Grant’s 6th

Grant’s at the age now where he really anticipates his birthday, counting down the months, weeks and days. He has a lot of expectations for his 6th year. In the past couple of months, he has made a couple of predictions:

• “When I’m 6, I’m going to take ballet”
• “When I’m 6, I’m going to be a football player”

(When I reminded him about the ballet, he said “I’m going to do both!”)

• And last night “Now that I’m 6, I’m going to drink Pepsi.” HA! 

Because it had been April since Mom and Dad been here and I’d done absolutely nothing with my flower beds, we had to do some last-minute landscaping on Saturday. If I don’t at least weed the flower beds, it is impossible for Mom to keep from doing some weeding while she’s here; she’s powerless to stop herself! So, the girls helped out a lot by weeding the flower beds, while I got some flowers and mulch.

Here are before and after shots:

Nothing too dramatic, but it’s amazing what a difference a few petunias and some mulch makes!

So, back to the Birthday Boy. Here he is, descending the stairs in all his glory. :-) I had to be quick with the camera – it’s a little blurry because he was moving so fast!!  Ha!

We had barbecue chicken, mac ‘n cheese, rolls and salad. The girls decorated nicely with streamers and the good dishes. One of these days, I’m going to try to be more on the ball and get a picture of the decorations and the dinner table! We’ve got 2 more birthdays to celebrate this year so here’s hoping.  :-)

He also requested “chocolate cake,” which around here translates to Mocha Layer Cake. (Grant: “No, I want chocolate cake.” Me: “Mocha Layer Cake is chocolate cake.” :-)

He raced us from the cake to the gifts. Yes, he was excited.  :-) Grant has been in a Spider Man phase lately. He’s not seen the movie – I don’t think he knows there is a movie – but is intrigued by the idea of Spider Man.  :-)  So, I bought several Spider Man gifts and also splurged on Spider Man wrapping paper, which you can just barely see in the next picture.

 

And here is the one gift I got a picture of Grant opening: a Cars coloring book. Why did I only get one picture? Because my camera battery died! Grrrr!!!!

I put the batteries in the charger and we watched him open the rest of the gifts, ate the cake and ice cream, then went outside to play for a while. We did this partly because his final gift couldn’t be wrapped and had to be brought up from the basement and set up. In order to capture this, I grabbed the partially-charged battery and started snapping away. Drum roll please (yes, I did that on purpose ;-)

 

Oh there’s been lots of excitement over this gift! I was at a Once Upon a Child back in March or April with the boys and Grant actually spotted this drum set on a high shelf. He pointed it out to me, but I smiled and said something like “that’s neat,” but inside I was thinking “No way!!”. When I told Mick about it that night, he said “Did you get it?” “How much was it?” So, I went back to the same store a week later, just intending to shop for Sarah’s birthday and I noticed it was still there. I spent about 15 minutes contemplating whether or not to get it before I finally decided to. It’s been hidden in our basement, covered with a tarp under the ping pong table ever since.

 

Contrary to my fears, he has NOT played the drums day and night, nonstop. :-) Like all the rest of the toys, he plays them in spurts. And if I do say so myself, he actually sounds pretty good!  :-)

And lastly, a stroll through the years …

   

 

 

Happy Birthday?

Goodness, this picture makes me laugh! Friday was Grant’s 6th birthday, and what a “memorable” birthday it was. This picture was taken moments before we dashed out the door for the full dress rehearsal of our ballet school’s “Nutcracker.” Notice the following details in the picture:

1. Courtney, Erica, Sarah and Claire are wearing heavy amounts of makeup.

2. Brooke is being blocked (on purpose!) by Claire.

3. Brooke’s hair is being brushed by 2 big sisters. What’s remarkable about that is that she has very thin, straight hair; hardly seems necessary to have 2 people brush it, right?

4. Trent is looking a little unsure.

5. Grant is smiling happily in his brand new, grow-in-the-dark Spiderman t-shirt (he wore that shirt at least part of the day on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday).

So here’s the scoop: May seems like such a wonderful month to have a birthday. The outdoors are finally warming up and greening up (Grant’s birthday was an absolutely beautiful day); schedules begin to lighten up; there’s the excitement of the Indy 500 being held just south of us. And speaking of the race, here’s a little Worley Indy 500 trivia: Mick and I met at the Indy 500, were engaged at the racetrack during qualifications, our first boy was born on Carb Day and brought home from the hospital on race day. This year, his birthday fell on Carb Day again.

As of May 2012, May has also become the month of The Recital. Our ballet school has a recital every other year and it is scheduled, apparently, right around Grant’s birthday, which is May 23rd. Our last recital was Sleeping Beauty and the dress rehearsal for that also fell on Grant’s birthday.

So back to this funny picture. Since Brooke was playing the part of a “Party Girl” in the Nutcracker, she was required to have curls rather than the usual ballet bun. As I mentioned before, Brooke has very thin, straight, and might I add beautiful hair, as is evidenced by this picture.

 

So, we needed some serious hairstyling to achieve curls … or so we thought. We learned of this technique for curling hair and had actually tried it out before for the Scottish Ball on a couple of the girls, with good results. It’s an interesting process of twisting sections of hair and securing them with terrycloth ponytail holders, like so.

What we were hoping for was something like this:

However, for whatever reason, what we got instead was … well, the word “frizz” comes to mind. “Tangled mess,” too. And all of this unfolded just minutes before we were ready to walk out the door … Oh, and sing “Happy Birthday” to Grant. So, we’re frantically trying to brush out her hair, while she’s fighting back tears of pain and frustration (“All that for nothing!” she wailed at one point), and I’m trying to get Grant and Trent to come to the kitchen, so we can rush through singing one verse of the birthday song to him and he can blow out the candles that Sarah had quickly stuck into his “birthday cake” of chocolate donuts. Oh, it was something else, quite a shining Mom-of-the-Year moment.  And yet, in spite of that, I could see the hilarity in the situation and grabbed the camera. Several of the girls (including Brooke!) thought it was a terrible idea, but I told Claire to block her from view and told everyone it was a part of the birthday memories for Grant’s 6th birthday.  Indeed it was.  :-)

The P.S. to the story is that we grabbed the curling iron and headed down to the rehearsal. Rachel had plenty of time to curl Brooke’s hair the traditional way and spray it heavily with hair spray to keep it all in place. Surprisingly, that held throughout the night and she looked beautiful!

And so what of our Birthday Boy? Well, Friday, May 23rd was exciting for him! Daddy: (1) took the day off from work, and (2) mowed the grass! Either of these things would make for an exciting day for Grant. Put them together and, well, that is a great day, as far as he’s concerned! Ah, simple pleasures.  :-) 

And the birthday party – the one when Grandma and Grandpa come and we have a nice meal and a proper birthday cake and he really turns six – is in the works. :-)

A “Miserable” 18th Birthday

 

An 18th birthday is an important milestone birthday, and yet, we are a family who loves traditions. So in many ways, Rachel’s 18th birthday was no different from her other birthdays. For example: she took extra care with such important details as her hairstyle (thanks to Courtney for the lovely curling!).

We had a tasty birthday meal with Grandma and Grandpa, followed by homemade brownies, ice cream and gifts.

 

But the *special* part of this milestone birthday had been planned a couple months in advance: tickets to see “Les Miserables” in Chicago!! The kids first listened to the story several years ago on Focus on the Family’s Radio Theatre drama series. Rachel absolutely loved the story and has been a fan ever since. We picked a Wednesday matinee show, Mick took the day off and we headed up to Chicago.

We started off with a late breakfast/early lunch at the famous Lou Mitchell’s restaurant. From there, we drove out to Oakbrook Terrace, a suburb of Chicago, to see the show. It is hard to put into words just how amazing it all was. Incredible story … unbelievable talent. At one point, I felt like we hadn’t paid enough for our tickets!! So moving and wonderful. I just don’t have enough adjectives to describe it, really.

After the show, when we were waiting for Mick to bring the car around, two elderly women walked past, one helping the other. One asked “What was it about?” I’m wondering: how in the world do you sum up Les Miserables? The other said “It was about redemption and forgiveness.” Absolutely. Those two themes are at the heart of that great musical.

Right after the show, Rachel changed into her souvenir t-shirt. She was still basking in the afterglow. We all were, actually. For the next few weeks.  :-)

So, from there, we went from the unbelievable heights of the most moving musical experience ever to … wait for it … the Chicago subway.  :-D

We’d planned to ride the metro, both for the convenience of not having to mess with parking in downtown Chicago, and also just for the experience; even Mick had never ridden a subway. I’d done extensive homework the night before and felt very certain of where we needed to get off to be close to our destination: DiGiornio’s Pizza. We wanted to be close so we wouldn’t have to walk too far in 38 degree weather. We rode an increasingly packed subway and the closer we got to our exit, the less sure I was about where to get off. We started double-checking the iPhone and at the last minute, I panicked and decided I had the wrong exit so we stayed on for another 15 minutes or so, past many more exits, until we got the one we thought was the right one. It didn’t take too long to realize I’d miscalculated again. We could see the part of downtown Chicago where we needed to be, but it was pretty distant. We ducked inside a nearby Subway restaurant (which smelled heavenly of course) and tried to get our bearings. At this point, Rachel and I were starting to lobby for Subway instead of DiGiornio’s, but Mick had his heart and stomach set on real Chicago pizza and we agreed (pretty much). So we started walking … in overcast 38 degree weather … in "The Windy City.”

Rachel and Mick aren’t passing each other – she’s walking backward rather than into the wind! She did that for a long time.  :-)

It was bracing, to say the least. A couple of times, we’d duck behind building entrances to get out of the wind and check the map again. After what seemed like an eternity, we’d gone a couple of millimeters on the map and had about 6 inches to go … or something like that.  ;-)

During one stop, while I was consulting the map, Mick spotted a taxi and gave the slightest of hand waves and the guy pulled right up. As soon as we got in that warm mini-van, we knew we’d might the right choice – no matter WHAT the cost!  Plus, it was pretty neat; we’d never ridden in a taxi, either.  So, I couldn’t resist snapping a picture.  (hee-hee)

So,after waiting an eternity for our pizza (I think an hour) and then another 45 minutes to have the pizza brought to the table, we all agreed it was the BEST pizza we’d EVER eaten! That can happen when you’re eating at 8:30 pm after a long, cold, windy walk.  ;-)

Before we left the restaurant, we got directions from our waitress on the best way to get back on the “Blue Line.” Of course, it was much easier than the trip there, since we didn’t even think about using one “line” to get to another. The Red Line was just a couple of blocks from the restaurant, so we took that to get back to the Blue Line.

I took these two pictures, looking straight up, right after we left the restaurant.

Of course, the return trip was much more enjoyable. We were full, a little more confident about what we were doing and it just seemed more like an adventure – the GOOD kind of adventure.  :-) And, of course, since we were tourists, we took touristy pictures on and around the subway!      

  

I think I can confidently say that Rachel will never forget the details of her 18th birthday! Well, she actually has a very good memory for the details of any day, but this one especially, I’m sure.  :-)

Sarah’s 12th

 

With ballet practices getting more critical as we draw nearer to the recital, we decided to postpone Sarah’s birthday celebration from Thursday to Friday. In order to make her actual birthday a little special, I drove into town that morning and let her pick out a dozen donuts from Titus Bakery. We also stopped at the grocery store and bought lots of good breakfast food, then came home and had a big, late breakfast. Here is a picture of one of Titus Baker’s famous Pershing donuts with Trent’s strawberries neatly lined up beside it. Trent is still in the “line things up” phase of toddlerhood. :-)

So, on Thursday night and Friday, we whipped up her birthday meal:  Mock Lobster, mac ‘n cheese, green beans, Honey Wheat Sandwich Rolls, homemade applesauce, Baked Potato Wedges and chocolate pie and homemade ice cream. In addition to Grandma and Grandpa, we had another special guest: Uncle Kent, who is visiting and staying with Mom and Dad for a month.

Great shot of Uncle Kent, who is clearly enjoying Trent’s antics.

We also had some light entertainment: Rachel played a few of the songs she’s been working on “Trois Nocturnes” by Chopin and “Sonata No. 9 in E Major” by Beethoven, then some of the girls wanted to show Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Kent their recital costumes, so once they changed into them, we turned on their music and they performed their dances for us. Unfortunately, I only got a picture of Brooke in her costume. Refer to this post for the others. :-D

Once we got done with the Nutcracker performers, Trent wanted to do “his dance.” When asked what dance that was, he replied “Cars.” Which translates to “Life is a Highway,” which is the theme song for the movie. As soon as the music started, he started running at top speed around and around the dining room table with a very serious expression, telling us he was “Aqueen (“Lightening McQueen”) going around the racetrack.” I didn’t even think to take a picture, because I knew he would just be a blur, but now I’m thinking that would’ve been pretty funny!

Notable gifts included a beautiful dress, a slinky, a box of Gobstoppers, two Nancy Drew mysteries, “In Grandma’s Attic”, and “Millie’s Fiery Trial” which is the last book in the Millie series. The girls have been requesting it for awhile, but the books have been out of print. I was glad Erica found this online for a good deal; oftentimes, they’re outrageously priced. Grandma and Grandpa got her a little trunk, covered with flowers and filled with goodies like a sparkly picture frame, a sketchpad, notebook, pencils and a pencil sharpener.

Afterwards, we watched “Sound of Music,” which we also gave her for her birthday. We had the VHS, but wanted the DVD, since our VHS player doesn’t work. It’s been a while since we’ve watched it, so I don’t think the younger ones remembered it very well. During the thunderstorm scene, Grant climbed onto Mick’s lap and Trent climbed onto mine. :-D He also covered his ears whenever the Captain was talking and asked Rachel “Is he a bad guy?” Ha!

I just realized I put so many pictures in Sarah’s 10th birthday post, that it’s going to be hard not to duplicate what I put there. I’ll do my best. 

Happy 12th Birthday, Sarah!