A Party Fit for a Princess

Danielly had her birthday party at the Columbia Marionette Theater yesterday. The show was “Beauty and the Beast” which tied in wonderfully with her Disney Princesses theme. As you can see from the picture, her favorite Disney Princess is Cinderella. Since receiving Cinderella on DVD for Christmas, we have watched it every time it is Danielle’s turn to pick on “Friday Family Movie Night”. The costume was a gift from Granna (Scott’s mom) earlier in the year. She even wore Cinderella’s “glass” slippers the whole day (another gift from Granna). As Danielle woefully discovered, as most women eventually do, high-heeled shoes leave blisters. This was her first fashion lesson… it is better to look good than to feel good… and she looked mahvelous. (Truth be told, I didn’t get her smocked birthday dress ready in time.)

The party went wonderfully. It was another Christmas for her, except this time there were lots more people involved. It was enjoyable to have close family and dear friends who are almost like family share her day. She took home quite a stash: a watercolor paint set, several books, Disney Princesses tea set, Care Bear with DVD, Cinderella Color Wonder, stuffed dog, Aqua Doodle, a set of 7 pocketbooks (one for each day of the week), dress-up jewelry, Care Bear Care-A-Lot house, Discovery Toys Playful Patterns, Care Bear stickers, do-it-yourself “Build-a-Bear”, Melissa and Doug Animal Abacus, Cinderella magnetic paper doll, 6 pairs of dress up shoes, and a set of wooden table and chairs (delivered later that evening by my family).

Danielle had to try several times to blow her birthday candles out. Someone even made the comment they were afraid she was going to pass out. Danielle and Aden’s godmother was there with two of her four children – God bless her! Most people think I’ve “got it together”, yet compared to this woman, I’m an amateur. She’s the type of women/mother I aspire to be. Since Aden was very little, he started referring to Ms. Kimberly as his “Fairy Godmother”. We thought it was adorable and the title has since stuck. These are the memories I will always cherish.

Danielle sat in my lap through the entire production because she got scared during the thunder storm in the beginning. I think Columbia Marionette Theater did a terrific job merging the original “Beauty and the Beast” story with Disney’s. Most people are only familiar with Disney’s rendition of fairy tales, but they’re missing out. I highly recommend Andrew Lang’s Color Fairy Books compilations. These are my favorite books I love to read again and again – even before I had children. I was surprised to find, the Beast in the marionette production was a very good likeness of the picture contained in Lang’s Blue Fairy Book, which actually looked more like a warthog/elephant than Disney’s lionlike Beast. (Yeees, I did go through my fairy tale books last night after a family conversation as to whether Beauty had siblings.)

We had lunch at Mellow Mushroom with some of our Charleston friends who had come up to see us. (Danielle was still wearing her costume and plastic shoes.) Although it had already been a full day, all of the children behaved very well during lunch. It makes a mother proud when complete strangers compliment you on how well-behaved your children are. I think Regina beamed as much as I did to have that reaffirmed. Each day might not be perfect, but you get a feeling you must be doing something right in order for people to say things like that while you are in public. My children napped while we visited with my Charleston friends and their daughter for a while until it was time for them to go home. Later that evening my family came for dinner and brought Danielle’s table and chairs.

Yesterday was exhausting, but now that everything’s opened and both kids have had a chance to play with each new toy, things a settling back into the normal routine.

I'm this many...

Happy Birthday Danielly.

Baking cupcakes for class parties is one of the things I dreamed about whenever I thought of becoming a mommy. Now all I need is one of those soccer ball magnetic decals for the back of the van. Unfortunately, I didn't find out about Spring soccer registration until after the sign-up date, so I will have to wait until the Fall until I can actually claim the "Soccer Mom" title.

1-2-3 Go!

We'll it's finally begun, Scott has given up on me playing games with him, so has now turned to our son. Last week he taught Aden how to play Go. They started on a 4x4 board to introduce the basic concepts of placing stones, freedoms, and capturing. Instead of saying "atari", Aden kept saying "tarry", so Scott suggested he say "attack" instead.

Once the basics were down, they progressed to a 9x9 board with a 4-stone start for Aden. Perhaps the 9x9 board was too big. Aden was winning the first game, but about halfway through started getting rambunctious and accidentally knocked the pieces off the board. Aden still wanted to play. He required a little more coaching the second time about bad placements (it was getting past his bedtime) but saw the game through and won 28 to 11. They have since played a few more games on a 7x7 board, with only a one stone lead for Aden.

Aden is not the only one playing games these days. Danielle got a Dora the Explorer Uno game for Christmas from Uncle Hunter and Aunt Lori. She can’t hold five cards in her hand at one time, so lays them face up in front of her when she plays. Sorry, don’t have a pic of that one yet.

I am part of all that I have met.

Scott’s birthday was two weeks after Christmas on January 8^th. The quote is from Tennyson’s “Ulysses” and was on the front of Scott’s birthday card from Aunt Janet. Not my favorite poem, but a great quote. Leave it to Janet to find a great card like that.

I try not to skimp on Scott’s present since his birthday is so close after Christmas. I took him shopping for new white and red wine glasses. However, I caught him drinking red wine out of a white wine glass last night – for shame. Over the last few years, Scott has been educating himself on different wines, trying several varieties from different countries. Unfortunately, I do not share his love for wine since there are very few I find palatable. I truly wish I enjoyed wine more, but can’t help wrinkling up my nose at it and inevitably coughing after it goes down.

For his birthday, he had a group of friends come over to the house to play board games. Since his twin, Hunter (the brother formerly known as Jeff), moved to Ohio in 1995, Scott doesn’t play games as often as he would like. I wasn’t born with the competitive “game” gene, so it is very rare I play games with him at all. I have never played the card game he designs (nor will I ever). It’s not that I’m not a supportive wife. I can’t strategize and Scott’s competitive nature will not allow him to throw a game (except maybe tic-tac-toe with Aden), so I wind up losing all the time. Ergo, I do not play.

For Christmas, Hunter gave Scott a new game, 10 Days in Africa. He was so excited and had no one to play with him. In a moment of weakness, I took pity on him. Admittingly, the games were close, but I still lost twice. (Wanna know a secret? If you want to see Scott totally upset me, just watch us play a game of Kahuna. Watch Scott systematically obliterate every single one of my pieces from the board while I'm floundering to come up with a strategy. He’s just plain mean when he plays – no mercy.) Now you all know why I cross stitch and smock instead.

Scott fixed seafood for our guests. Now it’s not that I’m not the most perfect, doting wife and would have loved to fix dinner (can’t you hear the sarcasm), but he wanted seafood…I don’t like seafood. “What! Don’t like seafood, what’s wrong with you?” my Charleston friends exclaim. I know you are all wondering how I could have lived in the Mt. Pleasant area, with Shem Creek right there, and not like seafood. Well…I really don’t have a good answer. It could be that my head isn't screwed on quite right. It could be, perhaps, that my shoes are too tight. But I think that the most likely reason of all may be my stomach is two sizes too small. Over the years, Scott has been “Sam I Am”, trying to get me to like green eggs and ham. (Err, I mean fish.) He’s been unsuccessful thus far. If it swims in the ocean, river, lake, or stream, I refuse to eat it. On the nights Scott fixes fish for the kids, I try nonchalantly to fix a plate of leftovers from the fridge, hoping the kids won’t notice. Now that they are a little older, this trick doesn’t work so well anymore. “Mommy, why aren’t you having fish like us?” they ask. Try to come up with a good excuse for that one without turning your kids away from seafood.

Scott watched Sin City, given to him for his birthday by his brother. I, on the other hand, was in a different room. Not my kind of movie. Bless Scott’s heart. Even though I did not play games, drink wine, fix dinner, eat seafood, or watch a movie with him, he still had a good birthday. Well Jen, other than buy a few glasses, what did you do? Well…I let his friends come over, play games, and eat fish didn't I?

Happy New Year y'all

The month of December stayed busy with the usual holiday activities: decorating the house, going to see Christmas lights at the zoo, Christmas pageant at daycare, pictures of the kids with Santa and baking cookies. Unusual December activities included hospitalizing my 75 year-old mother from Dec. 9th through the 14th for pneumonia and my siblings and myself taking time off from work to keep her in-home daycare running while she was recuperating. Therefore, Christmas cards were sent later than what I had liked (sorry to those of you who got the family newsletter via e-mail), the children's Christmas outfits weren't finished until the morning of the 24th (see picture: yep, made both outfits from scratch, including the bow-tie), and the first present wasn't wrapped until after Christmas Eve church service. And yet, somehow it all worked out - I love Amazon.com.

The kids (4-1/2 and almost 3) were up at the crack of dawn Christmas morning and were so excited. I really thought they would explode. Santa brought Aden a wooden train set, Matchbox car garage, robot, books, Play-Doh, and Aladdin DVD. Danielle got a dollhouse, wooden blocks, star builders, marble run, books, Play-Doh, Cinderella DVD, and a Care Bear. Scott got Frank Miller's Sin City and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns graphic novels, two Kohta Hirano's Hellsing manga collections, Rosencrantz & Gildenstern Are Dead, and The Reduced Shakespeare Company: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) on DVD. I got a locket (addressed to: Beauty from: Beholder) subscription to Australian Smocking and Embroidery magazine, Quantz Flute Concertos CD, and an iPod. Santa must have thought I was a very good girl. This is what Santa managed to bring on his sleigh (wink, wink). Everyone got loads of other stuff from both sides of the family.

This week I've been reading Growing Up in Davie County: Reflections from One Hundred Years Ago by William Jamie Moore, edited by Jamie W. Moore. My friend in New York sent it to me. It's a collection of stories written by his grandfather and edited by his father. In the back, is a poem written by my friend entitled "Grandpa's study". This is truly one of the most touching gifts I have ever received. I am blessed to have so many wonderful friends like all of you who are reading this post. I cherish you all and the influence you have had on my life.

I hope 2006 brings all of you good health, joy, and prosperity.