Cameron's 5th Birthday Party

Cameron really wanted a snake cake for his birthday. So we naturally had a jungle theme. It began with our guests being greeted with a "Welcome to the Jungle" sign. Little did I know there's a song called "Welcome to the Jungle". What do I know, I have always said that I missed the 80's.
Personally, I am not very happy with the way the snake cake came out. I have been experimenting with frostings and wanted to try fondant. Snake formed cake was a bad choice for fondant. Despite my dislike, my cute little boy thought it spectacular. He was radiant in his lizard shirt.
You can't see it, but I hung crepe paper and stapled leaves to it to make it a festive jungle. Cameron blew out his candles and said, "Now I'm FIVE!!" Never mind the three days until his birthday, he truly felt he was 5 after that ceremonious ritual. Cameron will always be my best birthday present ever. He has blessed this family with his compassion, smiles, and laughter, just some of the reasons I love Cameron.

20 at 30

This is picture is not going to win me any beauty pagents, but it is one that I am very proud of. Last Friday August 8th, the day before my 30th birthday, I ran 20 miles. I started at 4:10 a.m. and finished seconds before 7:10 a.m. I was completely soggy from sweat, with salt encrusting my face, and I was tired, but I was so happy! I did it. I think I can actually run that marathon come October. You may see sweat and matted hair, but I see strength and determination.

MUD FIGHT!!!!!!!!!

What a mother I am! I let my children fight, with mud, in crazy clothes (Cameron's still in his pajamas!), in the heat, in the middle of a dandelion jungle! And yet, it was too funny not to document. As you can see they were having a blast. It was actually fairly warm, at least for Sequim, and they all had on long sleeves. Laurel, who is out growing the lion costume, still insists on wearing the costume as regularly as possible. Cameron most days refuses not to put on real clothes, unless we are most decidedly leaving the house. I have stopped fighting it mostly. I figure I rarely feel like getting dressed too, although I do.
A dirt encrusted dimple! That one dimple of his can't be covered up! It's one of Cameron's most endearing features (even if he is about to devilishly hit his brother with a mud clod).
Mud, costume and all, this little girl is so beautiful to me! Now if we can just subdue her screaming, she'd be perfect.

This picture shows the excitement and action of the whole event. I think Ethan was the master mind behind this entire scheme. What a fun boy his is.

Wedding Season

Well it's officially here. Wedding Season. I have had 4 wedding invitations on my fridge for a couple weeks. This does not count the bridal and baby shower invites I have also received. It's nice to know so many wonderful events are happening in the live of those whom we know. Last night there were 2 receptions for two lovely couples who married in the temple. I was excited (and exhausted) to make the wedding cake for one of the receptions. Here are some of the pictures.

The wedding colors were cream, red, and chocolate brown. It was interesting to incorporate those colors on a cake. Everyone oohed and aahed over it.

Then Walt and I moseyed over to the other reception and I saw her cake. It was remarkable! That cake looked almost exactly like the cake I made but with different colors! Hooray! I make professional quality cakes!!!

Arial Phenomenon

Walt arrived home for lunch less than an hour ago. He came in, grabbed the camera, and then headed back out. Because this beautiful rainbow cloud was in the sky. I ran out and took many more pictures. It was AMAZING! We have never seen anything like it. As the minutes went by the cloud changed into the one below. The cloud formation and the color orientation changed. Wow! Heavenly Father is truly the best artist. I'm just glad we all got to see it. We watched for many minutes until the color faded entirely.

"Chick magnet"

I just had to write this down so that I never forget it. Saturday we traveled from the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico to Denver to Seattle to Sequim. There was a bunch of travel time. There were also many movies (thank-you to the person who invented portable DVD players, you are a life-saver!!!) One of the movies the kids watched was CARS, and in the movie the car Chick-Hicks says something about becoming a "Chick magnet." So Ethan says to Cameron, "You know what that means?" At this point Walt and my ears perk up, we are truly interested in how our 6 almost 7 year-old son is going to teach his little brother about chick magnets. "It means that Chick is going to become a magnet and stick to all the other cars." Walt and I busted up laughing, mostly relieved that he didn't really know. Although, his explaination was perfectly sound in his mind, we enjoyed this little moment. Oh, what will happen as they age and eventually become teenagers is truly scary and mind boggling, what sort of information (misinformation) will be passed back and forth. I shudder to think of it!

Princess Laurel turns 3!

So many things have happened here in the last few months. I just got out of the habit of updating this blog. I debated whether to go back and add in all the other good stuff, but I'm exhausted! Today was a great day. Laurel turned 3!!!! I can barely believe it. She is so fun. Everyday she must wear a princess dress, but today we truly made her feel like the princess that she is.
Here are all the kids at the small party we had for Laurel. Laurel said she wanted Ethan, Cameron, and her best friend Kate (red-head in the orange jacket) to come. So, we invited the entire Hill family over for tacos and cake. Grandma and Grandpa Williams came too!
Laurel got just a few presents. She received "Enchanted" the movie. She has been going around singing like the princess Giselle in the movie for a few weeks now after borrowing the movie from friends. She was so thrilled! She also got a lot of dress-up clothes and accessories. She is at the perfect age for pretending. She often wants to wear her lion costume, but now I will have something else to look at. She loved it. The first picture in this blog was her wearing her crown, glass slippers (that seem a bit dangerous for a little girl to be walking in). and jewelry. Later on in the evening she had all this plus purple satin gloves, an Easter bonnet with the tiara on top and a silver sash. Too bad I didn't get a picture of this. She looked more like the Queen of England than a fairytale princess. She was unforgettably adorable.

This is the cake for a princess. It was HUGE. I will be inviting people over for cake for a few days to polish off this baby! Laurel chose it from several pictures of cakes I showed her. She is becoming so much of an individual and is really figuring out how she is different from all the boys. I love it!! I can't lie. I love indulging her a bit into this fantasy world. She just glowed today. She truly is a princess!

One of my favorite pictures of the night. Three beautiful princess girls. Laurel so often seems left out, because she doesn't always want to do all the things that the boys do. Today, she was so spoiled by the girls in the house. They dressed her up many times and played with her. She really felt special and it showed!