The Weekend

After the sleepover, this weekend turned out to be kind of a bust. I was supposed to be at band rehearsal from 9-6 on Saturday but I woke up with *such* a bad migraine, the kind I rarely get, that I simply couldn't go. My migraine medicine wasn't really even touching it. So, obviously, I couldn't play in the concert today, which I feel *bad* about but it's just as well because as usually happens with my stupid migraines, I woke up with another one today. Not as bad, and good thing because I had to be the religious education associate at church today, so I had to drag out of bed and go. And then I pretty much spent the rest of the day asleep. So I feel like I didn't get a weekend, poor Jamie had to do everything household related (the boy makes a mean taco salad, btw) and I didn't really get to spend any time with the kids or Jamie. >:(

Saturday night Jordan watched the Kid's Choice Awards. She dressed up for it and asked Jamie to watch it with her so he put on a suit and tie. Here they are dancing with Bo during a commercial.

Sammy's Birthday Sleepover

Friday night we had a sleepover for Sammy's birthday at which the number of girls in attendance equalled the US deficit. Well, ok, not really--but the screaming did sound like we had trillions of girls here instead of just 9. We had a pinata and Sam and Jordan's very adorable Unitarian friend came to me to so earnestly share with me that an injustice had been perpetrated--not everyone got to hit the pinata!!!. To which I just had to reply, well, that's part of the pinata experience. Go get some candy! I think Sammy had a good time, so that was the main thing. I think Jordan and the guests did, too, so that was good, too. And they pretty much left Claudia alone so Claudia was a happy camper. They all seem to be very nice friends. There was some mild trouble with one because she's pretty hyper but she's a nice kid. They stayed up until 3 or 4 or 5, depending on which girl you asked.

Here's some of the food. Sammy picked out kabobs--fruit and chicken nugget--and lime sherbet punch. Not pictured: The requisite cheese pizza and potato chips.


The lame-looking cake that was only ordered several hours before the party, which I feel *bad* about and that I had to sort of bully the cake person into picking out the cake and writing on it for me. Guess what? No you *don't* need 24 hours notice on a cake! So annoying. But hey! Disappointing results, anyway!


Here's Sammy getting ready to blow out the candles. Isn't she adorable?!?!!


This is Sammy attempting to open gifts. She started out on the couch with just Jordan, who was writing everything down for her so she could do thankyou notes) and then it devolved into this. And then Sammy tried to move off the couch and away from everyone and they followed her.


Here are the treat "bags". They decorated flower pots and made shrinky dinks.

Easter

Easter was so much fun! The night before we dyed eggs. We used food coloring instead of the egg kits and ended up mixing 20-something colors from instructions we found online. After church the next day, we made a really delicious/low key meal of roasted salmon, basil/shallot new potatoes and steamed broccoli. And I made a strawberry italian cream cake with strawberry cream cheese icing inspired by my friend, Jana's holiday cake. And we ate on Grandma Esther's Dessert Rose china.

Then we had the most raucous, free-for-all easter egg hunt I've ever been a party to. Claudia, who, when younger used to only get a few eggs every year because she was too shy to assert herself when she spied the same egg as another litle child, apparently found her Assertive Voice this year. She set the tone from the very first second by running through the house, tossing eggs in her basket as fast as she could go, yelling, "I AM WINNING! I AM WINNING!" so the little girls followed suit and started competing with her big time. The hunt was a full contact sport complete with much laughter, dirty tricks (stealing out of others' baskets) and tackles and at one point, Jordan was completely pinned in the coat closet. Oh, My God. They found the 156 eggs that were hidden, the dog was in complete shock, and then Claudia insisted they count their eggs to determine, once and for all, who was the champion, and the loser had to be sacrificed to Jesus (sorry, she's a Unitarian Child and she's embracing it). I was looking through her basket afterwards and found one of the little girls' hubba bubba eggs they got from the easter bunny. When I told Claudia she had to give it back she opened it and got a piece of gum out, and slowly raised it to her mouth, sort of laughingly looking me in the eye, daring me to tell her no. She nibbled it mock savoringly and said breathlessly, "Victory tastes sweet." And then she hopped up, skipped over to the little girls and gave the gum back.

The only bad thing of the day was I completely didn't have the energy to make cascarones this year. Kids were disappointed. Oh, well, there's always next year.

Egg dyes. Everything from jungle green to maize.


Claudia decorated some of hers with drawings done in sharpy.


The finished product.


The baskets.


Determining the "winner". It's like raising the Geller children.

Stuff Lately

Wow, it's been so long since I blogged, I don't remember what all I've told all y'all! Anyway, hi! We're super crazy busy lately but in a pretty good way.

Highlights are, Jamie got his study materials for his next test so he's going to start working on that by this weekend. He's also going to meetings because he's involved in the mediation process for our church (we're pro-keeping the minister).

I changed my work schedule to be home Monday/Wednesday/Friday afternoons when the kids get home through the end of this school year. It's working out pretty well. I'm also, very unexpectedly, playing in a concert this Sunday. It's a big regional thing and for some reason, our band has been very short on clarinets lately. Not just me (I decided to sit this one out because I knew I wouldn't have time for rehearsals and practicing) so they asked me to show up. I haven't even seen the music yet, so this should be interesting. Also, I'm organizing our church for the Pride Parade this year. I am *super* excited about it!

Our other big thing right now is Sammy's having a birthday party sleepover this Friday night and so far we have, including Sam and Jordan, nine girls coming. What do I have done for the party so far? Nothing! Well, that's not true. I did design and send some invitations and make a bunch of phone calls. We'll pull it off and Sammy will be happy. My friend Jennifer pointed out to me recently that I never start on a party until the last minute and since I've known her for ten years, I have to concede that she's probably right about that.

Here are Sammy and Jordan on their way to a murder mystery birthday party last Friday. They were assigned roles and asked to wear costumes.

Sammy's supposed to be a brainiac who loves Star Trek (she has a Star Trek communicator on her jacket) and Jordan's supposed to be a tough girl (we went with a Vespa Logo instead of Harley Davidson for a pin).

Happy 10th Birthday to Sammy!!

Yesterday was Sammy's 10th Birthday. We had a small family celebration last night with boiled shrimp (which she loves), a cake made by Jamie and decorated by Claudia and presents. Next Friday night she's having a sleepover so we're working on getting that together this weekend. Kind of late, but we'll pull it off!

The Birthday Altar!


I love these two photos that were taken right after Sammy was born. And look at the snapshot of cute little Baby Sammy in tbe highchair! I also love that Annie is in that photo because Annie is still very much a part of the family.

Stuff Lately

This is Jamie making my birthday cake. Sweet, no? He's using a mix, which, fine, it was delicious. I, however, rarely, if ever use a mix. So when we were gettting ready for bed he mentioned that earlier Claudia told him it was the best cake she had ever eaten. >:(


This is the delicious cake. Jamie made homemade chocolate cream cheese icing.

This is Claudia and her band getting ready to perform for the contest judges. They were AWESOME! and they won a Gold!

Claudia had a great time at her youth convention in Dayton. It was super foggy round trip so that was kind of sucky and tiring, but it was worth it listening to how much fun she had when she got back home.


Sammy was in her stepsister's wedding this weekend and we went to that on Saturday afternoon.


Yesterday the Leprechaun left everyone chocolate coins and the girlies wore green so there was no pinching reported.

And Sunday afternoon Jamie and I went to the Indianapolis Opera's performance of Tosca and that was an interesting experience. And by interesting, I mean boring. We're going to try another opera sometime--probably Madame Butterfly or La Boheme. We had excellent seats, though, so that was nice.

Happy Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Susanne's birthday. Happy birthday, honey!

The main birthday celebration is tonight, but we did it up a little bit last night with a mexican feast. Susanne has always been a recognized potato-savant, but last night we discovered she was also quite the frijole master. She made the best refried beans ever, like ever. (I helped by mashing. I helped!)

Anyway, I hope they made the midwest a little more tolerable.

Here's the birthday girl ready to start her new life as a neopet bean chef. (Susanne-as-neopet art by Claudia.)



In other news, Claudia has been working very hard on a speech she has to give at school. She chose the Iraq War as her topic. (Opposed.) We're proud of her--the speech is very solid, and she practiced it over and over last night. Wish her luck!

Last night Claudia's band performed and they sounded awesome as usual. Here's Claudia in the bleachers waiting for another band to warm up.



Tonight Sammy and I made tortillas. Here's Sammy on flipping duty, learning what they look like when they're ready to turn.


The next two weeks are going to be kind of crazy (but crazy good!). We have my dad's birthday, my friend Jana's birthday, my birthday, Sammy's birthday, Easter, Claudia has a band contest and a youth convention in (glamorous!) Dayton, Ohio and while she's there, Jamie and I got tickets to the Opera (Tosca) and I guess I should find a sitter for that, shouldn't I?

My mom and dad primaried and caucused in Texas on Tuesday night. The littles were asking how a caucus works so we had a mock one at our house. Obama won (Bobo was persuaded to go over the the side with the little girls--it's possible they promised him treats). Obama won at the place where my parents caucused, too.