All the Kids are in Double Digits

It seems weird for my baby to be ten. All my kids are in double digits now. That means they are growing up and I am getting old. But that is how life works, and I'm not afraid of a few white hairs. (Ok...hundreds really.)

Pearl had a good birthday. Her birthday was pre-quarantine, so we were still on a very busy schedule. Dad was gone out of the house in the morning, and June had to work, so we didn't open presents until very late. But no one minds staying up a bit to open presents.

She still got her balloons. (She thought the big P was the number 9. She told me that she thought I forgot how old she was.)

And her birthday lunch. That picture of her eating the strawberry is pretty epic.

I made her a rice krispie cake. Not just regular rice krispies, but fruity pebbles. I thought it was a little weird actually, but the girls seemed to really like it. Ivory loved it and even after the dog licked it, she finished it off later in the week.

Ten candles. Still a cinch to blow out.

Pearl got some awesome gifts. She loves puzzles.

She got her own fitbit which she wears all the time and beats me in steps daily.

She got a new animal for her bed. It kind of fits her personality some days.

This hanging chair she got is pretty cool and inexpensive. Good thing we have an awesome Dad who knows how to hang things.

The best present might have been to have the whole family go out and ride horses the following Saturday, but that is for another post.

We sure love Pearl. She is kind hearted and witty. She holds her own even though she is the youngest. There are so many wonderful things about her. I'm so lucky to be her mom.

Art Theme: Food

This was a great week for art. Food is such a different theme. Daisy originally chose Cooking as her theme, but I didn't want people to feel like they had to cook. So we changed the theme to Food. As usual, we got such a diverse grouping of art. Enjoy this fun assortment.

Let's start with the Hulse's this week. Titles and artist underneath as usual.

Beth's Loves by Bethany

Little Fishy by Eleanor

This next one is done by putting food coloring in milk. You can see how the effect changes as the color blends. Very cool.

Milk Tree by Jonny

Pancake Animals by Maggie

Pumpkin by Eleanor

The Food of Quarantine by Henry

The Virus by Maggie

Yay for Sushi by Eleanor

Camie did some amazing pancakes. These are awesome.

Sailor by Camie

Shark by Camie

We haven't gotten Christina to come to the art show yet, but she sends in her submission every week. This one is so heart warming.

Loving Hands by Christina

Now to our family. A couple you may want to take a closer look at. I hope you can click on the picture to see it a little closer.

Tyler and June spent a lot of time during the week perfecting homemade salsa. They dropped some off to the Calls and Hulses before the show started, so they could experience the heat.

Snakebite Artisan Salsa by Tyler and June

Eyes the Size of Grapefruits by Maleen

Eggplant by Pearl

Brownie Burgers by Ivory

Yummy by Daisy

Corntine Maize by Maleen

Falling Hotdogs by Robyn 

Dinner by Robyn

Mini Match by June

Nothing is Inpopsicle! by Daisy

Are you hungry yet? Such fun food entries. I'm off to grab myself a popsicle. Daisy told me there were no calories in them. (Or maybe that's not what she meant by nothing is in popsicle.)

Next week should be a very interesting week. The Theme is Contrast. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.

Changing Rooms

Room changing was all messed up in 2019. We usually move in the summer sometime, but J.R. was living with us through September. When he did move out, everyone was in school, and we started moving, but it was a slow process. We would work on it on the weekends and it wasn't until Fall break that we got most people situated.

June wanted to paint the room she was going into. She actually painted the last room we painted, the green room. Come to think of it, every room that has been painted, was painted when June asked. I think her sisters are a bit annoyed that she is the one that gets to paint. She was the one who started the Hot Air Balloon room too.

To be clear, everyone gets to paint, not just June. It is just June who gets to enjoy the fruits by living in the freshly painted room. Everyone had to agree on a color this time around. It took a long time to decide but the girls finally agreed to a pink and grey.

One step at a time. First we taped a plastic sheet to the floor, so we could keep as much paint off the carpet as possible. Then the girls went to town. Pink on top.

It is hard to tell, but the room was a creamy color before with yellow and cream stripes on the bottom half. I believe it was decorated with a bee theme before we moved in. Cute, but ready for a change. Next up, grey on the bottom.

I went in later and worked on painting the chair rail white to match the baseboards. It looked a little sickly with the yellow, but rather sharp with the white.

All done. What do you think? It makes me think of Neapolitan.

June got to work moving her stuff in. The room feels nice.

Other rooms that I did get pictures of, although not before and after pictures. Here is Pearl's room downstairs.

And Daisy's room in the hot air balloon room.

Everyone is pretty comfortable, but I'm thinking of moving rooms early this year. What else are we going to do with all this extra quarantine time??

February Chatbook 2020

Let's chat about February people. This is before we knew about Corona. Before we even saw quarantine coming. Everything was going along like a well oiled machine. By well oiled machine, I mean we were still the same quirky people we have always been, with strange pictures that we take randomly. Let's see what the month had in store...

I was out of town right at the beginning of the month. (Still in Washington.) This is what dinner looks like without mom. What a energetic group.

Nova really hated baths in the beginning, but it looks like she is getting used to them.

I like this photo that Robyn edited. The grandfather clock is a nice touch.

Daisy did the Engineering Fair. (I do not like the engineering fair. Can't the kids do a regular Science fair?) She and Diana made a fun colored spray to go on light bulbs, so you can change the color to soothe the kids you babysit. Then it washes off again. It was a creative idea. However, i'm still finding paint in my bathroom where they put it together. I keep chanting, Kids are more important than stuff.

If you read this blog at all, you know we love Screen printing around here. So when I walked through the art rooms at the high school, I was very impressed with their screen printing operation. It is just a touch above ours.

Check out this awesome art by Pearl. Looks like they were doing some impressionist art. Pearl didn't love hers but I think it gives a good impression.

Tyler was growing out his hair. You can tell it is getting long when I can braid it. Not too shabby. I think it is quite fetching.

I was able to go with the Jazz band to a conference in St. George. It was amazing. Mrs. Taylor spoke about how to teach jazz band. She is very inspiring and awesome at what she does. And I had no kids in attendance, so I didn't worry about recording or taking pictures. I just got to relax and enjoy the address and music.

I also saw these fun practice counters there. So I made my own. Daisy now has one above the piano to remind her to practice. It helps that she gets a candy when she flips over a big bead.

We unearthed this plate I got a long time ago. It is great for white board messages. And cute guys like Edwin, compliments of Daisy.

June had to do a makeup day for her P.E. Lifeskills class. So she invited me to come bowl with her and her friends. They are such cuties. It is possible that I won because none of them are amazing at bowling. However, what they lack in bowling, they make up in smarts. These three girls are incredibly intelligent. Their average ACT score is 34.7. Not just pretty faces.

I don't love inside toys going outside, because they usually don't come back in and then they are ruined. But I did appreciate this prison created by the youngins. It reminds me of things that Miranda and I used to make when we were young.

We haven't had a dishwasher for a long time. We have come up with dozens of ways to figure whose turn it is to wash. I can tell when Daisy has been washing since she comes up with the most creative ways of stacking her dishes.

Nova loves to chase a ball all day long. There is possibly only one thing she likes more and that is balloons. We don't play with them too often because I'm worried about her choking on balloon pieces because when she is involved, it is guaranteed that she will eventually get it. She is like a shark. Often you can hear her teeth snapping in the air as she tries to snag it. It is terrifying and really fun all at the same time.

Tyler was super brave and took Ivory and Daisy to the Provo Library Book Sale. That place is a zoo. I was out of town and so he took them. Best Dad ever. And this picture is pretty awesome too.

Eric comes and plays games with us now and then. We have played some very interesting games that he has brought. He likes a game with tons of strategy. I like strategy, but sometimes my brain needs a break at the end of the day. Here we are playing Survive. If you recognize this game, you are old, like me. :)

For a few years now, I've decided to let the girls do their own thing when it comes to Valentine's boxes. They come up with better ideas when I don't help. This year, Daisy and Pearl made darling boxes. I was on art tour but Tyler sent along a picture. How sweet is this taco and hippo box?

It is really fun to draw on Dad's feet. Or anyone's feet. It is tickly and it is fun to watch them squirm. Daisy was working on Dad. She seems to love it too.

I'm not sure this picture needs any description. It is what it is.

Nova doesn't always sit like a dog. Tyler calls it sitting stupid. It looks a little funny.

I find forts around the house sometimes, but this is the first truck fort I've found. Bet it won't be the last.

Skate night happened. If I calculate correctly, only two more years of skate night and then we can stop going. I shouldn't' complain. I didn't have to go to this one. We just dropped the kids off. And they do love to skate. And it is a right of Elementary passage. I remember my skate days at Skate King. (Which is now closed.)

So, I never posted when we changed rooms because some girls never got their room 'photo ready'. I should really put pictures on here of when we painted. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. We painted in the fall and June finally got some shutters for her window in March. (It's clearly a process.) They look pretty good.

Tyler still does interviews with his girls. Pearl's favorite place to chat is the roof. Why not?

This was such a fun night. We went over to play games with Bart and Rebecca just a week or so before quarantine. They have so many fun games and taught us a new one called Wingspan. Someday we'll have them over to play games to return the favor.

I don't know who took this picture, but it looks so sad. It reminds me of that awful French show with the little boy and the red balloon.

Ivory and Daisy were trying to see how they would look with bangs. I'm thinking they look pretty special.

When I brought jam back from Art Tour, the trip did something weird to it. We called it anti-gravity jam. It stayed this way for a couple weeks. Impressive. 

That wraps up February. Just some normal days in the Cazier life. We like to play and work and smile. And we certainly like to laugh at ourselves now and then. Keeping it real.