My Crazy Life as a Farmers Wife

Birthday Boy & 3-Day Getaway

My one and only son, Russell, turned nine years old on Monday. I can't believe how the time flies...but I love every moment I have with him! We celebrated his birthday with family and then we hit the road first thing the next morning to go visit my sister, Tawsha, and her kids in the Boise area.

1. Russ & his little cousin, McKarlee 2. Russ and his best buds/cousins at his birthday party 3. Russ with his new skateboard he got for his birthday 4. A birthday trip to Chuck E. Cheese's 5. A strawberry tart for the birthday boy at Panera 6. The little girls talked us into taking them to Build-A-Bear 7. Posing with their new stuffed animals 8. Happy Meals at the park for dinner 9. Kate & Adi riding on the path 10. The kids all riding their scooters on the pathway 11. Lily posing for mom 12. Kate & McKarlee blowing on dandelions, making a wish 12. Visiting the aquarium 13. Grace & McKarlee riding in the car 14. El Gallo Giro for lunch (2 adults and 7 kids). The craziest part, is that a couple of older ladies came up to us and said we had the best behaved children they have ever seen. Must have been a lucky moment for us ;) 15. Hanging out in the park with cousins.

Birthday Girls

Our lives have been busy lately...more so than usual. I'm hoping for things to slow down a bit, but our potato harvest starts this week, so I know that the pace won't change for a while yet. Most of us seem to have either a horrible cough or sore throat, and we're trying to rest as much as we can today to get feeling better before harvest starts. 

Yesterday, my sweet baby, Kate, turned five years old. She and Lily are both five years old until Tuesday...my cute little Irish Twins. Because their birthdays are so close, we usually celebrate them together (and since I usually buy them matching presents, Lily can't really wait to open hers). This is the first year in their lives that we haven't been digging potatoes during their birthday (we're starting a little later than normal this year), so we really actually got to celebrate their birthdays. In fact, we treated them to lunch at McDonald's and even ate outside at the play area and let them play on the kids toys. This is a very rare occasion, because one, we're not real fans of McDonald's, and two, I don't usually let my kids play on public toys because they gross me out :) But the girls had a blast...Kate said "This is the best birthday of my whole life!". Later in the day, we had grandmas and grandpas over for dinner, and Kate got to pick her favorite dinner and dessert. She chose Corn Chowder with breadsticks and Raspberry cupcakes. 

Ten

I can't believe it...my Gracie turned ten years old last month!!! I can't express what a joy she is to have as a daughter. I love her more than words can ever express :) We celebrated with a low-key party this year. We had grandma & grandpa over for one of Grace's favorite dinners... BBQ chicken, cole slaw and swiss cheese on homemade oatmeal rolls...with strawberry cheesecake trifle for dessert. And for her birthday present, she got a vintage decorative tailpiece on her violin, a magnet board in her bedroom and dad ordered her a special pogo stick.