Birthdays, Buildings, and Back to School

There's always some birthday or other going on here. Since we were in Oregon on Sebastian and Clementine's birthdays, we saved their presents until we got home, and they had a joint birthday dinner. Seb gave me a guava cake recipe he wanted me to try, and since Clementine had asked for "strawberry cake," we just put those on top! It also felt appropriate for us to wear gnome hats for the occasion.

Chicken enchiladas with Spanish rice and refried beans (Seb's dinner request)

Many hands helping Clementine put on the butterfly dress she got for her birthday

Teddy-gnome

Butterfly and Bat

Sharky lamp Clementine got from Grandma

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Some other things we did as summer drew to a close and school started again:

We have had these building toys for a few years, but we put them away a while ago because they kept being bonked into the walls (passive voice to protect the guilty). Finally we decided they could be an outside toy for a while, so the little kids had a resurgence of creativity with them. They made some cool things!

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Daisy wanted to make a little lacy top to use as a coverup for her leotard when she's going to ballet, so she found a pattern and crocheted this beautiful sweater! She had to adjust and fiddle with the lengths and sleeve placement, as you always have to when making clothing, and I was so impressed with her persistence and skill in doing that! I love how it turned out.

Such a pretty lacy pattern. Did you know it's called "grinning" when the skin or bottom layer shows through the fabric like this? I like the effect.

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Clementine (and her sisters) with a cat named Goldie

Clementine with a black eye (almost healed)

Clementine matching Marigold

Clementine matching Cocoa Bunny

Clementine trying to look mad

Clementine at BYU Creamery after saying excitedly (about this ice cream cone), "It's a gnome!"

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Not sure why I found this random picture from 10 years ago of the teeny tiny airplane Sebastian made for me (tiny Daisy in the background), but isn't it cute?

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Pretty views in Wellsville after attending the wedding reception of my second-favorite Abe. I have driven by this place so many times but never actually been in!

Sunset in Logan

The best mountain views

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Beautiful table setting (created by Daisy) for our back-to-school dinner. Last year we were doing this in Quebec! We miss Quebec! 😢

We had "Afternoon Tea" food again (scones with clotted cream, chicken salad and egg salad and cucumber-cream-cheese sandwiches, quiche, and little finger desserts).

Flourless chocolate cake bites, "lemonies," and lemon curd tartlets

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I gave Sebastian a teeny-tiny fire pit for his birthday (why? I don't know, it seemed cute) and here we are roasting marshmallows around it.

A nicely-cooked marshmallow

Ziggy went around making these teeny-tiny s'mores to go with the teeny-tiny fire pit. He was so pleased with himself, and we all had to admit, they were really cute!

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We went raspberry picking at our favorite place and the picking was terrible this year! I think we just went on a bad day. It was a few days after Labor Day and the plants had been picked clean! Usually when it seems like there won't be very many berries, my Persistent Pickers come through with a surprising amount anyway, but this year there just was nothing. Eight of us picked for an hour and only got about 3 pounds! Usually we go home with 20-25 pounds! So that felt like a little bit of a waste, but oh well—at least we got two batches of raspberry muffins and some milkshakes out of them!

And—Gus and Daisy saw this bunny. So that redeemed the day a little.

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My darling niece Katy had her baby, so I am now a great-aunt! We were SO excited to go visit little Parker and hold him! And he was just as cute as we knew he'd be! We plan to steal him as often as possible, though sadly, Katy and Josh don't seem too inclined to give him up just yet!

Paws!

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Daisy with the first bread she has made all by herself (I wasn't even home at the time!)

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Clementine was SO proud and excited to get dressed in her "work clothes" just like Daisy, and we didn't realize until Daisy went to get in the car that Clementine thought she was actually going to be able to go to work! We couldn't bear to dash her little hopes, so we said she could go and work with Daisy for a little while.

Daisy took Clementine inside and I took their picture, and then I turned to leave, and Clementine started crying and said, "But I didn't do any work!" Thinking quickly, Daisy asked her to straighten the chairs at some of the tables, and she happily did that, finally satisfied with her Great Usefulness.

Good little worker girls!