Erin's Birthday and Camping

Erin turned 11 on June 18th. Eleven! She is growing up so fast and is such a wonderful girl. She has become very responsible and can be left with all the kids if we need to go somewhere. That is a game changer for us. We spent years having to worry about babysitters, and now we have Erin. It's amazing! She is so great with the baby and taking care of Hallie. She'll will often just make Hallie lunch or get her dressed without being asked. The other day I left for some reason and as I was leaving she asked if they could watch a movie. I told them to clean up a little and then they could. When I came home, everything was cleaned up really well. She said that she assigned everyone a job and set the timer for 15 minutes. If they weren't done by then, she would set it for 5 more minutes--but everyone was done after 15. They are obviously motivated by watching TV. I was impressed that Erin would do that on her own.

She got the now traditional birthday breakfast in bed, home made waffles, pears and juice.

Erin wanted roller blades for her birthday. They were sent to us a week before and she was dying to open them right away, so she got her present a bit early. On her actual birthday, she wanted to go to Classic Skating with the family. Looking back on that day, I was really stressed out. First off, Jared couldn't find his keys that morning so I hastily gave him mine so he wouldn't miss the train. Then I looked everywhere for Jared's and couldn't find them. I had to go and pick up some chicken that I had ordered before 9:30 that morning (and by "some" I mean 80 lbs.--yeah). I was panicking a bit. I asked to borrow my neighbor's car and as I was leaving, I reached in my bag and found the keys. Nice. For the rest of the day I was canning chicken. The first batch turned out fine, but the second one took over an hour and a half to get to the right pressure (it's supposed to take 10 min). I didn't know whether I should stop cooking it or continue trying to get it to pressure. It was taking forever! By the time Jared got home, it was super late and it still had to cook for an hour. Jared fixed the problem (just like he fixes everything for me!) and it finished cooking. He took the kids to the skate rink and I met them when the chicken finished.

Anyway, the point was I didn't make Erin's birthday that exciting. I did bring home a treat for her for babysitting and some new earrings for her birthday to make up for it. I think she had an okay day despite my frustration.

 These three had lots of fun!

 Gotta love skate rink carpet. Connor is pretty cautious about skating/trying new things.

And this is Jared making sure that he had a sufficient amount of fun himself. He stayed on for a long time and would have been able to go two more times if his hands and legs hadn't gotten so sore the first time he rode. It's so funny that he wanted to do that.

 This is to prove that Wesley was there. No proof that I was however...

Due to the chicken incident, there was no time to make a cake. Erin got to pick this one out from Harmon's on the way home.

Erin really is an amazing person. As she has gotten older, I feel like I have more fun with her. She has a great sense of humor and is a great actress. She can recite funny lines of movies and shows that she's only seen once. I don't know how she remembers them exactly right, but she has always had that talent. I love her creativity. Lately she has been working hard in the basement with her best friend Emma on their invention business. They draw out different ideas then pitch them to each other. There's even a patent on the wall. Now they are working on building a prototype for one of the inventions. I think it's a pet habitat/home? I don't know much about it except for the times when they come up asking for pvc pipe, a glue gun, a needle and thread, and other random items.

Erin is still doing great with piano. I love to see them get better and actually enjoy playing. Luckily, their teacher is really great. Since she has a waiting list, every student has to practice 6 days a week or they will get kicked out of the studio. I like it because they have to practice. Erin also really loves to read. Yesterday we went to the library and I told all of the kids to get a lot of books and fat books so that they would last longer. So far, Erin has read 2 1/2 of hers. That's not exactly going to last that long. But I love that she likes to read.

Here's just another example of Erin's creativity. We went on a little camping trip right before her birthday and she was the brains behind these little fairy houses made of moss, sticks, flowers and rocks.

And can someone tell me how I am just now hearing about these amazing campfire eclairs? We borrowed these dowels from my neighbor, then wrapped a crescent roll around one and cooked it over the fire. Once cooked, you add vanilla pudding with cool whip and put it inside. I even added chocolate frosting on mine. Umm, delicious! I liked them so much more than s'mores. I'm going to have to make me some dowels for future campouts.

 We went camping with Jared's brother Brian and his sister Rachel and their families. It was definitely a fun and relaxing time to get out of the heat and into nature. No technology or screens is always a needed break. Sure, we got poured on the first night. It was raining so hard that water started dripping through the rain fly as well as seeping through the bottom of the tent. There was a river flowing under the whole tent that made it feel like a water bed. The kids thought it was great until their stuff started getting wet. We lived. Come to think of it, I kind of always feel like I narrowly escape disaster/death every time I go camping. I still love it though.

We played four square and spike ball. Not sure if you can see this, but Marissa and Olivia were dressed just like twins. I kept mixing them up all day. Even though they are two years apart, they are exactly the same height. Marissa is a little on the short side:)

And here's the photographic (though very far from photogenic) evidence that I was indeed on this camping trip.