Birthdays

Our birthdays come in sets.  Bethelle's precedes mine by just three weeks, and the new baby should be born three weeks after mine.

The lucky little seven year-old got three parties this year.  The first was a fruit-themed event with a few friends from school.  The girls painted fruit pictures and ate fruit pizza.

The next week was a combined birthday party with her cousin who turned six.  We had my side of the family over for an early Easter dinner and cake.  My camera was still out of commission at the time, but my mom brought her camera to save me.

Here are the birthday girls.  Bethelle requested chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing.

She has gotten so big.  She tells me that she is the smallest first-grader at school, and that she is smaller even than most of the kindergarteners, but that is so hard for me to believe.  She is so big to me; so old.

My mom brought all the supplies for a birthday egg hunt with the cousins.  These guys are anxious, and do not understand the need to hold still for a picture when there are candy-filled eggs to be found.

The following weekend was Easter, which we spent with Nick's family.  This Easter dinner was also a party for Bethelle, complete with cupcakes and presents after the fabulous meal.  Nick's sister, Trish, made the beautiful chocolate cupcakes, and they were admittedly much better than mine the previous week.

My birthday was a little slower than the party girl's events.  The kids get a confused look on their faces whenever they become aware that an adult is having a birthday with no party, or that the family may be getting together for the birthday, but there is no party theme or particular decor.  Even in their confusion, we had a great day.  A good friend and Nick brought me flowers and Bethelle and Rigby gave me this great card.

 Aren't they clever?

 And sweet?

Nick brought home take-out that lasted for two dinners.  After eating, we took the kids to the grocery store to pick out a tiny cake for me in the bakery, which we took to a frozen yogurt shop where they sang to me and I even got to blow out a candle.  It was a great night with my favorite people.

Just a Trip to the Park

Maybe you've noticed the lack of pictures in this blog recently.  I had a bit of bad luck with my camera a few months back, which disturbed me so much, I tried not to think about it.  The camera was pretty new and had been expensive.  And I had talked Nick into letting me buy it after about eight years of wanting a nice, new digital SLR.  Like Scarlett O'Hara, I preferred to "think about it tomorrow."  With some encouragement, I finally scheduled myself some time to think it through and call the company.  Before I called, I spent about ten minutes with the owner's manual and solved all my problems.  Oops.  Lesson learned.  I hope.

Anyhoo, we are back to taking pictures and posting some here on this blog for what I hope is your entertainment.  We begin with a trip to the park on a beautiful weekend.

 Neglecting some things that needed to be done at home, as good parents occasionally do, we walked from our home to two different nearby parks.  I pushed Curie in the stroller and Bethelle got to ride her bike down the neighborhood hill for the first time.  This required some lessons in advanced braking, but the student took well to the teachings.

 If you look closely below (or click on it to blow it up), you will see Bethelle far ahead of the family on her bike, followed far behind by Curie, pushing her own stroller, and Rigby on Nick's shoulders.

 These two got ahead of their pregnant momma on the way back up the hill.  We found them sitting on this yellow square, together but silent, looking straight ahead and pondering the deeper things of the universe.  Love these little friends.

We've had some rain and even hail this April, but so far the weekends have been downright beautiful.  Even hot, compared to the snows of March.  For a few days, we had thought we had skipped right ahead to summer.  I hope these weekends are just a sign of things to come.

Showered

When a generous friend offered to throw me a baby shower, I almost refused.  I really don't need presents this time around.  This is, after all, my fourth baby and second son.  But the shower was to be combined with two other women who were having their second and fifth children, and she promised to minimize any gift-bringing.  And celebrating the coming of this baby is just as welcome as celebrating the coming of my first child was.

So we partied.  The whole occasion was so nice.  Decorations were cute, food was great, and the company was fantastic.  I spent much of the evening talking to one of the other moms being showered, whose due date was just two weeks out.  She moved here only several months ago, so it was nice to get to know her better.  Just as the clock struck nine (the official end-time of the party), the very pregnant woman talking to me jumped out of her seat faster than anyone with her belly ever should.  The look on her face said that someone had just informed her that her house had burned down.  It took her a few minutes, but she finally got out the words to say that her water had just broken.

Witnessing that was a first for me.  She was out of there in short order, and I informed the hostess that I will be back in one month.  I want to sit where my friend sat, eat what she ate, talk to whoever she spoke with, and then rush off to the hospital.  Do you think it will work?