Sunny Side Up

This is what I'm serving the kids for breakfast tomorrow morning.

I hope they're hungry.

I totally stole this idea from Family Fun.

Dolphin Swing

I purchased this very large bright blue dolphin swing about 8 years ago at a garage sale for probably a buck. It was one of the best "bucks" I've ever spent because we've used it with all 4 kids now. Here's proof...

S, 2003

S, 2003 - ouch! How do babies sleep like this?

Scrunched up J, 2005.

S and J, 2005.

Z, 2007.

And the tradition continues last week: R, 2010.

Oh blue dolphin swing, how I love thee!

7 weeks old

We'll be walking down memory lane for the next few posts.

My grandmother's pink pillowcase, 7 years ago:

S, 7 weeks old, 2003

and today. R, 7 weeks old, 2010.

S wins the prize for having the most (wacky) hair.

All that dark hair is also known as the "Garland Blonde."

Coming tomorrow: a playset swing that has served us well for all 4 of our kids.

Shields Up

I've decided to add permissions to my blog, and they'll go into effect Monday April 5, 2010. So starting Monday, you will need to be "approved" by me (get a blog invitation) before you can view the blog.

If you'd like to continue to read about the Garland Family (and I hope you do!), please send me an email with the word "blog" as the subject to wsgarland at gmail dot com. If I've never met you in person, please let me know a little about you.

Sorry to add this extra hassle, and possibly an extra login step, but we want to keep our family and kids safe. Thank you so much for reading! Many fun adventures ahead, I'm sure. With this extra protection, I'm hoping my blog can only get better as I will feel more comfortable to share life/family fun stories!

Blue Angel Birthday

J had a fun birthday celebration last week. The devoted Mr. Garland decorated his awesome Blue Angel jet cake. He asked for cinnamon toast for breakfast, PBJs for lunch and pancakes (with sprinkles) for dinner. Such a special little 5 year old boy, we love him so much.

Recent School Activities

Playing the "weather game": We're studying weather, seasons and climate for science right now.

PE Day field trip included hula hooping and a 3-legged race.

We've been playing a ton of hangman on the whiteboard recently. Great game for spelling!

(Solution: "The Cat in the Hat.")

Birthday Interview: J age 5

What is your fav color(s)? Green and blue

What is your fav food? Mac and cheese, chinnamon toast, pancakes and PBJs

What is your fav book(s) or what books have you read recently? Barney’s Christmas surprise and Dooby Dooby Moo

Who do you like to play with? Who are some of your friends? TJ, Brody and Sarah

What do you like to do outside? Take a hike to the tire swing and back, ride my bike and scooter

What do you like to do inside? Play legos with Daddy and Sarah

What was the best part about being (age minus 1)? Winning Uno (card game)

What will you do when you're (new age)? Play with Ian because we’re both 5

Where did you go this year? golfing, the beach house

What Bible verse do you know? What’s your favorite verse? All have sinned. Christ died on the cross.

What do you want to be when you grow up? A police

Favorite sport? basketball

How tall will you be? As tall as daddy

Favorite animal? Jaguar

Favorite thing about our family? Rachel

Best vacation? Family Camp, because they have mini golf

What are you really good at? Riding my bike

Something you want to get better at? basketball

Favorite candy? licorice

What chores do you have? Bringing in snacks, setting the table

favorite thing your mom makes? Mac and cheese

favorite thing to do with daddy? Play basketball

favorite song? The B-I-B-L-E

What makes you laugh? Tickling… that’s fun

What bugs you? Zac

Saver or spender? Saver

Happy birthday J - we love you!!!

Bathtime

Mmmmmeals

One major perk to having a baby is... well, yeah, having a baby in the house to stare at, care for, etc. But guess what else happens? People, deliciously wonderful people, dear friends, bring you food. Amazing food. We are so blessed, and we have eaten so well these past weeks. Taco casserole, baked ziti, tilapia with orange sauce, spaghetti, chili, pizza pockets, lasagna, beef stroganoff, and the list goes on... it has all been so great. Mostly because I didn't make it and clean up was minimal. We're so blessed. It's a true labor of love.

One family from church... who didn't even know us (!) brought us a meal. Amazing.

Here's just one of our amazing meals...

Chicken Parmesan

But it's back to real life now, and I'm doing the cooking again.

I wish I could have a baby every other month.

Not really.

6 weeks

Here are some photos of R with her eyes open (as opposed to closed for the newborn photo session). Here's a quick update on our sweet one. (For Pricilla :)

She's still wearing her leg brace... we'll hopefully get to take it off once she's 6 months old.

Her eyes are a dark blue now, but you never know if they'll change color as she gets older. S's eyes are blue, J's are hazel and Z's are deep brown. I wonder what color she'll end up with? I love it when she stares at me with her cross-eyed newborn eyes. As you can see her hair is very dark, but all of our kids started out with black hair and then grew in blonde, just like their daddy. We'll see.

She started smiling this week... be still my heart. Guess who slept for 8 hours straight the last 2 nights? Oh I'm in heaven. We'll see if it lasts.

Updated: it didn't. Oh well!

Mini Golf

It's a given that seven year old little girls love pink.

Pink legos.

Pink cups.

And of course,

pink golfballs.

I have no idea how to play this crazy game but it sure is fun and by the way would someone please wipe my nose because it's been running non stop for about 3 weeks now?

Hole-in-one-boy.

Future golfer in a pouch.

Gutter Boats

We've had quite a bit of rain recently, so we had our first boat race. Otherwise known as "decorate popsicle sticks with crayons and send it down the street gutter race." It was quite fun.

The racing boats.

The audience.

S was in charge of finish line to start line boat transportation (using her bike basket).

On your marks, get set, go!

The finish line (see sidewalk chalk) - make sure you catch the boats before they float into the catch basin, also known as "gutter boat heaven."

The winner's trophy!

Newborn Photos

Photos taken by Cassie.

Baby a gift from God.

Wordless Wednesday: Picnic Lunch at the Harbor

Who Needs a Television...

... when we can all gather around and stare at our sweet little sister?

First Bath

Your first shampoo and scalp massage is always a shocker.

Transition.

She goes from this.

And a little more of this.

To this,

this,

this,

to a whole lot more of this.

While her mom goes nuts snapping photos because she just can't enough.

Valentines Day Wrap Up

Yeah, I know it's March already. I'm a little behind ... oh well. For V-day this year, I made the standard semi-heart shaped pancakes (which are always a hit) with whipped cream and red candy sprinkles.

I was thrilled to steal this idea (a very fun blog - they just had a new baby too) for Valentines to hand out to family and friends. I loved this idea! I love reading blogs... I get fun ideas for new things to try, whether it be recipes, home school, crafts or whatever. Next year I'll probably do a repeat except with a heart pencil or something fun like that.

(And yes I do realize that two of the three photos above are not oriented properly. I have no idea why this happens, this is not the first time. I upload them in the correct orientation over and over but they get rotated 90 degrees. I'm guessing it's a problem with blogger. If anyone knows how to fix this, please let me know before I pull all my hair out.)