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Thursday, July 8, 2010

This & That...Happy Birthday, Matt!

Last Friday, the day before the big reunion, our grandson Matthew had his second birthday. We celebrated at our favorite Chinese restaurant.





Matt was sleepy and a wee bit bemused that all the attention was focused on him.







Sister Lauren got everyone going by telling us what we should do.

















Cousin Kaitlyn kept things peaceful and on an even keel.



















Cousin Gaige thoroughly enjoyed the many buffet offerings.










Cousin Nathan provided the evening's entertainment.

















Finally, it was time to get down to business!






There was even singing by a lovely duo.

















The very exciting finale!

Lauren was giving more help than was actually needed very helpful.

Happy Birthday, dear Matthew! Happy Birthday to you!






Randomness...

too small for a post, too good to pass up.



Been braiding some garlic.



Picking blackberries and making pies and cobblers.




Little Feather has decided the best place to lay her eggs is on a chair in my 3-season room. I leave Lucy the dog out there with the door slightly propped open when I'm away for more than a few hours, and twice I've come home and found an egg lying in the chair.

Well, it's one I don't have to bring in from the coop, I guess.

28 comments:

Char said...

sooo cute!! all of it. even your chick laying the eggs in luxury.

happy weekend

Wanda..... said...

Matt looked like he was ready for some cake with his sister and cousins! Fun times!

I have some garlic I need to harvest and I've been picking blackberries too and making crisps, however no chickens here to leave me gifts of eggs!
It must be a comfy chair!

Ruth said...

This is a gorgeous post, Susie Q. Your grandbabies are getting huge. I loved Gaige's face, oh man.

The garlic braid! I don't think Don planted the right type for braiding. :( Ours are hard neck. He harvested yesterday - 43 - and hung them in the barn. They are big and beautiful, but we'll see if they can be braided.

Did you make Matthew's birthday cake?? It's so cute, and him behind it.

The blackberry pie looks divine. And Little Feather is GOR geous, and the egg too on that pretty flowered nest.

Wonderful.

ds said...

Happy Birthday, Matt! What a fun party. Love the random shots, too. Have never grown garlic, much less braided it, so am very impressed. Your pie is gorgeous! And when an animal sets on your cushions, you get an egg. I just get hairballs...
;)
Great post!

maggie said...

really loved your randomness.

Susan said...

Oh yeah, Char! Feather thinks she's part of the family. Now when she can't get in, she stands and squawks at the back door!

Thank you.

Susan said...

Mmmmm, Wanda, blackberry crisp sounds delicious, too, and a lot easier than rolling out pie crust!

It's a wonder I didn't sit on that egg before I noticed it! That's my favorite chair out there.

Susan said...

Thank you, dear Ruthie! They are growing, aren't they? We measured Gaige a couple of weeks ago and he's 54" tall! I couldn't believe it. Nathan's only an inch-and-a-half behind him. And Matt is going to be tall just like his dad (6'4"). He has huge hands and feet, so he has to grow into them.

I don't know if you can braid the hard neck varieties, but I think they last longer in storage. I ended up with 32 to braid and about 10 to use now. They were too small. At first, I couldn't quite get the hang of braiding that much, but I figured it out finally. It was kinda fun.

Yes, I made Matt's little cake. There were also twelve cupcakes with swirly tops and sprinkles. Those were the best, IMO. Kelly only wanted cupcakes, but I wanted him to have something with his name on it.

Oooh, that pie was deee-lish! Not to brag, but I think those were the best I've ever made (three of 'em). I got the sugar and thickness just right in the filling. It's a good thing it's almost gone.

Little Feather (named by Lauren) has always been quite a character. She's a Speckled Sussex and that picture doesn't do her feathering justice. You have to see her in the sunshine. She also has a sister named Little Sparrow.

This comment is longer than the entire post! :)

Susan said...

Believe me, ds, I get plenty of hairballs, too! David complains all the time about having to de-hair every day before he leaves for work. Hey, it happens when you have 4 cats and a dog.

Garlic is so easy to grow. You stick it in the ground in mid-October to mid-November, kinda like flowering bulbs. Heavily mulch it for winter. Harvest in mid-summer. That's all there is to it. I'm going to sow twice as much this fall. I'm going to try some hard-neck varieties like Ruth and Don.

Susan said...

Maggie, thank you for visiting and becoming a follower. Do you have a blog? I couldn't find one on your profile.

"Randomness" is a new semi-regular feature I came up with. Thank you for liking it.

Sandy Nawrot said...

These types of posts of yours make me feel all warm inside! Happy Birthday to that little apple-cheeked cherub! I am completely tickled to death that you have a hen that lays eggs on your porch furniture.

The Bumbles said...

I too admire your b-day cake efforts. All I could think of upon seeing the restaurant singers was that scene at the end of A Christmas Story ;0)

As for Little Feather, you are lucky she left behind an egg and not some other "present." Too bad it wasn't a golden egg, but those are from geese I suppose. Such a well trained hen!

VioletSky said...

Awww, so cute.

I love how your chook leaves you a thank you gift for the use of your chair!

Barb said...

Hi Susan, I came to visit from Wanda's Blog. I like the idea of having a hen lay an egg in your chair. I guess you have to be careful to check before you sit down! My Grandchildren are the lights of my life, too. Happy B-day to little Matt!

JackeeG4glamorous said...

Mmmmmm, pie.

From now on you have to look before you sit...might be eggs on your behind!

GailO said...

It's oh so cute to be 2! Happy Birthday to sweet Matt! Love his curls. Beautifull grandchildren Susan! It looks like a fun time.

That cake looks delish...then I saw the pie...oh my give me pie anyday!

Maybe if you left the door open Little Feather would lay them right in the kitchen:) How convenient!

Susan said...

Sandy, that was so sweet of you. These little munchkins definitely make me feel warm inside, too. Sometimes I want to stand them in a corner (and do!), but for the most part they're very sweet babies.

You should hear Feather when she's standing outside the door, basically yelling at me to let her in! She's hilarious.

Susan said...

Molly, that's exactly what that picture brought to my mind as well! On Facebook, I even added "farararara-rararara" to the caption. Nobody got it.

Actually, Feather did leave me an extra little "gift" the first time she laid an egg in the chair. Thank goodness that cushion is easily washable! And I think it's the other way around...she has ME trained!

Susan said...

Sanna, I think I've finally gotten her to realize that she's supposed to lay her eggs in the nest boxes like her sisters. Glad I caught the drama on camera though!

Susan said...

Hello Barb! Welcome to my blog!

Yes, I was very careful for a few days about looking before I sat! She now seems to have given up the idea that the enclosed porch is her new coop, thank goodness.

You have a very lovely blog and you live in one of my very favorite states...beautiful Colorado!

Susan said...

Jackee, yes that pie was mmmmmmm! But I'm glad it's gone, because there was getting to be much more of me to sit on an egg! I'm trying to walk it off one day at a time. I'm not sure all this hard work is worth a few moments of gastronomic pleasure.

Susan said...

LOL, Oliag! Maybe if I put an egg carton in the middle of the kitchen table, Feather would lay them directly in there and bypass the middleman, so to speak! hahaha

Oh, I know! Birthday cake leaves me cold, but when there's a pie around, I get cold chills of excitement! I would ten times rather have pie than cake.

You and I both are so blessed with healthy, happy, beautiful grandchildren, aren't we? They're what makes my world go 'round.

Anonymous said...

Little Feather laying eggs in your house just cracks me up :)
Also, I'm sure I've read it before and it's been in the back of my mind, but I didn't realize you had a Gaige. That is one of the boy names under consideration for our little one and you never hear it!

Susan said...

Stacy, she cracks me up, too. It aggravates the snot out of hubby, though! He needs to get a sense of humor. ;-)

The name Gaige is pretty rare, especially that spelling. My daughter thought Nathan wouldn't be too common these days, but it seems like every other 7-yr-old boy is named that! One good thing about the name Gaige...you can't really make a nickname out of it!

Dutchbaby said...

Does Matt know that there's a statue of him in the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans: http://www.flickr.com/photos/godutchbaby/3637934816/in/set-72157614423557660/ ??? What an angel!

The circus cake with clown polka dots is delightful and I bet it was yummy too!

The garlic braid alone is worthy of its very own post, IMHO. Love how it's displaced the hose :)

Blackberry pie, my fav.

Gotta love Little Feather's house call. What a beauty and a talent she is.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful kids! Happy birthday, Matt!

Very funny, Little Feather....laying your eggs there. That's what I call real door-to-door delivery! Ha!

Susan said...

dutchbaby! I didn't know Matt had been turned to stone! ;-) Nice picture and thank you. He's a little ornery to be an angel, though.

Wow, that braid does look like it's hanging on a hose winder, doesn't it? It's actually two decorative hooks on my 3-season room wall. David was hanging his waders there until I told him it looked like legs standing there w/o an upper body. I made him move them into the garage. Anyway, I was pretty happy with how it turned out for never having done it before.

Fortunately, Feather has been redirected back to the nest boxes, so she can take that feather out of her cap. ;-)

Susan said...

Bella that was a little too close to the door for my liking. She's back to her old routine now and seems to have forgotten it ever took place.

Thank you for the birthday wishes!