Walton the Pig Joins Fern's Menagerie

On Friday, Miriam will turn 5 years old. She has, for years now, had a special love of all things porcine. Her middle name, after all, is Fern, and she has felt a special affinity for all the insufficiently loved Wilburs of the world.

So when Jane found a pattern for a cute pig pillow, she instantly wanted to make it for her little sister. It looked simple enough.

Bill took Jane shopping for fabric. Miriam's room is pale green, and we are planning to add purple trim this summer. So the resulting plaids and polka dots seemed perfectly fitting.

The only trouble is that my ancient sewing machine quit working with several broken parts more than a year ago. I let my little budding engineers disassemble it as a science project one day. So, we were dependent on the kindness of friends for this project.

Fortunately, there's no shortage of that in our lives!

Jane took all the cut pieces, instructions, pins and pins and pins, thread, elastic, and stuffing to the home of her friend Elizabeth Walton, who is quite a crafty person and has her own sewing machine. I envisioned the two girls working together to sew the puffy pillow pig, even if it turned out a little amateurish. That would just make it all the more endearing, right?

But, I did not predict that upon arrival, Jane's interest in sewing would be surprisingly diminished. The interactions, toys, and activities at her friends' home were suddenly much more distracting.

I later learned that dear Lerenda spent most of the day herself sewing Wilbur's companion, which we are now dedicated to calling "Walton."

Tonight I finished the last details: sewing on the ears and eyes, and closing him up once and for all. I expect one little Fern will be delighted come Friday.


So there he is, in all his fine array: Meet Walt, the pig.

Miriam's Candyland Birthday Party 2009

July 2, 2009: Miss Firecracker, aka Miriam Fern Cochrane, turns 4 years old.


She started the day by going to breakfast with her Daddy--a special treat each girl has been able to enjoy since her 3rd birthday. Then it was home for the day to open family presents.

Ever since we read Charlotte's Web, Miriam has decided that she might prefer to be called by her middle name sometimes, and that she simply must have a pig of her own to sleep in her bed with her. This present was just what she wanted. (And mom is quite happy with it too, especially compared to the alternative!)

Fern has her own little Wilbur. Does this picture look familiar?

After lunch, naps for little ones, and a very quick dinner intended to force some protein into their little bodies, we held Miriam's first "real" birthday party--one with her own special friends invited. The theme was Candyland. Miriam's friends Nell, Mary, and Mark joined us, as did their parents and siblings.The cake, meant to represent Candy Castle, the rightful home of King Candy and Queen Frostine.



Cathy is once again my partner in crime. She was a great sport to play the role of Lady Licorice, evil counterpart to my Queen Frostine.



And she brought along the rest of her family, including this much-prayed for little guy. We call him Jack, and I'm teaching him how to say, "How YOU doin'?"

After spending much of 2 days constructing a rainbow for Rainbow Trail, compiling costumes, creating character cards and a color cube, and cutting apart colored squares for the Candyland path, we were ready to put it all together this afternoon. It looked fantastic! I was confident I had thought of everything, until, as the evening began to cool, a breeze picked up. And when that breeze blew, colored squares took to the winds! Thankfully, we had a bunch of handymen around.


They nailed all 80+ square to the ground so our path would stay put.


The Candyland Kids, from left: Mark, Jill, Nell, Mary, and Miriam. Their mission: to make their way through Candyland to rescue King Candy, who has been imprisoned in Lady Licorice's fortress. (And to collect as much candy along the way as possible.)


Most of the cast and crew at Rainbow Trail.


Our Candyland helpers, from left: Ellie as Princess Taffy--a character we created because I bought and saved some salt-water taffy from our last trip to the Beaufort, SC area; Jane as Princess Lolly; and Emma, as a very youthful Grandma Nutt.

Queen Frostine giving directions.


Jill waiting expectantly for her taffy at Rainbow Trail. (After this, she was pretty much out of the game, sitting on the sides eating the little bit of candy she managed to collect.)


The game in action. Roll the cube, move to that color--unless you roll "Lose a Turn," and then Lady Licorice will descend upon you and force you to take black jelly beans! HaHaHa!

After all the kids managed to breach the walls of Lady Licorice's fortress, they released King Candy and took over Lady Licorice's catapults.

The Candyland Kids quickly loaded each catapult with a strawberry marshmallow, and Ready! Aim! Fire!


Bring it on! Lady Licorice boasted. But little did she know the fury of a group of children forced to eat black jelly beans!

Lady Licorice is DOWN! (What a great sport she is!)

Inside, we took a more traditional approach to ending the evening. A round of "Happy Birthday to You." The presentation of the cake.



Miriam blowing out her candles.


Cutting the cake.


The "surprise inside": Four layers, each a different color and flavor.

Almost the entire crew.
Happy Birthday, Miss Miriam! We surely do love you!

A Few More December 2008 Memories Before We Close This Month

Bill turns 40--just 9 days after Rebecca!

Jane makes his cake (with a little help from Mom).

A visit to the Grove Park Inn...

...complete with award-winning gingerbread houses on display.






Scenes from our visit to SC, to see...

Waiting for the word "go!"

A great gift from Uncle Kevin and Aunt Sumer.

Miriam catches her first fish.


...Grandmama, Granddaddy, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Sumer, Great-Grandmama, Uncle Sammy and Aunt Lillian, and Tina Franklin and Patti.



A Christmas tap dance.

"The Griswalds'" house next door. Our den window is just in line with their well-lighted roofline. "Rudolph with your nose so bright, won't you keep us up tonight...!" The kids loved it.

Jack O'Brien makes his entrance.

The girls all surround him. A foreshadowing of days to come?

Mom Cathy is THE best-looking 5-days post-partum woman I've ever seen.

Jack and Jill.

Christmas Eve making sugar-cookie men.

An-tiss-ih-pay-yay-shun!

A visit from Mee-Maw.

The American Girl dolls are the best dressed among us. A beautiful two-piece outfit Mayron found at a craft fair in Virginia.


Christmas morning scene at our house while the children are nestled all snug in their beds.

Competition heats up.

Collin and Melissa celebrate their first anniversary.

Jill really loves her bath. She can't wait...literally can not wait...for the next one.

Emma Bakes the Cake

So I just celebrated another birthday--a big one this time. Wow.

And just to prove how quickly time is passing on by, my itsy, bitsy, baby girl has gotten big enough to bake and decorate a birthday cake for her mom. Double Wow.

She took the task very seriously. She thoroughly greased and floured her pans.

She measured carefully.

Poured evenly.

Tested regularly, and only got the tiniest little burn on her arm removing the pans.

Icing is the fun part.

Especially when it turns out like this. Not bad for a 9-year-old decorator's first shot!


I'm happy with it. But I'm happier even still with her. Isn't she great?

The five Cochrane girls. And in character, Miriam's always taking the cake.

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Birthday postscript:

All in all, it was a great birthday, despite the BIG numbers on that cake.

We enjoyed worship in the morning, a steak dinner (thanks to Mayron!) for lunch, with excellent cake afterward. Following a couple of hours of family time, Bill and I went to see the new Baz Lurhmann movie Australia with Colin and Cathy. I'm a big Baz fan. I think his William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet is cinematic perfection.

I have to insert a praise here also to Colin and Cathy. "I love you, Man!" (Mans? Men? Folks?) Cathy is 9 months pregnant. Colin was so sick he'd really rather'ed stay home. But they were not only willing but seemed excited to go out to a 3-hour epic movie with us to celebrate my birthday! How great is that? Add to it that they stayed into the evening to hang around, letting me fill up on "quality conversation" (my love language, I recently found out--see Gary Chapman's book if you don't know what I'm talking about), drink a little coffee, eat some more cake, and watch a little football. OK, so I can do without the football, but it meant a lot to Colin, and considering that he can quote from the Highlander movie and Monty Python ad nauseum, and remember, he came out for my birthday while he was sick, I can forgive him just about anything!