what's up weekly. (and a big life update!)

Howdy y'all!  I feel like saying something like, "Whew!  This week was full!" is starting to get old, so I'll say... "Wow!  This week was... stuffed."  

(Same dad, different dad, as Todd would say.)

We definitely had some stuff going on, like the fourteen million birthday parties we ended up throwing for Penelope.  This was already the Month of All the Parties, with Juni's birthday, and then Good Friday and Easter, and then the joint birthday party, and then Penelope's birthday.  But to put the icing on the cake (ha! ha! ha!), Penelope's birthday weekend was extended.  On Friday, we ate all her chosen meals but we planned to wait until Saturday to do her party and cake and presents.

  

Unfortunately, an Amazon package containing her party supplies and many of her presents was delayed.  So we scrounged up party supplies we already had on hand and decorated anyway on Saturday morning, and we planned for her to open the gifts that were already ready.  I also went ahead and made her cake.  Unfortunately, I overfilled the bundt pan and it ended up doing this:

We were miraculously able to salvage the cake, so after dinner we did cake and presents.

Penelope helped me decorate it with flowers she picked out.

Nothing like a Penelope Pile.

Then on Monday, the box with the rest of stuff arrived, so we did another present opening Monday night, and then ate off her party plates for meals the following day.  And that is how we found ourselves still celebrating April events in May.  I feel like we should get a medal for stamina or something.  "Party Hardy Champs 2022."  

And if you needed more proof, we also celebrated this little brudder's half birthday!

In addition to all of that, we really buckled down on school and crammed over two weeks of work in this week.  I had told the kids that if we utilized all five weekdays this week and next week, and really stayed diligent, we could finish four weeks of work in two weeks, and be completely done with the school year by next Friday.  They voted and it was unanimous: let's just tackle the beast and be done.  So we did, and while it made for a tiring week, we really got a lot accomplished and feel excited that the end is so close!

We also have some other big news that has been percolating and consuming much of my free time: we have decided we're going to list the house and move to be part of the church in Leavenworth.  We've felt drawn there for this past year or so, and it has suddenly felt like the right time.  I can maybe dive more into those details at some point, but for now I'll just say that getting the house ready to list is keeping life interesting.

How many Van Voorsts does it take to screw in a lightbulb?  Four.  One to stand on a ladder in the stairway, and three more to hold the door closed so there was something sturdy to lean the ladder against.  We like extreme adventure and hairsplitting risk in this house.

We've had a realtor over to tell us what needs to happen, we've had plumbers and window repairmen and a friend who is in junk disposal come tackle some neglected projects.  I've painted walls and trim and registers and ceilings, and hung doors and blinds, and scrubbed dirty walls, and ironed the bookshelves (yes, you read that right).  I'm surprised at how much headway I've been able to make the last couple of weeks, even with our full school days.  

I'm going to try to post photos of our house as it is now, before we start clearing it out for listing.  Listing photos are always beautiful, but I want to make sure I have documentation of how we actually lived in our house.  This is the nursery.  Juni sleeps in here at night, and Ophelia naps in here during the day.  I spend many hours each week in here with the lights off and the fan running, rocking Ophelia to sleep.  It's a sweet, cozy, well-loved room.

The hope is to finish up school and major projects by the end of next week, then spend a week or so packing up our 'extras' and moving them to a storage unit so the house doesn't feel quite so crowded, then putting it on the market before the end of May.  

The first mowing of the season!

For those wondering, we don't know what the next step is.  We're considering looking for a rental for a short while before house hunting, but we're still unsure.  Prayers for this would be much appreciated!

And now, for your viewing pleasure, your weekly dose of Ophelia (who, I forgot to mention, cut her first tooth last week!):

They made her a baby throne.

Keeping Nen company while she plays solitaire.  Which defies the nature of solitaire.

Whu-WHAT?!

And that was our stuffed week!

what's up weekly. (it's penelope's birthday today!)

This has been the month of nonstop partying, and this week was no exception!  Since Juni's birthday was two weeks ago, and Penelope's birthday is today (!!), we had a joint birthday party last weekend for out-of-town family that could just make one trip down.  We will still do a Van Voorst-exclusive party tomorrow for Penelope, but she got a foretaste of birthday festivities last weekend.

I realize we could have just done one party for the month, instead of three, and called it good, and honestly that would have been easier.  But it's really important to me that we celebrate the kids as individuals - that has always been the case, but even more so as they gain more and more siblings.  I want to make sure that they know they are seen and known and celebrated as unique people and particular gifts to us, not just one of the crowd.  Your birthday is the last day on which you should feel overlooked!  

But also, with the girls' birthdays so close together, it was just logistically simpler for out-of-town family to only come once, so a third party was in order.

As usual, I served taco bar.  I am nothing if not efficient/orderly/boring/predictable.  Taco bar is my favorite for guests because most toppings can be purchased ready-made, so all I have to do is cook the meat, and because people can make them according to their own preferences or food sensitivities.  And who doesn't like tacos?  After lunch, we dug into some birthday treats.  First up was Juni's cupcakes, and then Penelope's brownies, both kindly made by my mom.

After snack, we opened presents.  The highlight of the day was Penelope's new guitar (and Callista's new pretend coffin.  Don't ask why she thinks that's so fun).

In all, it was a great day, which was then followed by a great night - Ophelia slept all the way through the night!  We got to church on time (dare I say, EARLY) on Sunday and the little girls did so amazingly well through the service that I didn't need to leave even once to nurse the baby or discipline a squirrely girly.  The kids are learning more and more each week how to sit still and quiet for a longer stretch of time than they're used to.  They're doing such a great job.

After church, Todd always makes us lunch, which is just so sweet.

This week we didn't get as much school done as usual.  I had to call off read alouds because some house projects came up.  Luckily, we did make some progress and even got the yard cleaned up, which was a long time coming.  A friend came and even removed a bunch of our trashy lawn junk/broken toys, and we took a couple of loads of leaves to the compost site.  I had the boys move a bunch of landscaping bricks to clean out the leaves that had piled up around them, and then rake and move them all back, and  then bag up the leaves.  They were so exhausted they were all falling asleep on the couch at 4:30 p.m.  Then the next day, they asked if I had any more bricks I wanted moved!  Apparently they had a good time.

Rocco: "You know how Penelope has a business growing flowers to make money?  I'm going to start my own business, too.  I'm going to design bugs. Here is my first one."

The frame is made out of an old pizza box, and this might possibly be the best thing I've ever seen in my life.  I will 100% buy any and every bug he ever designs.

Yesterday morning I did all my grocery runs - first to the Azure drop, where I got some chicken feed, peanut butter, sugar, hand soap and ten pounds of raw cheese.  Then to Aldi, then to Walmart.

Today's agenda includes making birthday meals (boiled eggs and bacon for breakfast, grilled cheese and chips for lunch) for this beautiful birthday girl.

Penelope is relentlessly Penelope.  She is so funny and so smart.  She has more creativity in her little finger than most people possess in all.  She loves to craft and draw and write stories and spin tales for her and her siblings to act out.  She is learning to bake, and loves it.  She often will bring a little sister into the kitchen with her to include in the fun.  She is fantastic with the younger kids, and is so responsible.  I often leave her in charge of the littler ones if I have a quick errand to run, and I will frequently come home to not only find everyone happy and well cared for, but the house picked up as well.  She is amazing with Ophelia, and loves spending time with her.  Once, it was time to put Ophelia down for nap, but when I went to get her, I discovered Penelope had beaten me to it, and Ophelia was snoozing soundly in her arms in the rocking chair.

She love animals and spends much of her free time these days playing with the chickens.  She also has a stuffed dog named Oliver that is a favorite pal.

She is thoughtful and kind.  She loves making people feel special, and knows just how to do it.  I hope she knows how special she is to the rest of us as well!

She is twelve!   TWELVE!  I have loved these years with her, and look forward to getting to know her better and better as she continues to grow.  Happy birthday, sweet girl!

And lastly, simply because I couldn't find a better spot to put these in the main body of the blog, but I also couldn't bear the thought of not sharing them, I send you on your way with these photos of Ophelia:

Happy weekend!  I'm off to bake the world's best chocolate bundt cake for Penelope's birthday.  Wish me luck!

what's up weekly. (the week of the never-ending party.)

Whew!  This past week has been full, full, full, so let's jump right in!

Last Friday was Juni's birthday!  Precious, precious girl. 

Rocco made her a crown to wear, and Penelope made her pancakes for breakfast.

That evening was Good Friday, so we didn't do a birthday meal for dinner, but I think she was pretty happy with the cheese board.  

Lest you worry too much that she felt overlooked, have no fear: we did go all out for her party the next day.  The big girls got up early to decorate, and Penelope even made her a cake from scratch!  Saturday evening, we had pizza and cake with homemade ice cream, and Juni opened her presents from all of us.  It was a sweet day celebrating a sweet girl.

Helping to make the ice cream.

Helping to eat the frosting.

The next day was Easter!! And we did it UP.  We had bagels and lox and "mimosas" (the sparkling cider kind, not the champagne kind) for breakfast, then we all got dressed to the nines.

Later in the day, we had a ham dinner, and then a cheeseboard in the evening.  You should not be surprised and I am not exaggerating when I tell you I gained six pounds between last Friday and today.  SIX POUNDS.

Rocco ate all the lemon garnishes off the cheeseboard, and this was his face the entire time.

What you may have noticed in the photos above is that Todd's beard is making a more subtle appearance.  Some serious pruning happened on Saturday.  He went from this...

...to this.

And even though I am completely in love with how it turned out, this is how he feels about its absence.

Ophelia agrees.

And speaking of Ophelia, she turned four months old on Friday!  There are simply no words to describe our utter infatuation with this girl.  "Obsession" comes close.  She is the highlight of everyone's day.  She laughs now (!!), and she loves tummy time, and she is growing like a big smooshy weed.  She is a good sleeper - she is predictable at night, which is a huge blessing.  She's less predictable during the day, but that doesn't bother me.  This week she has started taking a SUPER long nap in the morning (2-3 hours) and then a couple shorter naps through the afternoon.  I'll take it.  (No sign of the four month regression yet, knock on wood.)

Atticus: "My favorite thing to do is to cuddle her while I read."

So you see, we've had a lot to celebrate this week.  We also kept trucking at school, I worked on a lot of house projects (repainting the trim, STILL working on deep cleaning the kitchen a little bit at a time, cleaning out the laundry room, filing all our scrapbook photos and papers from the last five years), and also the chickens are still alive.  They got an upgraded apartment and now they live in the garage because they kept flying out of the kiddie pool so I had to wrap it in chicken wire, which is not living room-/toddler- friendly.

It also turns out that least one is a rooster.  And go figure, it's my favorite one.  If you know of anyone who is in need of a livestock guardian, an alarm clock, or a long way to make soup, hit me up - he will need a new home.  DeeVee, you will be missed.

Okay, I'm off!  Atticus has speech therapy this morning with a new gal, and then I want to get some house projects completed this afternoon, so my day will be full.  Have a great weekend!

This is Daddy's girl.  He had to take his lunchtime walk inside one day this week because it was storming, so she found him and just held his hand while he walked.

Happy Friday from the Pretty, Pretty Princess.