As promised, behold, the fairy dog cake!
It was even cuter without the wings, I think:
eat me!
I'm gonna eat that dog.
To Lily's right is the adorable Emma, from her class. She and Lily are the biggest hams, ever. They leap in front of the camera like Secret SErvice taking a bullet.
hellllp meee:
But that was all on Saturday. Her actual birthday was on Friday and she got to do the Montessori birthday walk. ("Lily weighed 13 lbs when she was born and was born with a tail. She said her first word at 4 mos. It was 'elbow'") Here she is accepting the earth from Ms. Heidi:
Our county fair opened that night, so we took the birthday girl to the fair and got her a funnel cake with candles to blow out (Me to Steve, "Do you think we'll be able to find someone at the fair that has a lighter?")
It was pay-one-price night, so the kids got to ride all they wanted. Ben and Steve rode the rollercoaster 8 times in a row--no lines! Lily and Julianna rode the "bouncy bench" over and over:
Lily still loves the carousel:
The group fave was the "bouncy buggies"
So then, next day, I have to toss out a birthday party. It was pretty low-key, given that I didn't botherto invite anyone until 48 hrs beforehand...
I took them out back and gave them fairy wings (thanks, Mom!) and we played a lot of freeze dance:
and the big girls started a fairy conga line:
They ran around and played, ate cake, and went home. No magician, no pony, no nuthin'. But they had fun.
I've been here
before. Lily's birthday is tomorrow. Her party is on
Saturday. On Tuesday, I suddenly realized that perhaps I should
invite some children to join us for that party. Problem is, it's
so early in the school year that I don't know the kids well and I don't
have a school directory. I'm sorry, did someone just say, "Invite
the whole class!"? I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I
don't allow that sort of nonsense here. So. Seriously? I
scrawled my contact info and a date and time on paper from a notepad I
had in the car ("Are these coffee stains emobssed?") and handed them to
the parents of the 3 kids she invited. That's such a nice moment,
really. "Um, it's Lily's birthday on Friday? And uh, I'm
having some kids over on Saturday and I"m going to give them cake and
fairy wings and toss them outside. Can you make it?" The funny
thing is how well they take it. My favorite response was "Oh, now
I feel so much better!" Yeah, that's my place on earth. To
make other parents feel good about their pathetic efforts.
She wants a fairy dog cake. Pink and blue. You know and I
know that I'll come through. I just haven't figured out HOW.
Tomorrow is her "birthday walk." At Montessori schools, on
a kid's birthday, they have them walk around "the sun" (light on the
floor) one time for each year of their age. As the kid walks, the
teacher reads a little bit about what the child did in that year and
has a pic to show. I was trying to fill out the paper
tonight. I was hosed from the beginning. Weight at birth?
Length? Time of birth? I have. no. idea. Not a
clue. I know she was born at night b/c the Sopranos were coming
back that night and we missed it. My doula missed a Sopranos
party. Stupid baby. First word? Mmmm...probably
"meow" or "kitty" but I have no real idea. It's not written down
anywhere. Steve was able to offer, "She smiled a lot." I
managed to remember she never crawled...The fate of the third
child. Each year, her birthday walk stats will be different b/c
I'm just making them up to avoid leaving them blank and looking like a
lame-o.
She informed me the other day that from now on "my sad face will also
be my happy face because it hurts to go like this [smiles] and it
doesn't hurt to scowl."
Three was flippin' adorable and I'm kind of sad to say good bye to three forever.
We've had a week of school. And by "we" I mean ALL
of the squids. Lily's only gone for two and a half hours a day,
but it's everyday and it is FINE. No, it's not really enough time
to do all that...stuff I might do with a full 6 hours alone (and no, I
don't mean get a job. I mean, please). Let's see, Monday I
just came home and read my boards and mail and the Television Without
Pity recap of Project Runway. Tuesday I went to a bookstore
that's going out of business and shopped the whole time.
Wednesday, I went back to bed. Thursday, I cleaned because my mom
was coming to share my birthday (yes, it was my birthday on
Thursday. I assume Amazon is just late shipping the presents you
sent). Friday, I napped. I'm hoping, at the urging of my
imaginary friends, to start sewing in that space and finally get up
that website full of fabulous things for you to buy. Stay tuned
for my excuses!
So here are those first day of school photos. First, all three on the front step:
Ben
and Julianna are wearing the clothes they picked out when I gave them
$25 to spend at Target. Lily chose a long sleeve shirt and
corduroy skirt, so I had to hide her outfit from her so that she didn't
insist that it was perfectly appropriate for 90 degrees and humid.
There
was something about seeing all of their backpacks as they headed for
the van that made me tell them to all get back on the porch and turn
around:
Here's
Lily with Ms. Leslie and Ms. Heidi. I love that Ms. Heidi looks
like an excited pre-schooler and Lily has totally been there-done
that. Each kid gets a flower as he or she enters the school and
then they make a big bouquet for the class. Some kind of
individuals-become-one symbolism. Very Borg.
Here's Ben with Ms. Kim and Ms. Julie. Yes, they're the same teachers Julianna had last year. They're awesome.
And here's Julianna with Ms. Venus. That's a kid named Payton in the background.
Steve's comment: "Venus Elliot is a WHITE woman?" Go figure. I'm sure LaTasha Whitaker could sympathize.
