Year 2, Day 168: Keturah's 9th birthday!

Well, it happened.  Keturah turned 9 today!  Technically, she doesn't turn 9 until 11:44 pm (which is 1 1/2 hrs from now as I type this), BUT, who's counting?  I guess I do!  She was born just 16 minutes shy of her actual due date! She spent most of her day at camp, because it was her last day there.  And as I predicted, she was "motor mouth" the whole way home up until bedtime!  It's your typical church camp, so I won't try to retell her stories.  She said her favorite things were kayaking and the "pop shop" which is the snack shack/canteen/etc. where you get candy and pop.  Parents prepay, so there is just a punch card and they are limited to two items per time.  She tried every candy there it sounded like.  But she was also very happy about the kayaking and proud that she could pull herself along with her buddy.  She said her least favorite thing was swimming.  I'm not sure why.  They have a pool, as well a pond on the property.

Because it was her birthday, we stopped at her choice of fast food (McDonald's aka "fries" according to Abishai) for supper.  There was lots of laughter and talking n the way home as well.  Then Grandma and Grandpa came over with a DQ ice cream cake to finish up the celebration.  She will have a chance to have birthday lunch with grandparents on Sunday, which will be combined with Father's Day.  Grandma is cooking up steak and cheesy bras.  Yum!  And as you will see in the pictures below, she also got gifts from us.  Her gift from Grandma and Grandpa was them paying for church camp.

The rest of us worked or played hard as normal.  Benaiah did yard work for Grandpa for 3 hours and bought some new clothes with Grandma.  Justin watched while Abishai watched "Fireman Sam."  They ate popsicles outside, ate 1 day old chick fil a sandwhiches, and played.  I put the China back in the china cabinet (with room to spare, but why do I have a dozen vases?)  Jared had a work meeting and normal day.

Cleaning up a spill the fun way.  He doesn't think twice about doing it either!  Thankfully, he hasn't done it in public, yet!  Thanks Daddy for teaching him this one!

Big boy ate his whole popsicle with just a little bit of a mess.

Mom, I could sit here and get a tan!  Yes, Justin, you can.

Always a moving target.

All done!

My friend Alisha will appreciate this random touch to the fireplace shelves. I'll add some more as  I com across them.

It takes a family to carry all the stuff!  Actually, Keturah was pretty minimal in her packing compared to some girls.  She's pretty low maintenance.

It's a sunhat!

I think she looks older and bigger today.

Keturah is using a bigger vocabulary in her speech as well.  The first thing she asked us when we walked in was for $5 to buy this soft stone necklace made in Zimbabwe where the missionaries ministry.  She sounded like she had been staring at the merchandise for an hour contemplating her purchase so we said sure.  She likes the rainbow stretchy cord it came on as well.

A typical scene in Indiana.  The corn is much taller than the typical "knee high for 4th of July" though.

Don't make me move face.

Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.  Play with baby, parent baby, play mommy with baby, talk, talk, talk.

We chased down a train tonight!  It took us 8 miles out of our way, but it was so worth seeing Abishai's face light up abut it!

We've done this before, maybe 10 years ago, but we were able to get ahead of it, turn on a side street to get up close to the tracks.

Jared pulled over and got Abishai out.  Keturah counted over 130 cars!  And the noise a big, fast train makes is incredible.  I hope Abishai will remember this!  I love it when Jared takes the side roads of life.

Grain silo backdrop.

And Abishai is even wearing his Thomas shirt!  Foo-foo!

No one else around!

Two DQ ice cream cakes in just over a week's time.  Thanks kids.  I'm not allowed to eat them.  But, 9 years old!  I put trick candles on it, but she was still able to blow them out.

Our first "party" in our new house!

She immediately saw the doll bike seat on her bike when she walked into the living room.  We put it there, because we made a little treasure hunt with clues to find her.......

Small seat...travel far...

Abishai's car seat! Time for a snack!

The pantry! After a snack....grow your brain....

School room!  Brains need to rest.....

Find your pj's in your room....and....

Find your Joanna Grace 18 inches doolll!

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One card from Mom and Dad and one card from her brothers, who, a)have horrible penmanship b) have no idea what to write in a card. and c) and are brothers.

Big enough to undo her own packaging!

Brotherly love, again.

Decorating her doll's bike seat.

Keturah's purple camp band matches Joanna Grace's purple wristband!

Getting ready for a ride.

The men had to take out the truck's battery because the lights wouldn't shut off.  Hm,....

Ready for a ride!

Bye!

Neighbors must think we're weird for all 8 of us standing in the middle of the street.

We got out Abishai's dolly because he was really curious about Keturah's new doll.

This doll's "birthdate" is just 5 weeks earlier than Keturah's!  That's one reason I bought the doll for her.  I am a bit disappointed in the quality, to be honest, but, it's not an American Girl brand doll, so I should have expected that.  Keturah doesn't seem to mind.  She's excited just to have a nice doll and new friend to do things with.  

It's been very hot again, but chores like yardwork still have to be done.

I finally got this holder matched up with it's pot!  My parents had this hanging in our kitchen for as many years as I can remember.  If you can tell by the color of the rope, it's from the late 70's or early 80's.

Signing Keturah's card.

Jared made up his own sandwich with hamburger patty and two chicken patties.  Ok, then.

Abishai, what's your favorite food? Fries.  Where are we going to eat? Fries.  What do you want to eat? Fries.  He was very hungry too and ate all his chicken nuggets and drank all his milk, ate half his fries AND had ice cream cake when we got home.  Also, on the way home he said, "Iceee (one of his stuffed animals) help doggy."  He's been watching Fireman Sam and Tayo the little bus which talks a lot about one person or vehicle helping another one.  Again, he's vocabulary and sentence structures are increasing rapidly!