Birthday Boy!

Truman turned ONE on Sunday! Happy Birthday, Truman! Evelyn chose the theme for his cake, because a couple weeks earlier, she heard him say the bee-buzzing sound. I thought that was a good idea! So it was quite fun to think of how to put a big bee on his cake.




I expected him to dive right into his cake, once he figured out what it was. But he wanted nothing to do with it! Even after I forced his hand into the icing, then forced it into his mouth to give him a taste of the sweet stuff, he still wouldn't voluntarily touch the icing. Maybe he's remembering that I've told Evelyn and John to never-ever-ever touch a cake, and he wanted to stay out of trouble.

So here he is, trying to wipe the forced icing off his hand and onto the table:



However, after I had cut up a piece on his tray, he had noooo problemo shoveling it into his mouth.

Time for a few presents (after Tru-boy got a good bath). In these next 2 pictures, you can tell by his mouth that he's making the little-boy car sounds as he pushes his new cars around. He's had some good instruction from big-brother John!

The day after Truman's birthday, he had to go to the doctor for 3 immunizations. I think one of those shots had a dose of 'up-n-go', because that afternoon he took his first steps by himself. He's been practicing alot these last couple days. Of course I haven't grabbed the camera fast enough to catch it yet, but here are just a few fun pictures of the kids playing in the back yard:

Misunderstood

As I was bathing Truman a few nights ago, Evelyn came up beside me with a brush in her hand, and started brushing my hair. She told me that I have nice hair, but it's misunderstood, so she wanted to help me make it pretty.

GIRL!!! What do you mean, my hair is "misunderstood"???

I actually think that I have quite a good understanding with my daily ponytail. The ponytail gets the job done, and I'm reliably consistent. No surprise hair-dos here! How can there be any misunderstanding about that?

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There certainly wasn't any misunderstanding about Mother's Day. Brad and the kids made it a special day! First I got a song from Evelyn, to the tune of "Happy Birthday". It was "Happy Mother's Day to You," and she sang it so sweetly while she sat in my lap and cuddled up to me.

Then I got some beautiful flowers-- pink, purple and red impatiens planted in a pot on our front porch. I love them! And I got a nice card and some special pens from Brad (he knows I like pens, but will rarely buy them because we have so many of the free kinds around the house).

Then after church, Evelyn and John made me some Mother's Day cards. And Truman gave me a doodle bug. He spit it out of his mouth into my hand, and I was happy to see that it was only halfway chewed!

And last, but not least: I didn't clean anything all day!!!

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We've had soooo much rain around here the last few weeks, that we were all quite delighted to have a few diversions this weekend. Friday, Brad and I went to a Rumba dance lesson, along with our friends Dwight and Noelle. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures, even though I brought my camera. Maybe next time! But we had fun, and I think we'd both agree that we would do it again!

On Saturday, we went to a bright, festive birthday party. I got to make the cake for it, and it was a fun challenge. Here are some pictures (and yes, it's supposed to be slanted!):

And here's another cake I got to make last week:

In other cooking news, John has found a new way to prepare chicken! Here's the recipe:

1.) Sneak into the kitchen as soon as Mom is distracted away from her dinner preparations.

2.) Take one half-eaten rotisserie chicken. Liberally sprinkle with sugar and allspice.

3.) Enjoy!

So for those of you who still don't know what to make for dinner tonight... now you've got a plan!