Belated Birthday Party

 

Around here, birthdays are always special events, worthy of a gift at breakfast, lunch out with Mom, your choice of dinner, cake, ice cream, etc.  Grandma and Grandpa usually come for dinner and to celebrate, depending on weather or illness, and the dining room is festively decorated with a very special birthday placemat filled with photos of the birthday person at different ages and designed personally for them by Daddy.

But birthday parties aren’t always part of the festivities.  We’ve tried to choose a few birthdays we felt were extra special, mostly due to a noteworthy transition like single-digit to double-digits, 13, Sweet 16, and 18, for something extra special like a party.

 

Isabella and Sophia turned 10 last December, but because they wanted to have an outside party to celebrate, and last winter was especially bitter and cold, we decided to wait until temperatures were more favorable toward a Cowgirl Birthday Party.

Finally!  A couple of weekends ago, they celebrated their long-awaited party with a few dear friends and cousins. 

I thought you might enjoy seeing the fun they had and the memories they made.

 

There were horseback rides on Lil T with Alix leading:

Cousins Aleyna and Erin

                                                    

Cousins Brooke                                                  and Sarah  

 

                 

             Kelly                                                       Ambicka

 

Isabelle

 

There was an obstacle course, similar to one a horse might do at the fair.  Kate designed the course, and then timed the girls to see who could run through it fastest. 

                               

 

 

                                

                                                 

 

They rode the zip line.

 

 

Hid behind the wood pile.

 

Made “corn cob corsages”.

 

And played in the cornfield while they waited to ride the pony.

 

They had a wonderful time playing with this “microphone”. 

Sophia made it in the afternoon while she was excitedly waiting for time to go by until the party would start.  She used an abandoned corn stalk, with a full corn cob taped to the end with red packing tape.  Just before the party guests arrived, I went outside to find her standing at the edge of the cornfield in the far corner of our yard, holding the “microphone” and singing at the top of her lungs,

“Let it Go!”. 

 

She was a little excited.

 

And I’m pretty sure someone was playing with it throughout most of the party.

  

So there you go!  A very inexpensive idea for your next Cowgirl Birthday Party!

 

After playing outside, the girls came in for hamburgers and french fries..

Real Cowgirl Fare….

 

 

And then the twins opened many sweet and thoughtful gifts from their friends.

They were very appreciative and handed out lots of hugs in return! 

It was their first birthday party as big girls!

 

They couldn’t have been more thrilled.

Isabella and Priya.

 

 

And since my sister, Jennifer, lives an hour away and we wanted everyone to be here, we asked if she would please bring a couple of extra cousins.

         Including this little Sweet Pea! 

              

                 Who was clearly pleased to be included in the special event.

Building a Banquette

 

Glenn surprised me last month!  He built a kitchen banquette for us!  We had talked about it for many months, going over the details we both felt were important.  For instance, we wanted it to wrap around the corner of the wall, to get the maximum potential of people (particularly little people) at the table.  We often have families here for meals, and the extra seating really makes a difference.

Glenn wanted the banquette to have plenty of room for legs, so that we wouldn’t bang them up sliding in and out.  And he wanted there to be plenty of depth to the seat so as to accommodate bench sitters comfortably.  We both wanted some pretty molding on the sides, but not too much since they wouldn’t be in the limelight.  The other thing Glenn wanted was for the seat ledge to be far enough over the base that we had plenty of room to bend our legs in a natural position.  Sometimes, we’ve seen banquettes that have such a narrow space between the lip of the seat and the base that folks sitting on the banquette have to keep their legs at almost right angles.  Not exactly comfortable if you’re sitting for any length of time!

He thoughtfully took lots of pictures during the building process, in case someone wanted to duplicate the look.  So this is a picture heavy post.

Now that we have been using the banquette for a month, what do we think of it?

We LOVE it!  Really.  It has already proved its worth.  And not only that, it’s pretty, too. 

Here’s how things looked before:

 

 

Here is how Glenn built it, step by step:

 

He cut one of the boards the width of the seat for one leg of the banquette. 

 

Placed the board on two of our chairs to check for desired height of the finished seat.

 

Uh oh.  Old house = crooked walls.  A teeny little gap in the corner.

So Glenn measures the gap.

 

In both directions of course.

 

A quick fix – he didn’t want to reduce the depth of the first piece so he cut the second longer than planned and angled the edge against the wall to close the gap and then cut the first to reduce its length by the width of the new piece.

 

That’s better!

 

Back outside to the ….. work shop… to cut the frame.

 

A 2 x 4 is anchored to the studs to provide support for the back.

 

Looks like some people ate lunch while Glenn slaved away at the banquette.

 

 

Mitered corners.

 

 

He ran electrical wires so we could have outlets, conveniently, at either side.  Especially helpful for the kids when they are vacuuming after meals. ;)

 

 

Glenn used his biscuit cutter to make grooves for these cute little “biscuits” which joined the flat surfaces so they would line up, otherwise the edges of the panels wouldn’t be flat and smooth.

 

 

He used the cutter to make these grooves at even intervals, inserted the biscuits and a little glue for good measure.

 

Pushed the ends together…

 

And voila!

 

He had to cut a narrow lip where the stair trim covers the wall.

                  

 

Then he screwed the tops to the frames.  These are stainless steel trim screws, the heads are small so less wood putty is needed.

 

He added some pretty baseboard molding under the seat and at the floor, sanded the edges of the seat smooth, and caulked the lines where it meets the wall.

 

He even found outlet covers which match the other ones we have in the house.

 

I primed and painted, of course! 

 

And here it is!

 

 

 

 

The old, antique table we’ve had for years is perfect for the banquette, since it is rectangular shaped, but has slanted corners. 

 

 

One more of our Kenilworth goals checked off the list! 

Now I just need to find the right sized jute rug to warm it up a little. 

                                                                                                   

Before

     

After