Have you ever....

been blessed by a Monk? We have! 

When my mom was visiting us, our neighbors invited us to their home to watch the Monks bless their house. It was very interesting to see and listen to their prayers in Cambodian. Our neighbors are from Thailand and make the most delicious Thai food ever. We learned that Monks only eat once a day and it has to be before noon. After that they can only drink liquids. Females cannot touch the male monks. He said it's to help keep their minds pure and clean. In addition, female monks cannot be touched by males. I didn't even know there were any female monks. After the prayers, the monks invited us to come forward to be blessed and they threw water on us. Deko came running to me in the next room (I was feeding Baine in the front room) his face and hair were drenched, and he told me he didn't like this water gun house. The blessed water was thrown all over the house and yard. When they were finished, we got to eat a ton of delicious Thai food. My new favorite dessert is sticky black rice -it was amazing! Our other neighbor is from Ukraine and she brought some delicious Russian bread. My mom commented that we should have brought a bag of McDonald's burgers to represent American food. Before the monks left, they gave all of us good luck bracelets. It was neat and interesting to be a part of this experience.

Big 6

Tripp is 6 years old now. Where has the time gone? He wanted a Batman birthday this year, so here he is with his Batman shirt and Joker pinata. I made his shirt this year the same way I made his Hulk shirt last year. Both Tripp and Deklan helped make the pinata and they helped me paint it.

 He also asked for lemon cupcakes. I'm pretty sure he hadn't tried a lemon cupcake until his birthday. Darcy helped me make the Batman chocolates on top. I just melted chocolate chips, put them in a piping bag, and followed a batman symbol under a piece of wax paper. Super easy -just time consuming.

 And Grandma Kathy bought him this enormous chocolate cake.

 We played pass the bomb (hot potato). 

 It came down to Tripp and Asher. I think Asher won. We also tried to play "pin the mustache on the villain" by taping mustaches on Randy's face while blindfolded. But Randy's face was too hairy and the tape didn't stick. Asher technically won that game too.

 Here is Deko with the pinata

 And Tripp

 Asher

 And the candy rush. Alexis broke the pinata wide open.

 Lots of sweet treats

 And awesome presents

We all had a lot of fun! Thank you to everyone who helped us with the party and a big thank you to Steve and Zayna for letting us use their house. Now Tripp says he wants an Iron Man birthday for next year...