Our 4th of July Sunday was super low-key.  We went to church, came home and napped, and then headed over to a friend’s house for dinner and fireworks. The kids had fun running around in the backyard.

All the kids (and a certain Dad) enjoyed a Popsicle.

The cupcakes were yummy too.

As it got dark, we had a little fun with sparklers, before the main show began.

We moved to the driveway, where watched some more pre-show festivities.

They were fun for the big kids, but Adam did NOT like the noise.  Around 9:30, the Falls Church City fireworks display began.  We had a great view of them from the driveway.

It was also VERY LOUD.  And Adam wanted no part of it.  So, he, Wendy & I retreated inside, where we enjoyed a great view from an upstairs bedroom.

With the noise muted by the window panes, Adam enjoyed the show much more.

At the end of the show, we headed home and fell asleep fast.  It was a fun, no stress way to celebrate the holiday.

Usually, we do a big backyard party for Sam’s birthday each June.  I tend to go all out (see the Race Car, Frog, and Construction parties for example) and this year, I just wasn’t feeling it.  I didn’t have the energy to do the big birthday ‘do so I decided to make a deal with Sam.  I said, “What if, instead of a big party, we go to Dutch Wonderland instead?”  At first, he wasn’t sure, but once he saw some pictures, he was on board.

So, finally I made good on my promise and we went this past Sunday-Monday.  We left Sunday after church and got up to the Lancaster area around 3pm.

We stayed at the Amish Country Motel, which is part of the Bird-In-Hand properties.

The motel is very budget –  no frills.  It was clean, but there is nothing special about it — except that we were able to stay in a 2 room suite, which worked out perfect for our family.

After settling in, we went over to the BIH Family Inn and made use of their pool.  That place is great!  It had a nice outside pool with a beach entry, along with 2 indoor pools and a hot tub.

After swimming for a bit  we had dinner at the Plain & Fancy Farm Restaurant — it is an overpriced tourist stop, but it was decent enough and one of the  few options available on a Sunday evening in Amish Country.

I have to say, it was really interesting being in this area.  While there is plenty of development in and around Lancaster, the Bird-in-Hand area is quaint.  Everything looks like your typical bucolic farming area – regular houses, surrounded by farmland.   But then you pass a buggy.

And then another and another.  Later, when driving home at night, I noticed many of the homes were lit by candles.   It’s in sharp contrast to the area 5 minutes away.  Once we got on Rte 30, it was bustling with development and enterprise.  It’s really interesting to consider how the two cultures intersect and overlap.  It’s also amazing to consider how simply the Amish live, even in 2010.  No iPhones, WiFi, or any of the electronic nonsense that we consider “essential”.  Like Mike observed, the Amish have been living “green” long before eco-friendly was hip or cool.

After dinner, the plan was to head over the Dutch Wonderland and do the preview deal.  In case you didn’t know – if you arrive at the park within 3 hours of closing, you can pay for a full price ticket for the *next* day and get to enter the park for the remainder of the current day.

By dinnertime, it was clear that Adam wasn’t going to be up for another outing that evening, so we dropped him and Mike at the motel and I took Wendy & Sam over to the park.  We didn’t get there til 7pm (park closes at 8:30) but had a great time checking out as many rides as we could.  There were hardly any lines – it was wonderful to not have to wait to ride.

See the pictures after the jump.

Sunday night fun:

Our version of Sir Patrick & Princess Brooke

We stayed til the park closed at 8:30pm, excited to come back and ride more in the morning.

Monday dawned hot and humid. I worried about the forecast of possible thundershowers, but it turned out fine.  Even in the heat, we had a great time.  Before entering the park, we got to meet the “real” Sir Patrick and Princess Brooke.

At the entrance — they check your bag (mostly for contraband food, I think) and then make you walk through their giftshop before entering the park.  Smart marketing.  Fortunately, our kids didn’t beg for any trinkets (I think they knew better than to ask).

We headed to the “space” area first — we missed this part the night before.  The kids liked the Space Shuttle (like the Berserker at Kings Dominion).  Wendy’s favorite ride was in this area.  It was called VR Voyager.  It was a space flight simulator and the theme was “Star Warriors”.  Similar to Star Wars, without the licensing.  Her love of Star Wars made this her top pick.

Adam had a hard time finding stuff he liked, initially.  Many of the rides allow young riders his size to participate, but they weren’t to his liking.  I made the mistake of taking him on the Astroliner, which was very tame, but enclosed you in a dark space and simulated a rocket ship ride.  He was unhappy, until he and Daddy discovered these hand crank Choo Choos.  Daddy was able to walk around and give him a push and he was in heaven.

We also saw the “big” train pass through, which made us decide it was time for a ride on it.

After that, we rode the Sky Rider over the park (like a chair lift – I wish I had gotten a pic!) then checked out some rides like Bumper Cars, Panda Party and Duke’s Dozers (below).

Then a break for lunch.  The Wiggle Racers were fun for both boys.

While they were riding those, Wendy was flying solo on the park’s other coaster, the Joust.

Then we caught one of the diving shows at the Aqua Stadium.  The storyline was cute and silly and the diving tricks were quite impressive.

The highlight was watching one diver dive from the tippiest top of a  high platform – I think someone said it was 80 feet up.

Afterwards, Wen wanted her pictures with the divers.  Aren’t they cute?

Then we hit the Turnpike for some old fashioned car driving.

Of course we had to stop and take a picture on this symbol of Lancaster County.

Then we decided we were ready for some cooling off in Duke’s Lagoon.  The water area is not quite what I expected.  There is no “swimming” just a “multi-level waterplay platform, [with] kid-sized slides, a variety of spray nozzles, jets, tipping cones, and a large tipping bucket”.   In other words, lots of ways to play and get sprayed, but no lounging in the water, like a lazy river.  This was a little disappointing to Mike & I, but the kids had fun.

The other neat feature is a giant waterslide, enclosed in tube, that you ride on raft.  Wendy, Sam, Mike & I all had fun on it.

At this point, it was after 4pm and the meltdowns were starting.  We changed out of our swim clothes and made our way out of the park, stopping a few places along the way.

Our last stop was for some good ole fashioned Turkey Hill ice cream.  A sweet treat that can’t be beat, especially when siblings share.

As we drove home, we saw a huge rainbow spanning across the sky.  It was a great reminder of God’s goodness to us and a great way to close out our day.

So, we truly had a Dutch Wonderful time in Lancaster County and look forward to returning to Dutch Wonderland again someday.

On Tuesday  morning, parents were invited to the classroom to attend their child’s publishing party.   The kids worked on writing a piece which was published in the class writing journal.  The theme for the class was writing letters and each child wrote a letter to a character from one of the three classic tales, Goldilocks, The Three Little Pigs, and Little Red Riding Hood.

At the publishing party, each child read aloud their story.  It was utterly precious and I’m so proud of my girl and how far she’s come in her first year of school.   Here’s the video clip of her reading her letter to the Three Little Pigs:

Click here to view the embedded video.

She’s speaking pretty softly, so here’s the text of her letter:

Dear Three Little Pigs,

I am sorry about your straw house and your stick house.  I am sorry that the wolf blew them over.  Next time, use bricks.  The third little pig was smart because he used bricks.  I am glad you are not hurt.  I liked hearing your story.

Your friend,

Wendy

School is winding down with a burst of activities.  One of them was the Kindergarten Picnic, held on Monday.

This was a lot of fun for the kids.  Also fun for the grown-ups as it was a chance to see everyone before school let out.  Each class made special shirts — Wendy’s class had fun signing the shirts.  The kids had pizza and ice cream and there were a bunch of fun activities like soccer, a water balloon toss,  tattoos, bubble blowing, hula hoops and more.  It’s hard to believe a full year has gone by!

Wendy with her teachers:  Ms. B and Ms. D

She had a great experience in kindergarten and I am thankful for the wonderful teachers she had.  They worked so hard to teach the kids and make their first school experience positive.

Before I left, I told Wendy to pick some friends and I would take her picture with them so she’d have pictures to remember them over the summer.   Look at who she picked!

My girl loves the boys, tho not in a “boy crazy” kind of way.  She loves to play Star Wars and Transformers with them.   I think she prefers a more physical style of play – she loves hanging from the monkey bars and climbing.  She’s the only 6 year old girl I know who has callouses and blisters from hanging by her hands!  But she’s not all boy — she wore a dress or skirt nearly every day to school.  Which is not to say she’s prissy – I think she brushed her hair only half the time – if I reminded her.  I love her free spirit and lack of self-consciousness.

The picnic was a lot of fun.   First grade, here we come!

Perhaps more aptly titled – how *I* made a rocket ship cake for Sam’s 5th birthday.

1. Come up with a design that is doable and agreeable to all parties.

Sam requested a rocket ship cake, so I sat down at the computer to see what I could come up with.  I didn’t want to buy a special Wilton pan, as I’ve done in the past, so I was looking for something I could do based off of a 9″x13″ pan.  There a ton of great cakes out there — but finally I found one that was the best example of what I was hoping to do.

I printed the cake I found and sketched out the specifics.  Sam wanted a circle hatch, so I had to incorporate that.

2. Bake the cake.

Note to self – when it matters, use shortening instead of spray oil to grease the pan!  I was so irked when I flipped my cake and half it was still sticking to the pan.  I was going to pitch it and try again, but then decided that frosting hides a multitude of sins and I could make it work.

3. Make the frosting.

The tricky part is getting the right consistency.  I made two batches of Wilton’s Buttercream icing and divided and tinted.  My first batch was not quite creamy enough – when I piped it, it kept breaking apart.  However, cornstarch is the great repairer of frosting errors.   I kept a little bit in a small bowl and would dab my fingers in it then gently mold the frosting back into the shape I was going for.

4.  Cut the cake as needed and apply a thin layer of frosting as a crumb coating.

I cut triangles off the top to create the domed top of the rocket, then flipped the triangular pieces and placed them next to the bottom to create the wings/rockets.  To make my crumb coat frosting, I took some of the buttercream and diluted it even more with water to make it runny.  I still struggled with getting all the edges covered well.

5. Outline the design with frosting before filling in the details.

Since I was freehanding everything, I used a toothpick to trace my design before drawing the lines.  I used a wider round tip (Ateco #11) for the blue lines — I wish I had something a little smaller.  I switched to my Wilton #3 for the rest of the lines.  #3 seems to be the recommended outline tip that Wilton uses in most of it’s cake designs (the ones I’ve used, anyway).

For the circle, I wanted to use the cool edible markers that I have, but I found the frosting was too soft.  So I cut a circle out of wax paper and markered my astronaut on that.  This worked well enough and he was excited to see “himself” in the rocket ship.

For all the filling in, I used the Wilton #16 star tip and did the “star technique“.  Labor intense, but effective.  For the border around the base, I used a larger star tip and did a sort of wave thing.  My hand was getting tired and time was running short, so it’s a bit sloppy.

For the jet fire, I used the biggest open star tip I had (mine’s an Ateco #6) and attempted the “shell technique“.  Mine looks atrocious, but the overall effect is achieved and looks pretty neat (from a distance).

6. Light the candles, serve and celebrate!

While I’m no Buddy Valastro and my cakes certainly aren’t going to win any awards, I do love seeing my kids eyes light up when they see that special cake made just for them.  Baking and decorating my kids’ birthday cakes definitely works for me.

For other Ideas for Rocket Ship Cakes, check out these links:

• Coolest-Birthday-Cakes.com
• MarthaStewart.com
• Parenting.com
• Family Fun
• Google Images
• CakeWorks.com
• BettyCrocker.com
• Wilton.com

For other Works For Me Wednesday tips, head over to We Are That Family!

Our oldest son/middle child turned a year older yesterday — how in the world did he get to be 5?!?  Sam is my strong-willed kid and can turn a good situation sour faster than I can bat an eye.  Though he can be obstinate and challenging, he is also such a tender and sweet little boy.  I love watching how is mind is developing.  He is inquisitive and sharp and has a wonderful desire to understand how things work.  He will ask me which pedal does what in the car and will predict logical outcomes with his newfound knowledge.   “Why” questions can wear on me, but I love his “how does this work?” questions.   We think the boy definitely has a future as engineer or some other left-brained job.

Anyway, we had a perfectly lovely birthday day with a pleasant disposition all day long.  It started in the morning with the opening of one present I couldn’t wait to give him (we normally do presents in the evening, after dinner).

It was a CD I made of all his favorite songs that play on the kids channel on XM Radio.  I knew he would love it and I had such fun watching his eyes light up when a new song came on.  I also made this fun little CD cover for him:

I think he liked that too.   For lunch, we met Daddy at Jason’s Deli, which was a special treat.  The soft serve ice cream is always a hit.

For dinner, I always let the birthday child pick the menu.  Sam requested hot dogs :).  Since Grandad was coming, I tried to fancy it up just a little, so the full menu included:  roasted chicken, corn-on-the-cob, salad, baked beans, and peas.  A special bonus:  all items were optional and dessert was guaranteed!

And of course birthday cake!  We usually do a big party in the backyard, but this year I wasn’t feeling up to it.  So we made a deal — instead of a party with lots of friends, we would take a trip to Dutch Wonderland.  However, even without a party, I still wanted to make him a special cake.  Sam requested a rocket ship cake and this is what I came up with:

Sam helped me pick the design and specified what colors to use, but I made him wait til the birthday song to view the final product.  He was pretty pleased.

After dinner came the presents!  He got two cool Lego fire truck sets from Grandad and U.Bear, A.Melis and Cousin O.

He was pretty psyched with all the lego stuff!  He also got a new Shaun the Sheep video that we all look forward to watching.

Grandma & Grandpa sent 3 Jelly Telly DVDs called “What’s in the Bible?”  This series is the brainchild of Phil Visher (of Veggie Tales fame) and is a really cute and fun way to  educate kids about the Bible.  Finally came the rest of our presents.   He got a new backpack for school, new Crocs (with Optimus Prime shoe charms!), and a whole bunch of Wiffle balls from Daddy.

All in all, it was a lovely, low-key kind of day and a wonderful way to celebrate a wonderful boy.  Although his independent nature challenges us at times, we trust the Lord is going to use that independence in mighty ways and are thankful to have a role in shaping his character as he grows.  We love you, Sam I Am!

We love you Daddy!  Here’s a little video to let you know.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Note:  initially I had a bad link, video should work now.

Every minute of Memorial Day Weekend seemed to be packed with activities.  On Sunday, it was the annual neighborhood block party.  Not sure how many years we’ve been doing it now, but it seems to get bigger and better each year.    This year we invited Grandad, Aunt Melissa, Uncle Bear and Cousin Owen to join us so we quadrupled our fun.

We had delicious BBQ, there were moonbounces of all varieties, there was water fun, tattoos, Science Experiements, the Great Zucchini! and even a band!  I was exhausted from everything else we had been up to all weekend, so I pretty much fell in bed and passed out by 9pm, but we all had a blast.   Here’s some of the highlights below.   Uncle Bear took even more photos, so check out his shots as well.

This weekend marked our 12 year anniversary.  We celebrated by having a yard sale and convincing some friends to keep the kids (overnight!).

Once we were footloose and fancy free, we cashed in on two Groupons I recently scored.   Without telling Mike our destination, I directed him into Clarendon where we found street parking.  A short stroll down the street and we found ourselves at Artisan Confections.

After stuffing ourselves silly, we rolled out of there and returned to an empty house (whee!) where we finally took the time to watch The Blind Side.  What a great movie!

It was a busy fun filled day and a great way to celebrate 12 years together.   It’s not always easy and not always fun, but as Mike would say, it’s never dull!  And I’m so thankful to have had these 12+ years together with Mike, there’s no one I’d rather walk this journey with.  Lord willing, we look forward to 12 more, many times over.

It seems that May has been a busy month.  A few activities have gone unchronicled, so I want to mention them before they are completely obsolete.

May Fair

The first is the elementary school’s May Fair, which was held the first Saturday in May.   It’s a big money maker for the school’s PTA and is promoted heavily.   So, everyday of that week, W kept telling me, “I can’t WAIT for the May Fair!”  She was so excited, even though she really didn’t have much of a clue about it.

The fair was full of carnival-esque games and activities and food.  EVERYTHING cost $, so we made the kids spend their own money on tickets.  They each spent $3 which bought them 6 tickets which didn’t go very far.   But it was good practice in decision making.   Wendy blew thru her wad pretty quick and sweet-talked her dad into shelling out more tickets for her.  Sam couldn’t decide what to spend his tickets on and actually had some leftover at the end of the day.  It was a hot hot day.  Here’s the photos:

Little Bunny Foo Foo

Despite living in a dense suburban neighborhood a few minutes from our nation’s capital, there is nature to be found.   In fact, our local rabbit population is thriving.  We often see them in our yard or our neighbor’s yards, but didn’t know how thriving the population was until we discovered baby rabbits in our backyard.   We “discovered” them when Wendy accidentally stepped on one — they were hiding under some pulled up weeds she walked on.   I ran inside to get my camera and forgot to tell the kids “no touch” until I got back.  They had already petted them.   I took a few pictures and then removed the kids and the dog from the yard for a while, in hopes that momma rabbit would return to her brood.   Later I went back to check on them and the bunnies were no longer there.   I hoped they had moved on to greener pastures, but alas, I later still I found one lil bunny dead in another part of our yard.  I’m holding out hope the others are doing okay, but as Mike reminded me, “If they didn’t, don’t worry, there’ll be more.”

Mother’s Day

Last Sunday was a beautiful day to celebrate.  We spent the afternoon at my dad’s house, where Mike, Dad, and brother Bear put together a delicious meal of grilled chicken and yummy sides.  The kids had a blast riding bikes up and down Grandad’s quiet cul-de-sac and I enjoyed doing nothing.  It was a nice way to pass the day.

The Dentist

The big kids had their biannual dentist visit last week and once again did great.   The practice we go to does a pretty good job – so far we’ve had great hygienists, which makes all the difference in the world.  Sam has teeth just like his Daddy and got a clean bill of health.   Wendy’s mouth seems more similar to mine and she had two cavities :(   She was a trooper tho and didn’t complain.   Wendy still hasn’t lost any of her baby teeth, which she is bummed about, but was excited to learn that she has a 6 year molar coming in.   Hopefully when those adult teeth do come in, we can take better care of them!  She listens carefully to the dentist tho and has been gungho to floss since her appointment.  If I can remember to remind her, she’ll probably do alright.

This is Wendy, post appointment.  She wanted to show off her new toothbrush and prize (a ring), but I wanted to show off her outfit.   She has a unique fashion sense and I generally don’t interfere.  She loves dresses and skirts and lots of pink!   She has a sweet personality and her love of life shines through in all she does … and wears.