BIRTHDAYS BIRTHDAYS BIRTHDAYS!

Birthday season has come to an official close.  e-e-e-e-e-exha-a-a-a-a-ale... inhale, repeat, two more times.... there, I'm back. 
It's been a stranger than usual birthday season in our house, since I've not been well for most of it, but I'm here to report that it seems that the world continues to turn.

It wasn't an epic failure, except Spencer's birthday, but I'll get to that.

Cadence's birthday was a full-on 2 months ago!  and here I am to report on it.  Five.  Can you believe it?  Did you think she was sixteen based on the stories I tell?  Five.  My little perfect baby is five.  She can shower herself, make her own lunch, and ride the bus home from school!  She is, as always, full of surprises and the most wonderful mix of sugar and spice that there ever was.

Here are some pics of her birthday:

cupcake pinata found by Spencer, cupcake sand/sea scene by Spencer (under my creative direction, thank you!), mermaid cake by me (my first creative cake. eeeeeever.)

I was really happy with this cake.  Oh, and so was Cadence, which is what matters, right?

It was a backyard beach party, so fun in the sun with a splash was the order of the day.

Birthday girl gets the first whack.

notice Layla's little fingers, as well as Cadence's adorable haircut.

Campbell, two weeks later, had a smaller birthday celebration, since we figured she would rather have her close friends there and we hoped she would appreciate that more than a big crowd.  And since I was feeling a little low, we went the exciting route and did it at good old Chuck E. Cheese's.  I think she was happy with the whole thing.
Campbell turned 3.  Three!  That little thing has really blossomed this year.  She is a true friend to all and sometimes shows it through head-locks.  She loves the color red.  Can you guess how this makes her mama feel?  Mmmmhmmm, that's my girl.  She is every bit as gregarious and intense as she's always been.  And she still uses a pacifier.  Agggh, I don't dare to take it from her.  She's not such a good sleeper.  I keep waiting for a time when I can afford the sleep loss... hasn't come yet.  But she is loving becoming a big girl!  She is learning to write letters, she plays more interactively with friends, and she is becoming a better eater.  And she's in preschool!  Wowza.  Campbell is just jam-packed with spunk and and fun and love.

Here are the pics from her birthday:

Spencer decided to be orginal with his traditional birthday pancake stack and add a Barbie.  It's a pretty cool idea for a dress, no?

Of course, their birthdays are so close that what I do for one, I must do for the other.  Not that I minded.  It was fun :)  I liked the way this one turned out, too.

I love this one.  looooove it.

Just before she leads her own birthday song!

The girls could NOT understand why Chuck E. was being so aloof.  No matter what they did, he wouldn't resond or even look.  What's his deal!?!

Spencer's up next.  By the time his birthday rolled around i was on week three of having noooo energy and that had been joined by headaches and pain in my muscles/joints.  I always fail on his birthday, but this year was the worst.  I didn't get him anything, for one.  I made him brownies, rather than a cake.  I slept most of the day, and even week.  I did take him out for lunch, which would have been pretty cool except I was so sleepy that it was like having lunch with a stack of sticks.  So happy flippin birthday, Spencer.  Next year is your year...

Let's see if we have pics of his birthday:

Okay, well we have one.  I don't think we had enough candles but we used all that we had!  He requested brownies so that I wouldn't go all out and make him a mermaid cake :)  See how happy he is?  He is hard to bother, I tell you.

My birthday is the end of birthday season, being 3 weeks after Spencer's.  My birthday traditionally starts two weeks before and lasts for a week following.  Because I reeeeally like to celebrate myself :)   Normally I like to plan a big hooplah and have some fun but this year, of course, is different.  So we went with some close (wonderful!) friends to a quick dinner and to see "The Help" (have you seen it?  go.  now.  I mean it.  I'll wait...)  Spencer shed a tear or 10 and that was all I wanted for my birthday (okay, not my exact wish but I knew he'd like it if he gave it a chance).  Walking out of the theatre was a little embarrassing as I walk an awful lot like an elderly person when I'm not feeling great.  Tara keeps offering to push me in a wheel-chair...is that because I'm embarrassing to be around when I'm walking? hmm?  :)

On Sunday, my real birthday, my goal was to make it to church.  I made it to the last hour and even got to hold Michelle's brand spankin' new baby boy!  It was worth the work to get to church!  Then I heard a kid yelling in the halls.  To everybody else it just sounded like a nursery kid being brought to a parent for a diaper change but I heard perfectly: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOMMY!"  And I knew it was Layla.  And then she found me and what every body DID hear clearly was, "I poopy, mommy!"

Here are some pics of my birthday. 

Cadence worked really hard on this birthday card for me.  Can you read what it says?  "Check out Dad's Junk in the Trunk" (or "Juck in the Chuck" if you prefer).  One of my presents was too hard to wrap so they planned to leave it in Dad's trunk until it was present time.  Are you dying?  I laughed ALL DAY about it.

The great thing about having so many little clivelings is that I don't have to do any of my own birthday stuff.  I have servants who blow out my candles, unwrap my presents, eat my cake...

here's the "juck in the chuck" :)  I never knew I'd be so happy about food storage.  yay!

okay, out of order, too tired to care.  Spencer and Cadence top of my mucho chocolate cake that Sam made (as in Sam's Club).

You know, Spencer certainly has every right to be worn out and tired of serving on me and doing all my jobs and hearing me complain, and so do my friends around here who have really been carrying a lot of the burden along with him.  But Spencer, as well as my good friends here, act as if it's nothing.  I'm soooo grateful.  Really.  Every prayer I say, guys.  thank you thank you thank you.  And they didn't stop on my birthday.  I felt like i've been treated so well while I've been sick I didn't really deserve any special birthday treatment but I guess I did :)

happy birthday everybody.... (ugh, so sick of saying that :)  )...

My letter to this month's Orton Family Newsletter:  Thought it was a good little note about some goings on around here--


How lucky I feel that I finally thought about writing to the family newsletter today and it just happens to be the extended deadline! So serendipitous that I thought I should get up from my resting place (naptime around here is serious business) and write a quick note to say hello from the Clives.




We are happy and mostly healthy around here, school is in full swing and emotions of little ones are being tried as their schedules have been shocked and rocked. But they are loving it. Spencer is totally overwhelmed and worried sick about having teenage daughters because the conversation on the way to kindergarten between he and Cadence (our eldest) revolves nearly entirely around if she is beautiful enough and which boys at school judge her beauty to be sufficient and which ones do not. We are trying to convince her that it is NOT the most important thing, and she seems to already be of the opinion that we know nothing because we are parents. How did this happen so soon!?! But I try to reassure him that she will someday think this through a little and if we keep reinforcing the character>beauty thing, it will hit her one day. We hope. I suggested turning in all our barbie movies for the Anne of Green Gables cartoon, but Spencer said no, she's too ugly. We laughed and then wondered how our child got this way...



Campbell just started preschool and has been merciful enough on all of us to act potty trained while there. At home, though, it's a free-for-all again. How looooong is this going to take!?! She is bright eyed and excited to learn though, and has even been a little easier to manage in most senses. I thought it was because she sprained her foot really bad and so couldn't walk very well, but as it's finally healing, she's coming out a more...calm (relative, of course, to before) child.

Layla talks in full sentences now and my favorites are things like "Mommy, cheese! Yeah, cheese, okay, yeah!" She and I are enjoying some time together with her sisters at school. Unlike her sister, she's been growing MORE difficult. She was my angel baby and now is my terrorist toddler. When Cadence went through this phase, I called a child psychologist because I was sure she was crazy. Now Layla is just the same and I take a deep breath and lower my head and get ready because I know it's going to be a long, tiring, entertaining couple of years. But at least this time I can relax a little knowing she doesn't need therapy and there's not a whole lot I can do, except enjoy it while it lasts :)




For those of you who know I've not been feeling well, just a quick update: I am slowly improving. My enery is pretty good for about half of most days, and then I need to slow down and rest. The headaches and pain are improved but not gone. I'm monitoring my glucose levels now since the current thought is that I have hypoglycemia which is complicating something else. The lyme and other tick-borne panels came back negative yet again but I'm still holding on to that possibility because I do think the antibiotic helped. I'll be seeing an endocrinologist next. In general, I'm feeling really optimistic about this. I don't feel like it's as big of a deal as it could be, whatever it is. As in, I doubt there is a tumor somewhere causing it or some life-altering problem, just something that needs to be fixed or tweeked and then I can move on. Meanwhile, I'm really grateful for all the support and love and thoughts and prayers. And don't worry about it. I'm telling you- I feel really peaceful about it, in spite of wanting to have answers.

And in other news, our dog almost killed the neighbors' cat on Monday and that was a total drag. Thank goodness the neighbors are really understanding and forgiving. Although I'm scared to death to see the vet bills that we will be paying! Luckily the dog is just cute enough to be worth keeping. Barely.


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Hopefully I'll blog soon about birthdays as well as the wonderful visit from Mignon and Joel!