We deliver

This is one of those things I do against my will and purely because I love my child. I will hawk these candy bars and swallow my pride because she's so excited and she loves band and she can't say no to her teacher just like I couldn't say no to mine.

This is what Facebook was made for.


***We sold every one of those bars within 24 hours. Never underestimate the powerful allure of having inexpensive chocolate delivered to your door by an enthusiastic Beehive.

She's ready to roll!

Once I convinced her to sit down on the seat instead of just walk along with the bike between her legs, we were in business!

Daddy Daughter Snowflake Dance 2018

This is a picture of too super happy girls who got dolled up by their big sister and get to spend a fun night with their dad. And this is a picture of a dad that knows that after he takes these little sweeties to the dance, he will be camping in January with his oldest. 

He really is the best.

New Tricks

Mike bought Julia a cooking class for Christmas. Which is a perfectly lovely gift...especially because I got to go with her! I love spending time with Julia because I feel like I can tell her anything and we can be completely real with each other. I don't have to filter what I say. And that really is pretty rare for me. 

 We were paired up with these two sweet ladies and I couldn't help thinking maybe this will be us in a couple decades...

Our instructor was Chef McPeake. He was funny and direct and I liked him...and I actually learned a bunch of new things. Like, who knew you should be looking for the shimmer in the oil to know when it is hot enough?

We made three dishes and we tried each one. The whole class was about searing and making pan sauces. We made Pork Marsala (orange plate), Turkey Smitane (blue plate) and Beef Tips with Balsamic Butter Glaze (up above..Chef McPeake pouring our glaze over the beef after we asked him for the 5th time if he thought it looked okay.)

The turkey smitane was the very best, but I licked every single one of my plates. I'm classy like that. I'm hoping Mike makes a habit out of getting gifts for his wife that require my participation!

A soldier

oh. My mother heart. 

Part of me dreads the very idea of my son holding a gun and fighting with other men that are holding their own guns. 

And then part of me is proud of the way he loves this country and wants to serve and sacrifice for it. 

And the other part of me thinks this is a very cool photo and is pretty dang impressed at his artistic flare. And thinking of him getting all dressed up and snapping this photo in his bathroom makes me smile.  

Everly's ACTUAL 5th birthday....family style

I don't know if it was the friend party on Friday, it being a Sunday or just being extra tired, but I kinda dropped the ball for Everly's "actual" birthday. She snuggled in our bed about 5 am and was soon asking to go downstairs for breakfast.  When we got to the kitchen, she said "It doesn't look very birthdayish in here."

Ugh...I spaced the morning preparations.

Never fear! There are big kids that can hang streamers and fashion banners with speed and artistic flair. Megan and Mathew were assigned the task.

We headed off to church with a pot roast in the crock pot (the oven is broken), rolls in the breadmaker and a half-frosted cake in the garage fridge.

By the way, how awesome is it that some kind angel whispered in my ear that I might want to save half the cake and freeze it? I've never ever done that before, and it made it so that we would have a cake even though our oven is on strike.

That's super cool.

When we got back from church, we discovered that the roast was done, but the rolls hadn't been turned on. Boo! So we figured better late than never and started the countdown....90 minutes till rolls are mixed and ready. We'll skip the second rise and race over to the Ranzenbergers to cook them in their oven for 14 minutes.

It was 7 o'clock by the time we sat down to eat. We weren't exactly starving because we are family of highly trained snackers. I'm guessing most of us had already had a substantial meal made up of crackers, pickles, cereal and leftover spaghetti noodles.

I can't fight that battle.

But it won't stop us from having our birthday roast with this 5 year old Zippy Zap!

I love the look on her face. She is feeling the love and basking in the glow of the candles. I hope she remembers how much we love her as she grows up and life gets more complicated.

In true Hufford style, she conducted the last few measures of her birthday song.

I would love to know what is in her heart. Does she have a special birthday wish?

A bunch of sillies all having rainbow cake:

Opening Grandma Kathleen's gift. It was a fairy making kit! Withing 15 minutes of the party's end, she had opened it up, decked out her fairy and married her to Rider from Paw Patrol. Laney and Anna assisted with the wedding.

You can never have enough stuffed corduroy wiener dogs dressed in cable knit sweaters.

She's five! And she's not a baby anymore....she's one of the goofies.

Happy Fifth, Everbee. You are the sweetest! It's going to be a great year!

Oh dear....

There was this spot on the inside of the glass and I just couldn't reach it....then I started watching YouTube tutorials and now I'm just praying I can get the door back on.

After I get that dang spot.

Naturally.

Everly's 5th birthday - Friend Party to Wonderscope!

It's Everly's birthday and that means....Rainbow cake!!

The key to it is making two white cake mixes and dividing them each in half and making them each a different color. Red, yellow, green and blue seem to get that rainbow idea across the best. If she still wants a rainbow cake when she gets married, I'll add in orange, purple and violet. How cool would a rainbow wedding cake be?

Since we are doing a family party later and this thing is crazy tall, I decided we could freeze half of each color and just do half at each party.

I think it turned out cute!

Everly was playing at Jovee's house and so she actually was third to arrive at her own party! I had everyone keep their shoes and coats on, because we were on a mission to sing, eat cake, open presents and high tail it out of there...

Aaron Guenther, Adalyn Ranzenberger, Everly, Eden Giles, Jovee Terry and Shelton Braithwaite.

Feeling a little bashful as her friends sing to her.

All in one breath!

They each gave her a gift and couldn't wait for her to see what they had chosen. And she was so sweet when she opened each one. She would exclaim, "Oh, I really love this!" or "I've always wanted one of these! Thank you very much!"

The second the last present was opened, we ran for the car and got everyone clipped. What a cute little bunch!

And because I failed to plan properly, I realized that by the time we made it to Wonderscope, we would only have an hour to play. It went way to fast.

My favorite moment was when Everly ordered a sandwich from Aaron and he asked, "Open face?"

ha ha! How does a 5 year old know about open face sandwiches??

We high tailed it out of there and made it home on time, but we easily could have spent another hour or two playing in each room.

Luckily, they were happy with their birthday adventures and were all smiles as we sang to our Pandora Disney station on the way home. The last "friend party" is complete! Every other birthday in 2018 will be a nice family dinner. Ahhh.....

I love you Everly! Happy 5th Birthday!

She's so obliging

I can take this girl anywhere. She will wait for me while I get my dental checkup...even if she needs to catch a snooze. 

Conquering the tree

Getting that tree back into this bag is no small feat. The bag rips easily, so you have to be simultaneously gentle and forceful to get all the branches to fit in such a way as to allow one to zip up the zipper without tearing the zipper totally off.

I don't know if I love these smiles more or the big tree pole sticking out of the bag...ha ha!