. They make extraordinary invitations and party favors and games and decorations - every detail is thought of and it is so beautiful! Me, well, I have learned to accept that I might be in the minority of my buddies who throw birthday parties. Pretty much my kids are lucky if they get birthday hats! That doesn't mean we don't plan and put an emphasize on their birthday's because we do! Our parties are just a bit more (OK, a lot more) understated, but we still have a blast!! At our house, the party is ALL about the cake!

If you will remember this post from earlier this year about my relationship with the confection, I challenge myself each time to make something creative and beyond what I think I can do. This year I made my largest cake yet! A 3 foot 3 inch keyboard cake. Probably one of the most fun I've ever done!



I found a picture on line where someone had used Kit-Kat's as the black keys on a regular 13x9 sized piano cake, but it looked funky and off-balanced. So, I borrowed their idea and put 3 sheet pans together to make it life sized. This made the Kit-Kat keys look much more realistic. I iced the chocolate first after I marked on the cake how far to come down, then followed with the white icing. After waiting about 20 minutes for the icing to harden up some, I took a kabob skewer and using a ruler, I measured the keys one inch apart. I used the edge of the skewer to make the impressions of the spaces between the keys on top and in the front of the cake. Then, I placed my Kit-Kats down. For the decorations, I used several flavors of Tic- Tacs, upside down Hershey's Kisses, and white Mentos for blinky lights and the knobs. The volume had to be ten, of course for Daylor's age, but it took some serious self control not to bump it up one more to eleven (for those of you who have no clue what I talking about, you would have to see the movie Spinal Tap to understand. And yes, I am THAT old.).



Because we had just come home from vacation we decided to have a family only small party where Daylor got all kinds of great stuff he loved!

The cake is always a surprise for them and Daylor seemed to get a kick out of seeing his keyboard in edible form.

After gift opening and cake and ice cream, Daylor gave us a concert of some of the music he has been writing and Perri did a little interpretive dancing for the family.

Then the kids got thier worship team together and sang a few tunes to end the night out.

We had a wonderful time and Daylor had a great birthday!

Happy Birthday 6th birthday to our precious princess. You are a joy and are ever so loved!

Double Digits

September 29th, 1999 at 3:26 in the morning my life changed forever. I went from being a daughter, wife, and sister to a daughter, wife, sister, and now, mother. Four weeks early, the tiniest baby I had ever seen, much less held, was placed in my arms and forever the make-up of the Balentine household was repurposed. I remember packing up the 4lb. 10 oz. sleeping bundle and putting him in his carseat thinking what do I do now? He's so tiny. He's so fragile. He's so perfect.

The days following were exhausting and scary, but amazing and wonderful.

Now here we are entering the double digits in age, an official "tween", and how the time has flown. He's no longer that tiny little bundle as he stands taller than my shoulders. He no longer is fragile as he can "throw down" with the best of 'em. And although he isn't perfect in character, he strives everyday to please his Maker and that makes him perfected in Christ. I adore this boy and the past 10 years has been the best of my life.

I am grateful for the gift of you, Daylor. We are so glad God chose us to be your parents. We look forward to what God has planned for your life. Happy birthday, D! We love you so much!

Playing Like There Snow Tomorrow..and Other Stuff

Duglin got a fabulous late winter birthday surprise last week! It snowed. ALOT. It doesn't really snow that much here where we live. We might get a couple of dusting's every season but usually it's here today and gone tomorrow.

It started snowing around noon and didn't stop until 6: 00 the next morning. 12 inches later we had ourselves a winter wonderland! We actually had a drift or two that was 2 ft! That's huge for us! We bundled the kids up, I armed my self with the camera, and we all headed outside for some birthday snow fun!

Duglin always like to do things a little "differently" - wears his clothes backwards and inside out, eats with the wrong end of a spoon, dips his carrots in ice cream. Here, he is making a "belly-flop" face down snow angel. I just love that kid!

WE have a couple of great hills in our backyard that make for sledding fun. We didn't have a sled so we used the top of the turtle sandbox. They LOVED that! Our rat terrier, Harmini was having a ball, too!

We all had a such a blast. Well, maybe with the exception of...

I am not sure what is more sad, the fact that Sundae's tail is so far between her legs that it nearly froze to her belly, or that I made her wear a coat. Poor baby!

Isn't he gorgeous?!

Duglin had a wonderful birthday party! The cake turned out cute and I had minimal green food coloring under my fingernails. We had a military theme this year.

In Duglin fashion, gift opening time went much like this.

AAAAAAAAAAnd, we're done.

Happy Birfday, Peepadee!

So, today is my baby girl's birfday. I am so bewildered at how fast the five years have past since she arrived. I have been in quite a denial lately because as much as it warms my heart to see my kids grow, I also grasp the fact that they won't be little forever.

I LOVE having kids. I LOVE having boys and girls. Perri is my miracle baby. We struggled through several years of infertility and then fertility treatments to get pregnant with our boys. At the age of 3 1/2, Daylor asked for prayer for his baby sister during a his Sunday School class one morning in January of 2003. His teacher, knowing he only had a baby brother, asked if he meant to be praying for Duglin. Daylor told her that God had told him his mommy was going to be having a girl soon. (Goosebumps!) She caught my arm when I came to pick Daylor up after church and gave my a twinkly smile. "When's the baby due?" I was slightly offended! I mean, I know I just had a baby 10 months ago, but did I really look that fat?

I guess from the look at my face, she knew that I wasn't pregnant and proceeded to share with me what Daylor had said during prayer time. I laughed at the thought of having another baby. Duglin was 10 months and just getting out a VERY colicky start and I had just started my cycles back a month prior (I know- TMI. Sorry, that's just me!) Anyway, "Nope. No baby girl," I told her.

Hmmmph, slap my tush and call me Sarah! I was pregnant in 2 months! 35 weeks later we had ourselves a baby girl! She is such a blessing and I am so grateful for the balance she brings to our home. So here are a few of the bazillions of pictures we have of her. I hope you enjoy this little walk down Memory Lane.

Happy Birthday, Perri! We love you, baby girl!

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