Lorien's Surprise 16th Birthday Party

This year has been so strange with COVID & lockdowns & everything being NOT NORMAL.

My kids all started to panic when they realized they couldn't have birthday parties this year with all their friends.  Bladen & Canyon didn't have one last year for the same reason, but Taya managed to snag a small party this summer when restrictions lifted a little bit, but once we locked down again in November I just knew my February birthdays would be affected.

I was most worried about Lorien's birthday.  This year was her 16th birthday which is a big one.  I HAD to figure out a way to make this one special.

I read over rules & regulations for our area & figured out that we were allowed to have one person at our house at a time (so basically one household plus one person).  I wanted to keep things extra safe so I invited each of Lorien's friends to come to our house to wish her a happy birthday.  My rules were that only one person could come at a time (unless they belonged to the same household), they had to stay outside in our backyard or in the fields behind our house, & they had to remain 6 feet apart at all times.  I scheduled it out so each friend came every half hour for about 20 minutes so that by the time one friend left, another one would come.  Each friend came up with a creative way to spend 20 minutes with Lorien 

"at a distance."  I was amazed at how creative they got.

Lorien HAD NO IDEA this was going to happen.

She was so sad about not getting a 16th birthday, that she planned herself a pity party via zoom with her friends.  She baked banana & strawberry cupcakes & asked me if I could deliver them to the doorsteps of her friends so that when they were on the zoom call playing online games together, they could at least eat cupcakes together.  I told her that was a great idea!  So she made the cupcakes & I planned to "deliver" them on Saturday morning.  I knew all of her friends were coming over at some time or another during the day so I knew I could just give them their cupcakes during their "time" with Lorien.

Her cupcakes were delicious.  She made banana cupcakes with clove vanilla frosting & strawberry cupcakes with strawberry frosting.

I love that she actually planned a virtual party as well.  Even though all the friends came to the house at some point during the day, they all still joined online for the online games together Saturday night.  It ended up being a whole day celebration of Lorien.

The first surprise of the morning was that her best friend came to have birthday breakfast with us.  Since we are allowed to have one person in our house other than our own family, we chose her best friend to share in the first surprise of the day.  She was VERY excited.

Lorien's birthday breakfast consisted of gingerbread pancakes, scrambled eggs, bananas, & cupcakes.

I set out all the cupcakes & told Lorien I was going to pack them up so I could deliver them to her friends' doorsteps . . . 

I also put together a tray of candy that the kids could choose from so they could eat a treat while playing online games during her online party.

Her best friend left at 8:30 am, so Lorien got dressed & ready for the day, when at 9:00 one of her friends showed up in our backyard with a tetherball set.  Lorien was confused but happy & asked if she could play in the backyard if they remained distant.  I told her she could play for 20 minutes.

After that friend left, 5 minutes later, another friend randomly showed up to play frisbee.  At that point, Lorien started to figure out that something was going on.  They played frisbee for 25 minutes & then he left.

Five minutes later, another friend came with a craft made out of foil.  Lorien definitely knew what was going on by this point & she was in HEAVEN seeing each of her friends, if only from a distance.

One by one friends came & went.  Some chatted, some did sidewalk chalk art, the ideas were SO fun.

A lot of Lorien's guy friends (sets of brothers) came to shoot air soft guns with her.  These are her air soft friends.  Before COVID they used to meet up every weekend & would spend hours in the forest shooting.  I think they all miss that.

Another friend stopped by with a picnic lunch.

I thought doing a bikeride for 20 minutes was a great way to maintain distance, but still have fun together.

The crafts some of these kids came up with were really fun.  I loved the pineapple string art one of her friends brought to do with her.

And some friends opted for snacks & girl talk which is one of Lorien's favorite things.

Badminton was another great way to hang out without getting too close.

My favorite activity of the day was from one of the boys that did the sweet Valentine song & dance number for Valentine's Day.  (They're family is super fun & creative).  He dropped off a package, note, & map on our doorstep, rang the doorbell & ran.

Inside the box was a white sweatshirt & a pair of goggles.  Lorien started to laugh at that.

"What are we doing!?!?!?"

I especially loved the note telling her she'd been challenged to a duel, to put on her armor (the sweatshirt), & follow the map.

He was waiting for her with a white sweatshirt, water guns filled with red paint, water balloons filled with blue paint, & sponges filled with yellow paint.  Needless to say, they had a BLAST those 20 minutes.

I loved that one of her friends drew a picture of Lorien with her Hollywood crush.  Such a cute picture.

Being socially distant is SO hard!

In total, she had 17 friends stop by throughout the day.  She was literally outside from 9am to 6:30 pm.  And she loved EVERY SINGLE SECOND of it.

At 7, she did her online zoom party where all her friends got online & played Jackbox Games for 2 hours.  I think they all enjoyed that as well.

For Lorien's actual birthday (Sunday. . . the day after her surprise day), we woke up & opened presents before going to church.

Trek & I got her a tactical vest for her 
Air Soft games with her friends

Craiger made her a homemade coupon book.

Opa & Oma gave her some sunglasses, 
bike lights, & bullets for her air soft guns.

Mimi & Baba gave her a new dress.

Canyon gave her one of his favorite toys.

My dear friend Nancy always sends my girls
the most amazing clothes & shoes for their
birthdays.

For her birthday dinner, I made my homemade chicken nuggets, breadsticks, & caesar salad.

I'm so glad we found a way to make this birthday extra special!

Happy birthday to my mini me!  Lorien is my ultra loving, friend to everyone, ray of sunshine.  She goes out of her way every day to make sure everyone she knows feels important, loved, & included.  Like me, she loves to bake, plan parties & events, quote movies, & sing Broadway songs at the top of her lungs!  She is beautiful & she is mine.  I love you Lorien!

 

Mardi Gras 2021

Mardi Gras landed the same week as Chinese New Year & Valentine's Day.  It was a whole week of fun celebrations.

Our family tradition is making a king cake.  My kids LOVE king cake & it's always a fun project to make with me.  Each year whomever makes the cake hides the little baby in one slice & the person who gets the baby gets to make the cake the next year.  Cadence got the baby in her slice last year so she made the cake this year.

And what would Mardi Gras be without Cajun food?  This year we did dirty rice with creole green beans.  I made them quite spicy so we had tears falling down our faces as we ate them, but they were delicious.

Cadence was so cute making the cake this year.  She did it all by herself with no help.  She's really become quite the baker.  I was proud of her.

And of course, I wound up with the baby.  I guess I get to make the cake next year.  Maybe I'll recruit some helpers to help me so I don't have to do it alone.

 

Valentines Day 2021

Happy Valentine's Day from the Potter house!

For breakfast I made heart shaped cinnamon rolls.

The kids were pretty bummed that they wouldn't be in school for Valentine's Day so we spent a week decorating boxes around the house to use as Valentine mailboxes.  Then we each made Valentines for each other & put them in the mailboxes.  I also snuck in some yummy treats for the kids.

Canyon used his box to paint random pictures all over it.

Craiger of course put together a pretty out of this world SPACE mailbox.

Bladen impressed me with his Minecraft TNT skills.

And Taya painted an adorable Among Us character for her mailbox.

Lorien painted a Minecraft chest for her box.

After we exchanged valentines, we ate a pink/red themed dinner of heart shaped pizzas, watermelon, heart shaped jello, 

a beautiful savory charcuterie board of reds & pinks

and a gorgeous sweet charcuterie board for dessert.

I'm still learning the art & skill of charcuterie boards, but I was really happy at how 

beautiful both the boards turned out.

And they were DELICIOUS.

Later that night, we got a surprise knock on our door.  Two of Lorien's friends stopped by dressed up in ties & put on a Valentine show for my girls.  They had a strobe light & disco ball going while they lip synched & danced a full choreographed number to "I Would Walk a Hundred Miles."  They also gave the girls a box of chocolates to enjoy.

And THAT my friends is how you teach your kids to do Valentine's RIGHT.

What sweet boys.  My girls loved it.  This simple act made them feel like a million bucks.  It let them know that they were thought of on Valentine's Day.  Goodness I love those 2 boys.  A big thank you to them for totally making our night!

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

February Happenings

We had a lot of FUN as a family in February.

The biggest news of the month was that we officially have a COUGAR in our house.

Cadence found out that she's been accepted to BYU Provo & she has decided to attend.  She's had several college acceptances so far, but BYU Provo was her first choice so she is VERY excited to start her Computer Science career by going to school there.

The sun finally started to peek out of the clouds here in Germany after nearly 2 months of straight rain, clouds, fog, & darkness.  It's been glorious.

Now that Trek fixed up my new bike with an electric motor, we've been doing some longer rides together.  I love it because I barely have to do any work, my bike just takes me to the top of the mountain with minimal effort.  

However, our first biking adventure after winter craziness wasn't as great as we thought it would be.  Sure, the sun was shining, but it was only 19 degrees outside.  We bundled up & went anyway, & 8 miles into the ride, we could no longer feel our faces, fingers, or toes.  My lips were frozen to my braces, I had tears running down my face which were freezing into ice as they fell as the wind blew directly into my face, & we were miserable.  Going away from the wind was great. . . riding INTO the wind was awful.  We both thought we were going to lose some of our fingers by the time we turned around & pedaled the 8 miles back home.

We spent the rest of the afternoon drinking hot chocolate & trying to warm up our core temperature inside our beds with extra blankets, pillows, & heating pads.

Note to self: sun doesn't always mean HOT.

Craiger & Canyon both passed off some fun piano songs this month that they wanted to share with you.

Hip Hip Hooray for SCHOOL STARTING again!

Yes, it's February, but we've been in a COVID lockdown since the beginning of November & haven't been back to school since December.  For 9 long weeks the kids have been doing virtual school.  Six kids in one house is not ideal for virtual school.  We made it work, but it was tough.  We are stronger now because we survived it.

Boy were we happy to get them all back with their friends in their classrooms.  They are definitely happier now & I love the freedom to CLEAN MY HOUSE.

As the sun comes out more & more, Trek has been inviting the kids on his bike rides as well.  Bladen is becoming quite the biker.

And the HIGHLIGHT of the month for me was the fact that

TONY IS BACK!!!

Tony is our Italian friend that drives the gelato truck around our neighborhood.  Words can't even describe how happy I am to have gelato in my life again after this long winter.  It was just the pick me up I needed.  YUM!

 

Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year from the Potter house.

I love celebrated every holiday I possibly can.  I think it's fun to celebrate life & all the small things as well as the big things.

For Chinese New Year this year we made my dad's famous stir fry with veggies, chicken, & homemade sweet & sour sauce.  We enjoyed hot fruit tea in our Chinese New Year teacups, lychee fruit, & moon pies for dessert.

We all love Chinese food.  Someone said something & Cadence started cracking up.  She is such a funny kid.  I'm going to miss these silly moments when she goes off to college this summer.  I just love her so much.

Happy Chinese New Year & enjoy the YEAR OF THE OX!