May Birthdays 2010

Today we celebrated May birthdays at a picnic at Central Park in Roseville. Rose #1 got a Harry Potter quidditch robe (thanks Aunt Boo) and a Target gift card (thanks Aunt Heidi) in addition to the presents she got at her birthday party. And, her Poppy gave her the most exciting present ever...
...a kid leather jacket. Kid not in the "baby calf" kind of meaning but the "size 7/8 youth" kind of meaning. Here she is with her Poppy, super happy about her new leather jacket.

As for me, dear readers, I ate roughly my own WEIGHT in food at the picnic. Chicken shishkabobs. Potato salad. Watermelon. Chips. Appetizers. I feel like my stomach is its own nation. Luckily, tomorrow morning I am scheduled to bike all the way to downtown Minneapolis...YIKES!

First day of Memorial Day weekend. Lots of things happened.

For example, Rose #1 was invited to see Mulan, Jr. at the Children's Theater. She was a bit reticent to go but she ended up loving it. Here she is under the sculpture sun in the MIA/CTC atrium:

This morning we went to our friendly local hardware store and got supplies for the garden for the summer. Each Rose got a trowel (Rose #1 keeps calling them trellises, for some reason). Below see Rose #1 and Rose #2 posing with said trowels and with Rose #3, who was dressed up to go to her first ever friend birthday party!

And a non-smiling Rose #3 posed solo before the party. Her hair is finally long enough to be held back with barrettes - YAY - and we found her Barbie (or are they Dora? Or Princess) sunglasses.
She carried her very fashionable pink sparkly purse to the party (and promptly forgot it there, engendering a need for the entire family to return on foot after dinner) which holds her 3 - count them, folks, 3 - lip glosses. Raspberry, strawberry, and Skittles (GAG).

As for me, loyal readers, I dug in the garden, mowed the lawn, did some shopping, went to the compost site where I was yelled at by the compost site worker (thanks a lot, dude), and snuck to Dairy Queen with Rose #2 where, virtuously, I only got a Diet Coke. And a few bites of Rose #2's M&M Blizzard.

Maddie's Dance Recital

Tonight we went to see Maddie's Dance Recital! She was a big hit in pink. I had the little camera tonight and so I couldn't get a clear shot of her dancing. Instead, I went backstage and took a picture of her with her class. Maddie is in the back row, on her knees, smiling big:

And here is Maddie with her mama:

I was a little sad at the recital tonight, thinking about last year and how Mom was at the recital last year. Then, to make matters worse, I looked toward the back of the auditorium as a friend of Maddie's family was walking in and she looked JUST LIKE MOM. That hasn't happened to me yet - my heart literally skipped a beat, and I thought: it's all a big mistake! Mom is really still here! At the same time, of course, I knew that was impossible. And in fact, it wasn't Mom. So it was a nice recital, but not as nice as last year. We have a lot more firsts - first baby born without her, first Thanksgiving, first Christmas. I miss her a lot.

Celebrating Birthdays!

Today we celebrated May birthdays with the Roses' grandparents. We went to a dim sum buffet that had wonderful lions in front. Here's Rose #2 - if you look really carefully you can see that her bottom left front tooth fell out yesterday (there will be no post about the tooth fairy getting caught in TRAFFIC last night):

And Rose #1, who looks just like her daddy, and who refused to eat at the restaurant (even though we asked repeatedly about nuts). Sigh. She also looks sort of like the lion, no?

And Rose #3, whose birthday we did not celebrate today. That's OK, her birthday isn't until June. Anyway, she had new lip gloss (can you tell - her whole face was dewy with it!). We had to remind her repeatedly this weekend that it is LIP gloss, not TOE gloss or WINDOW gloss. I got it for her in the $1 section at Target and as soon as we paid for it, she whipped it open and started expertly applying it. I was surprised - said, "Where did you learn how to put on lip gloss?"

She tipped me an expert look and said, "Remember, GUPPY had lip gloss and she always gave me some."

That's true. Isn't it funny, what we remember? I totally forgot that Guppy had lip gloss and shared it with Josie, but that is an item that loomed large in her little world. Now that she reminded me of it, of course I remember.

Friday Evening...

Home from work. Kids ran outside as soon as they could get the neighbors to come out to play. We have them trained (our kids anyway) not to ride anything with wheels without a helmet; I love seeing Rose #1 and Rose #2 zipping up and down the sidewalk, their behelmeted blue heads just showing over the windowsills of the big window in the dining room.

Glass of wine - half empty. That's not pessimism, just a fact. A nice pinot grigio ("Mommy's Time Out" - how heartbreakingly true). A little blogging - over at www.bbonthehill.com (my mom's bed and breakfast), an entry here (feel too guilty blogging at my mom's site without posting SOMETHING here).

Dinner soon - chicken on romaine salad. Thanks to our friends the Markerts for that menu idea. The kids love it. Goes great with pinot grigio too...

Happy Birthday to Rose #1

Eight years ago I was in a world of childbirth hurt, but look at the beautiful baby I got for the trouble (she's pictured below with her Guppy):

Today we celebrated her eighth birthday, with a surprise in the backyard...under a tarp...what could it be?
Yes, that's right, a new (to us!) bike! Rose #1 loves her bike. She is a SERIOUS tomboy, and turned her nose up at the purple bike she got a few birthdays ago. (Purple is too girly of a color, you see. I tried to explain that it is the color of kings and royalty, but THAT explanation FLEW for about thirteen seconds.) In the interim she has been making do with other people's bikes and her scooter. Now, gloriously, she has her own! And it says Rip Claw on the side (why would you want to rip or claw anything while biking, but still)! And it is silver and black, which are both acceptable colors!

Eight is an inbetween age. You are still a little kid in lots of ways, but your concerns are turning outward to friends, and to thoughts about the wider world. Of course, I want Rose #1 to stay as my little baby, and she wants to grow up as fast as possible.

Happy Birthday Little Bean. I love you SO MUCH.

Mother's Day, Redux

This is officially the latest Mother's Day post in the blogosphere. We did celebrate it, albeit in a somewhat muted fashion. We had an ice cream social and went to plant flowers at my dad's house. The absence of my mom was everywhere, even though we were honoring the way she would have wanted to celebrate.

I am having photo problems today, but if you squint really hard you will see Poppy, two of the Roses, and my niece Beatrice, planting flowers in a container using dirt from the wheelbarrow. The worms were a highlight.

A closer shot showing Poppy explaining how to plant a seedling:

And Rose #3, peeping out between two flowerpots:

We missed you a lot on Mother's Day, mom. It just didn't seem right without you. I guess that goes for lots of things.