McKinley Turns 7 !!!

This wonderful thing had the BEST birthday! She loved every second of it. Her little face was just filled with absolute joy from the moment she woke up until she went to bed! She had her favorite streamer curtain on her door and mirror graffiti proclaiming her age in the bathroom, cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate for breakfast (though she got so full on hot chocolate that she didn't have room for one cinnamon roll, instead saving it for her after school snack), cookies for her class treat (my heart melted when she requested homemade!), came home to a pile of presents, cherry coke in a wine glass, and per her precise menu: roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts with bacon, garlic bread and to finish dinner off right a coffee-toffee-vanilla-caramel-oreo cookie-ice cream pie!!! Whew!

She was super excited about this after seeing Jones use his Amazon gift card!

Keeping the suspense when she opens her present from Jones...

One of her new favorite things: designing fashions!

Future gourmet chef!

Beautiful new outfit and horse purse!

She finally has a Lego set that competes with Jones' collection!

 

A girl needs a little refreshment break after so many presents!

 

The budding artist already planning pictures with her new giant pen set!

Magic! Her new passion!

 

7 candles!

Making a wish - although before she blew out the candles
she looked at her presents and said she already got everything she wanted!

 

Jones Turns 9 !!!

Jones had a laser tag/sleepover birthday party with his 2 best friends (his 3rd best friend had a death in the family and had to go out of town) the weekend before his actual birthday. I am so lucky my guy likes to keep things small! The boys had a blast. Jones had ribs for dinner (declaring "they were good, but not like Pops' ribs!"), carrot cake for his "party" dessert and cheesecake for his "birthday" dessert. He is so spoiled! He got tons of fantastic presents and was so happy with his special day, which actually ended up being more like a special week!

Blowing out 9 candles on his carrot cake!

Boys are goofy.

A Lego present from Kinley.

Disregard beer-drinkin' Mom in the background.

In order to draw a super-hero, he must BE a super-hero!

That boy and his Xbox games!

A rock polisher to pretty up his "treasures!"

Shatto Dairy Field Trip

Jones had another field trip on Friday, to a family run dairy about an hour from Leavenworth. They sell to some local chain stores but we've never bought their milk. I usually go for organic, and we aren't "milk" drinkers, anyway. Except when heated and mixed with chocolate :) HOWEVER, this place was so much fun!!! They sell their milk in glass bottles, and they have a variety of flavors that they mix right at their little farm. Only milk from their cows goes into their products, and the cows aren't treated with rsbt. So I could feel good about the purchase I knew I was going to make!

The cows getting milked. They let the kids put theirs fingers into the pump
to see what it felt like.

One of the baby girls, born just 7 days ago. So soft and sweet!

Jones doing some milking. He was a pro after our experience on the
farm in Georgia.

The bottling process.

Their little antique truck. The horn mooooo's!

Boys being crazy on the ride home.



We got to sample all their flavors. They also sell cheese curd,
ice cream and butter. Yum! Our selections from left:
Strawberry, Cotton Candy & Root Beer
Sounds weird, but they were all delicious!
Additional flavors were banana, orange, coffee and a seasonal pumpkin pie eggnog.