Ruthie's Party

We had a wonderful time celebrating Ruthie's birthday last weekend. We had more than 40 friends and family to help with the fun. For a few hours, our house did indeed become "The Happiest Place on Earth."

Here is our family - Ian, if you can't tell, is the Mad Hatter and Ruthie, Jonah and I are sporting our Disneyland shirts.

Ian's grandparents from Colorado were in town already for Christmas so they were able to make it as well. Ruthie had four grandparents and two great-grandparents at her party. That's pretty amazing! We're so thankful for the great family we have, both near and far. Here's Great-Grandmother, meeting Jonah for the first time. 

The main thing that made this party Disneyland themed was the food - we had a popcorn machine, giant pickles, churros, corn dogs, pizza from the Pizza Port, bread bowls with soup from the Terrace Veranda and of course, cotton candy. Here's my dad, by the cotton candy "stand," enjoying a corn dog.

Enjoying the "Pizza Port" is Ryan and Cari Noble (Cari is a co-teacher of Ian's) and my sister Sarah, who was manning the station.

Aforementioned corn dog "cart."

We also made special maps (I took a bunch from Disneyland then typed up my own map of "Ruthie's Magic Kingdom" and taped them inside the maps), which featured our own World Famous Autopia. You can see the track and cars in this photo below. 

Naturally, we had a parade down Main Street, led by the Mad Hatter. Each of the kids had musical instruments and we played the sound track to the parade on our cd player.

And of course, we had cake. I tried to make it look like a castle and surrounding village. It came out okay. =)

I should clarify - it looked okay; it tasted great. Ruthie really enjoyed it. Not sure why she didn't want to use her hands; she actually ate her whole piece just by putting her face in the cake. 

We ended with gifts - Ruthie received really great gifts and she's been enjoying them all tremendously. New books, Duplos, a Playmobile doll house, coloring books, a Princess tent, puzzles, cooking toys, and more. We are so grateful for such generous friends and family!

It was a very fun time and we know our girl enjoyed herself. We're already working on Jonah's 1st birthday theme. In the running are "Baseball" and "Trains." Touch choice! 

Slow Sunday Morning

As part of our Advent theme of rest, our church has moved the service to the evening for the next two Sundays. So, this quiet Sunday morning, we are enjoying pancakes and Duplos.

Hope you are having a wonderful Christmas season!

What Do You Do When It's 79 on Dec. 27th?

You throw on your tank top, grab the babies and bikes and head for the Aquarium!

We live about 4 miles from the Aquarium and there is an awesome bike path that takes you straight there, all along the river and right into the ocean. As we were riding there today, in the 79 degree weather*, I felt so thankful for sunshine and Christmas break and my family. And I worked on my tan!

Don't my men look amazing? Have you ever seen anything as wonderful as Jonah in a muscle shirt? Be still my heart!!

Ruthie loves "petting" the sharks. I don't think her hand ever makes it far enough down in the water to touch one, but that's not for lack of trying. It's tough to be short - I feel her pain.

*I will admit that 79 is actually too warm for the end of the year. But if you're going to have a hot Christmas, you might as well enjoy it, right? =)

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Love This Girl

I’m sitting at my desk, working on my list of things that need to get done for her birthday party tomorrow and I hear Ruthie say, “I’m naked!” I look up and see that indeed, she is naked. She's taken off all her clothes, including her diaper and even her hair clip – she's nothing if not thorough. 

And now, she's busily putting on her salt water sandals. That’s a good look, I tell ya. Nothing on but sandals.

Ah, I love this girl.

Ruthie's Birthday

Yesterday was Ruthie's 2nd Birthday. We didn't do too much to celebrate since we have a big shin-dig planned for tomorrow, but we still enjoyed the day. During the day, it rained and rained (hooray!), so Ruthie and I (Jonah was napping most of the morning) hunkered down. I made granola, which Ruthie calls "O-A" and it turned out delicious. It's a new recipe from my sister Sarah and I think I've finally landed on a keeper. Thanks, Sarah!

And we drank hot chocolate made with real milk - what a treat! 

And we watched Little Mermaid, Ruthie's favorite movie (she's only seen about 3 movies, but she does really love it.) She'll sing along with many of Ariel's songs and listening to her is one of my favorite things in the whole world.

Ian left work right when school got out so we headed to Disneyland in the afternoon/evening for a birthday trip. Ruthie wore her Minnie Mouse shirt, which she asks to wear everyday, and an awesome hat we got last year for her birthday from my friend Sarah. So cute! It was a great trip - we rode Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Dumbo, Small World, Mr. Toad's and Casey, Jr., and ate popcorn and a churro! Mary and Mike's family joined us there and Ruthie was so excited to have cousins with her.

Much more to come soon, from the Magic Kingdom at the McCurry home. Yes, Ruthie's birthday theme this year is Disneyland. I know, I know, we're a family of many interests. =) 

Dancing with Cousins

Matching jammies, Christmas music, cousins, dancing - what's not to love?

That's Ruthie, Sam (5), Clare (21 months) and Abbie (3 /1/2) - those are Mary and Mike's cuties! 

Jonah Man

This guy is awesome. He is so chubby and fleshy and delicious. For the most part, he's a very happy baby. He drools a lot, and spits up a TON, but he smiles with the slightest provocation and plays cheerfully, even with his sister sitting on top of him.

The only time he fusses is when he's trying really hard to crawl and can't quite figure it out. As you can see in the photo below, he's very close. He does lots of rocking back and forth, lots of getting up to his hands and knees and lots of scooting. As soon as he can combine all those things into the forward crawling motion, he'll be set. It's clear he can tell there's more to it than he's able to do and it frustrates him. But my guess is he'll be crawling by the end of the year, so it should be a short phase of crankiness.

He loves bath time - he has from day one. And since he's so fleshy and delicious, as noted above, we all love bath time, too. Such a delightful display of all that chub.

Since Ian is the sole bath-giver in our family, I don't get as many opportunities to revile in Jonah's nakedness. Sometimes I'll try to be the one to get him ready for bath, just to get a peak. Check out those buns!

We are so thankful for our Jonah-man. I can't believe he's already 6 months - today! It seems like he's always been part of our family and we're so grateful that he is. 

A Phone Story

Earlier today, I got out of the car at the station to fill it up with gas. Fifteen minutes later, I got back in the car and burst into tears. It is strange how things happen...

Our car is in the shop, so we're borrowing Eric's car (thank you!!) for a few days. I am hopeful that our car will be ready tomorrow, so I went to the gas station today so I could return the car full. Just as I was finished setting up the automatic pumping, I heard a woman yell, "Does anyone have a cell phone? Call 911!"

Now it's strange, because on the way to the gas station I had dialed #646 so I could get a text message from Verizon about how many minutes I have left. I've been getting messages from them telling me I've used 75%, now 90%, and I've been worried about going over. We just had to buy a new washer, our car is in the body shop (Ian got into a little accident on the way to his parents over Thanksgiving), we have to trim our tree because it's a hazard to our neighbors garage, we're still paying on Jonah's physical therapy, PLUS it's December, which on top of having Christmas in the month also has my birthday and Ruthie's. Needless to say, it was already going to be an expensive month and I didn't want to add to that with a phone bill through the roof. But 13 minutes? My allotment doesn't start over until Friday, which is still four days away! How was I going to make it? So I'm fretting about this as I'm putting the gas pump in the car and I hear the woman cry out. Naturally, I rush over to my purse and pull out my phone and dial 911. Then I rush over to her car to see what the situation is, since 911 is asking me what kind of help I need.

In the car, I could see her son, a 4 year old boy, seizing. While I was on the phone explaining our location and what was happening, he stopped seizing but he also started having a hard time breathing. I watched in panic as the mother's fears escalated as she kept checking him for breath. She grabbed the phone from me and started asking what she should do. I can hear her explain they had just been released from the hospital that morning; he'd had a seizure last night and another one earlier that morning.

I stood by, helpless, as she kept saying into the phone, "He's usually responsive but I'm not getting anything from him." And then she would stroke her boy's face and try to rouse him. They told her to lay him down, so I helped her take him out of his car seat and lay him down. But this time, we could hear sirens coming, as the fire engine pulled into the gas station. They immediately started treating him and put him in an ambulance to drive away. Still shaking, I asked the woman if she had anyone else she needed to call. She called out some numbers to me and had me call what turned out to be her sister. I explained the situation to her sister and then she talked to her for a while. The she gave the phone back to the fireman, and jumped in her car to follow the ambulance. (Don't worry, he returned it to me.)

I got back into my car, and promptly burst into tears (which then meant that everyone in the car was crying since my kids couldn't figure out why we were staying so long at the gas station). I cried for a good five minutes, praying for that boy and his mother.

I sit here now, thinking about why this situation has so profoundly affected me. For one, I am a mama, and I can only imagine the terror of seeing your child seize and struggle for breath. As that mama grew more and more frantic, my own emotions followed along with her. Secondly, we've had a sad, sad loss in our own family in recent weeks and my grief stricken heart is still tender with the pain of seeing people I love mourn. And finally, I am awakened in my soul to the absolute ridiculousness of my worry about cell phone minutes and all the other minuscule things I worry about as other mamas follow ambulances to hospitals. In moments like this, and the many from last week, when I see so clearly that the world is broken and people are hurting that I cry out, "Come, Lord Jesus. Come."

Ruthie Cooking in the "Kitchen"

Ruthie (and every other kid who comes over to our house) gets lots of great use out of the little playhouse that sits on the back slab in our yard. As you can see in this video, she's very busy cooking. =)

More to come - and it will include a Jonah update, I promise!