Tasty Treats | Amy Scott's Thoughts

Happy 8th Birthday, Graham! October 25, 2023

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Simply Me,Tasty Treats — Amy Scott @ 1:55 pm

After my post last Wednesday, things went a bit sideways for our family. It might seem like October – Birthday Month – has been all sunshine and rainbows and endless celebrations… but that hasn’t quite been the case. Wednesday afternoon, Graham started to complain about a stomachache. He had been looking forward to bringing cookies to his church class as a way to celebrate his birthday the next day, but instead, he ended up “figuratively” tossing his cookies. Graham had a 48-hour flu bug and he perked up Friday evening. However, his actual birthday was Thursday and he was down the count the whole day. Poor guy! Owen caught the same bug, but only had it for 24 hours (Thursday in Friday). Boo! Our best guess is they swallowed something in the pool water at Great Wolf Lodge, but we’ve also heard from friends that a tummy bug is going around in our area. Too bad it found us…

We had a birthday outing for Friday planned and dinner with friends on Saturday. We postpone those plans to this coming weekend. We are optimistic they will still happen even though they were delayed. Thankfully, the kids were 24 hours symptom free so we could host a family birthday party on Sunday afternoon. Of all our weekend plans, the party would have been the hardest to reschedule and the boys had been waiting so long for this time to celebrate with our Scott family. The party was a hit and our boys had a blast. Their favorite thing to do is play with their cousins so their hearts were very full. I spent my weekend in birthday party prep mode. I frosted sugar cookies, baked cupcakes, and decorated them. It was fun to throw yet another Wild Kratts themed gathering. Overall, it was a great day and huge success. We are so blessed by our family and glad we could celebrate together!

The cookies Graham meant to take to church on Wednesday were brought to church on Sunday, so we were able to make that still happen. Graham had hoped for donuts on his birthday and he was able to have one Friday night. We also ran through McDonald’s on Saturday to snag a Boo Bucket. Even though his birthday was rough, we were able to salvage some elements of our original plan. Our co-op sang to Graham and two other October birthday buddies yesterday. And Lord willing, Graham’s birthday outing will happen on Friday.

What a month! With less than a week of adventures left in October, it will be interesting to see how the month comes to a close. I’m hopeful for all the plans that await us, but after the flu interrupted our life last week, I will say my optimism is now colored with some caution. We’ll see how things unfold. It might not always be perfect, but it’s still a good life.

Science experiment on Wednesday morning before the tummy bug hit…

Happy Day After Your Birthday, Graham! We couldn’t snap a birthday picture on Thursday, so we had to wait for Friday.

It’s not birthday month if you don’t have multiple parties!

Happy 10th Birthday, Owen! October 12, 2023

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 1:44 pm

Be prepared! Almost all my posts will be birthday themed this month. You’ve been warned! Like I mentioned in my last post, we take birthday month very seriously in this household. October is so much fun!

A week ago we had a playdate with friends who also have quite a few October birthdays in their family. We used the playdate as a mini-birthday party between our families. Gifts were exchanged, candles were placed in donuts, the birthday song was sung. The kids had a great time celebrating together.

Since Owen’s birthday was on a Sunday this year, we selected Friday as his birthday outing day. Owen requested a visit to Mt. Rainier. It was a beautiful day and the fall color on the mountain was stunning! We took our biggest hike on the mountain to date. We made it Panorama Point (we made it there three years ago) and instead of turning back the way we came, we took a new trail and did a loop back to Paradise. The kids had a blast and I was impressed that I could keep up (even though I was sore for days afterward). We saw a mountain goat, plenty of ground squirrels and chipmunks, flocks of finches, and a hawk. Animal sighting are always a highlight of any hike. We also made it to the snow and many small snowmen were created along the trail. Our first snowman, Crusher, was photographed by many hikers as they passed him. We got a huge kick out of making a photo op! It was a fantastic outing and Owen enjoyed the day immensely (we all did)! It was also neat to claim Owen’s free 4th Grade National Parks Pass. We buy this pass every year so it was a blessing to have this year covered this year. We will put it to good use, for sure!

For Owen’s actual birthday, we asked my mom if she could run into down and pick up donuts for us to take to church. I have a hard time getting out the door on-time on Sundays so I didn’t trust myself to make a run into town before church and be on-time. Luckily, my parents are up much earlier than me and my mom was happy to help! (Thank you again, Grandma!) Owen was given happy birthday wishes by the kids in children’s church and he shared donuts with the class. It was a fun way to celebrate being at church on his birthday. After church, we went to a local park to watch for trains – we saw two BNSFs. Yep, trains are a still a thing in our world. The boys played at the park for awhile before heading home for lunch and some Pokémon time. Owen selected Chinese food dinner and brownies for his birthday dessert.

This week so far has featured a playdate with friends who live down the street, co-op (where Owen was sung happy birthday by the group), and for me, dinner out with my forever friend, Christa! It’s been a very social week with more good times coming up this weekend. We are very thankful for the time we get to spend with friends and family. Especially time spent celebrating and letting our birthday boys know how special they are!

Following these boys on grand adventures is my favorite thing!

Flashback to when Owen turned 4 and we visited this same park to watch for trains!

It’s Officially Birthday Month! October 4, 2023

Filed under: Family Time,Parenthood,Tasty Treats,Travels,Women in Ministry — Amy Scott @ 6:38 pm

Happy October aka Birthday Month! Both my boys have October birthdays, so the entire month is spent celebrating. I tend to make a big deal of birthdays. I’m all for the birthday month concept and my kiddos don’t seem to mind the endless party vibes during our favorite season of the year. Fall + Birthdays = Best Month Ever! Now I realize that we are only a few days in October and no official birthdays have actually happened yet, but that didn’t stop us from partying this weekend.

We kicked off birthday month with a family dinner on Sunday. My parents and sister joined us for pizza and dessert. This year’s birthday theme is Wild Kratts. Our kids have been obsessed with the Kratt brothers for the last few months, so it seemed appropriate for their party theme. I keep telling Owen and Graham they could be the next Kratt brothers someday. Wild Kratts has definitely sparked a love of animals in our boys. It’s been fun to watch them learn so much. I picked up some party supplies on Amazon. To keep the creature theme going, I baked woodland animal frosted sugar cookies (for Graham) as well as a chocolate cake (for Owen). The cake was decorated with a Wild Kratts topper included in the party supplies and then I placed animal cookies around the side of the cake. Owen found some forest animal décor at Hobby Lobby and I added that as the centerpiece to tie in the Wild Kratts and the forest animals. The boys had a fantastic time and they felt very loved! We’re so blessed to have a family that supports and cheers on our kiddos.

What else have we been up to (other than birthday partying)? Last week, Jeremy and I went out of town for a few days to participate in a staff retreat with our church team. As a homeschool mom, I’m not around the table very often for staff discussions. Staff retreat is an opportunity to support Jeremy and my local church. I packed way too many books, played games and ate ice cream with my condo-mates, took lovely walks, and processed a lot of thoughts about ministry. While we were away, the boys had an adventurous time with Nana and Papa. I’m so thankful for my in-laws and how they love our family. The boys felt like our time away was an endless sleepover for them and it was nice for me to slip out mom-mode for a few days (however, I did talk about them a lot, so I guess mom-mode isn’t something you just click off).

We came home from staff retreat and jumped into all sorts of projects. We had an ortho evaluation for Owen. It was a process we started over a year ago, but didn’t pursue at the time. Now we’re making it happen. Owen will become a metal mouth in more than one way at the start of November. Thankfully, he’ll have time to eat all the birthday goodies, clear the popcorn out of the pantry, and nibble on Halloween candy before his food choices diminish. We hosted a play date with friends we haven’t seen since summer. Jeremy took down our backyard pool and packed it up. I went into party baking/decorating mode. I got a chance to have lunch with my forever friend, Maggie, on a sunny Saturday. BJ’s has become our “spot” – can’t beat pizza and a pizookie while chatting with a good friend.

That’s all for now, but prepare yourself for many more birthday shenanigans right around the corner! We can’t wait. Birthday month is the best!