melted smoosh

for as long as I can remember, I've envisioned having four kids. to me, it seemed like a sufficient number of kids to emulate the big family feeling I so enjoyed about my own childhood. plus, I like the symmetry of even numbers. having grown up as the oldest of six, however, I thought I might not be cut out for being a mother of six, so four seemed to be the magical solution. the Geiger six at the wedding reception my parents threw for us back in Washington state. there is a 14 year gap between oldest (me) and youngest (Krista). do you see why we used to call her Pink Baby?! this is such a classic photo I had to include it, even though it was before Krista was born. I sewed my own dress if you couldn't tell. #homeschooled all that to say that after our fourth child, Victoria, was born in 2023, I felt quite at peace with our family size ... but not to the point of giving away all of the baby stuff. after all, I was "only" 37. we did feel strongly though that we should ...

  1) Cece is 9! last year we stepped back from planning big friend birthday parties for the older girls, and I proclaimed that we would only do big parties for upcoming milestone birthdays (like 10 and 16). well... I had a change of heart by the time this fall rolled around and decided that if we have the means (and the energy!) to do a bigger party, it's worth it for them to feel celebrated individually. Cece planned a Halloween-themed party for the week after Halloween and asked her guests to dress up in costumes ("but nothing too scary because we don't want to scare the babies").  Cece's actual birthday fell on a school day. she came home from school and immediately opened presents, then headed to basketball practice where she brought cupcakes to share with her teammates. of course she had a cupcake there, then after she got home, we had more cupcakes and sang to her.  the third grade homeroom teacher draws birthday portraits for each student -- so sweet! (he a...