Birthday Extravaganza!

[altarflame]

The mad rush yesterday, literally all night long and this morning to make it all happen were NOT. FUN. I'm foggy headed from medication and dizzy and in pain from my ear, and was just plain tired, and Grant gets all weird whenever I'm sick in any way ever since 2007. BUT WE DID IT. And today was great and it's over and I'm glad for everything :)

The TEN YEAR OLD girl at the beginning of the day.


Balloon from Dad, who was taking Aaron to his show most of the day.


He also outdid himself the night before, baking chocolate cup cakes which he then filled with coconut cream pudding and frosted german style, and mini lemon poppyseed bundt cakes with drizzle, and he made from-scratch strawberry lemonade and ginger peach tea. And cleaned the bathrooms spotless for me and did tons of dishes...we went to bed at like 6:30 (I was doing tons of backed up sewing I'd been neglecting while ill, for presents), and were back up at 10:30.


Definitely a hit.




Shaun took all the pictures, and went to BJ's for pizzas for me AND the WD for candles AND brought a gift and was just generally awesome like he is.


Tiny girl with a tiny tea cup.




The balloon got away.


Aunt Laura made Annie a pumpkin cheesecake this year (this has been pre-arranged for months). She also shopped for me and came back with everything for fruit, veggie and dip and pickle and olive trays. I love everyone in my life so much it is ridiculous.


IT WAS SO AMAZINGLY INCREDIBLY GOOD.




She wanted to wear her charater shoes all day.


Beautiful baby Elizabeth.


Cammi, Elise, Isaac.


Sophia and Ananda crafting.

I LOVE Sophia's mom (Cybele), they live way up in the Grove or we would be together absolutely constantly. It was their first time at our house and I could just talk to that woman forever.

Beautiful sisters.

That's right, I said it.

Opening gifts.


Her friends are SO MUCH MORE INTERESTED in babies than she is; there is no novelty for her I guess :p Cammi, Christina and Elizabeth.


She loved her enormous new dance bag. There is just not room in anything we had before for the times she needs four changes of costume, 3 pairs of shoes, a book and lunch. So I made her one and am really happy with how it came out :)


THIS is the face of a little girl who was just given a LAPTOP by her Opa(!)! It's a Netbook and Grant spent awhile configuring it all tonight for her...




Annie and Opa.




She loved this skirt I made her (inspired by an Anna Maria Horner design). She CAN stand comfortably in it, but she likes to pose this way with it. It is just so her.




It was a really great day. Oma and Patrice (her cousin) showed up a little later and she just glowed all afternoon and evening. And CLEANED UP. That I can even remember right now she got:
-$20 from Nana and Pa
-$50 from Bobby
-$10, a bunch of amazingly "her" sort of clothes and some Silly Bandz from Oma (apparently silly bandz are all the rage at Dance Empire and so she was psyched about this - I had never even heard of them before)
-a balloon crafting kit from Kristina
-a little hand made Ocarina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocarina) on a necklace from Shaun
-$25 Borders gift card from Cammi
-the newest Emily Windsnap book from Sophia
-A FREAKING LAPTOP, from Opa
-new shelves by her bed, from Daddy specifically
-an Usborne book and a stationary set from both of us
-and also from both of us, but made by me: a small tote, a dance bag, a couple of skirts, a shirt with a ton of cool embroidery stuff on it, and shasta daisies I planted weeks ago that are now seedlings for her...and I am so psyched that she LOVES this

I was really impressed by how well the older girls integrate and play with all the little kids. Neither of the four of them have any younger siblings but they were really quick to organize tag and hide and go seek with Jake, Isaac, Brian and Elise on the opposing team and things like that. They held chickens for awhile, too.

Then at the end of it all this crazy nut walks in the door from the sold out Dance Empire company show at the Colony Theater on Lincoln Rd - it was the first I'd seen of him quite this way ;)




Ananda had put some treats and cheesecake to the side for him, which made him really happy, I think more that she thought of him than anything. They were in some insulated catching up on each others' day bubble (YOU GOT A LAPTOP?!?!?!) for awhile.

*sigh* Good stuff. Off to finish the first season of Weeds with Grant...

Comments

[mizzy.livejournal.com]

Wow, your daughter is such a Beautiful girl young lady. She has grown up so much in the years that I have known you. I am so glad she enjoyed her special day! I am jealous she got a laptop!

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

She is all around amazing; I don't think I've ever known such a complex child in my life. There have been an awful lot of long, LONG hugs over the last week where I'm telling her lists of things about her that I find amazing...

[a-cherry-on-top.livejournal.com]

I'm not much of a commenter, but the pictures of Aaron are too much! A couple years and a couple tattoos and he'd fit right in with the Philly hipsters.

Also, Ananda's party looks amazing. It's the kind of thing I would have loved as a girl.... Actually, I still would. :) She looks so happy!

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

There are seriously HIPSTERS who looks like that on purpose, like NOT for a dance show??

I think it was great for her...she really got a lot out of this birthday; Jacob's with the family, Olive Garden with just mom and Dad (both last weekend), Dad taking her to Starbucks and then a free movie on the day, and now all this. We keep laughing about how 10 is a big deal so she gets a birthday week. And...it is almost freaky how much it is what I would have loved/would still love, too.

[a-cherry-on-top.livejournal.com]

Haha, yes! Especially the bandana, it's practically de rigeur. Although the mohawk tips the scales into the anarchists/squatters style of fashion. But basically, he'd look perfectly at home riding through Philly on a bike, hanging out with me and my eclectic, rowdy and immensely loved family of friends.

10 is a really big deal! Double digits! She's really getting to be quite the little lady.

[moobabe.livejournal.com]

That looks like such a lovely day. :)

I really would like to eat those chocolate cupcakes every day for the rest of my life.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Dude, ME TOO!

[moobabe.livejournal.com]

Okay, I just got done making those cupcakes. This is just cupcake heaven, seriously. I'm the only person in my house who likes coconut, so I'm going to take some to the library. We're going to have some happy librarians, too. :)

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

The man is a genius!!

http://theneolistickid.livejournal.com/33559.html#cutid1

http://theneolistickid.livejournal.com/34039.html#cutid1

I love taking baked goods to people/places :) It's like being able to give away happiness <3

[daveandmonika.livejournal.com]

My 13 year old brother just posted on FB yesterday that he got a laptop...I remember when I was 13 we got internet for the first time (dialup, so we couldn't be on too long or we'd miss calls and you paid by the minute) and all 6 of us shared 1 AIM screen name.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I didn't have the internet at all until 10th or 11th grade. So 16-ish. Stupid AOL :p

Before that I had this monstrous enormous old Mac that used to belong to a school that as basically a desk-sized Tetris machine.

[daveandmonika.livejournal.com]

Yeah, 13 was 9th grade for me. Before that we had an Atari ST which was good for writing papers and printing them, but that was about it. I remember Mavis Beacon typing, Bentley's general store, Mixed up Mother Goose...we probably had 50 games on floppy disk.

They are really growing up in a different world than we did.

[theneolistickid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I started on a Commodre 64 and I remember when a floppy disk was floppy... And the floppy drive was the size of a small microwave. Kids these days don't even know what a floppy disk IS... It's one of those little things that you can fit 1.44 MB on. You know, like about a minute of a song.

[theneolistickid.livejournal.com]

That icon is the bomb

[noelove.livejournal.com]

I had to scroll back and see why you're not feeling well. I was blinded sided by your new found fascination of OCP that I failed to recall puss coming out of your ear.

Can you make me a skirt like that? And those cupcakes?!

What a sweet girl Annie is remembering to save some treats for Aaron. And what nice girls she hangs out with who were all about the little ones.

Also what are your ground rules for laptop use? Hours a day? Does she have to share with the other kids? Is she already good about sharing things that are hers?

This is such a nice happy post.

[pagangoat.livejournal.com]

I LOVE YOUR ICON.


that is all.

:D

[noelove.livejournal.com]

and I equally love yours!!!!!

[pagangoat.livejournal.com]

I adore MSCL. To the point that I hunted down some (really good) fanfiction just to get more of the characters:)

[noelove.livejournal.com]

haha that's awesome. Did you know that they have the whole season up on Hulu.com?

[pagangoat.livejournal.com]

I have all 19 episodes on disc, I watch it at least once a year;)
I wanted so badly to be Angela Chase when I was 15...
I wish hulu worked in Canada, because there are lots of things I'd like to watch on there, but unfortunately it's just in the US so far. But thank you anyway:)

[theneolistickid.livejournal.com]

MSCL fan fic!! How hillariously & awesomely bad. I used to love that show.

[pagangoat.livejournal.com]

Some of it IS hilariously bad...but there are actually some really great ones,too! One of my favourites is the whole series from Jordan's perspective:)

[theneolistickid.livejournal.com]

Some of it IS hilariously bad...but there are actually some really great ones,too!

I think that's what every fan fiction reader says about their particular set of stories. From what I hear, slash and crossover fan fics are the worst.

[pagangoat.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any crossover fics, and slash isn't usually my thing...I'm actually into a wide variety of fandoms:Twilight, Harry Potter, MSCL, Firefly, Sara Connor Chronicles, Battlestar Galactica...the list goes on and on. I love ficdiving for random stories on fanfiction.net. It's worth wading through the dross to find some of the amazing talent that's out there.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I understand. I was also blindsided enough by the ICP to at least be distracted from the pain.

I didn't make the cupcakes, dude, that as all Grant. I COULD do a skirt, though, y'know. It zips in the back. Super easy.

She is good. AND ENORMOUS.

We don't have an hours per day rule yet, though that may come into play based on her. She does not have to share that with anyone, though she will probably choose to share it with Aaron. She is a mix of loving letting Elise play with her Groovy Girls and old dance costumes and things, and NOT wanting the little boys in her room at all and being understandably paranoid about them ransacking her things.

We put some controls on the laptop, like we know she'll go to You Tube for things that are totally ok (like Sesame Street guest musicians and Justin Roberts and things) so we signed her up with an account where she has to log in and it's set to really strict filtering. We also put mega-controls on the internet so that nothing sexed up or gory or whatever will come through, but we are also still working out the details of how we feel about that...traditionally they've had a list of sites they're allowed to go to (Starfall and PBSKids and ThinkGeek and some other older kid educational game sites...) and they've had to ask for any new sites. I'm considering letting her have a lot more free reign with the controls in place.

AN ASIDE: It kind of blows my mind that GLBT is listed along with "porn" and "murder" and "nudity" and "extreme" (?) as a default category that won't come through when you do a strict search. Like we had to uncheck the GLBT box or else things like the PFLAG site wouldn't come through???? Also "sex education". I guess it is controversial but there are other options, like you can make it so nothing about abortion comes through for instance. I don't know, I was just sitting there doing test searches on words like "lesbian" and "penis" and even image searches with all the other "safety" in place, and you only get really totally ok stuff. Anatomical drawings. So now I'm thinking of how I WANT her to be able to research independently over the coming months and years if she wants to and, I dunno. I guess that's it.

[noelove.livejournal.com]

WOW I didn't know what about GLBT. Aiden gets to use the PC, but he's only allowed to go to nick, pbs kids etc to play games. He isn't at the stage yet, where he's researching stuff on the net. I don't have any filters set up just yet. When he does have a question, like right now we were just talking about the oil spill, I look up for him. I"m sure i"ll have to set up filters eventually.

She's ten dude. TEN. That's double digits.

And hur dur, I knew Grant made those, he posted about it on FB! drooooool. Can I borrow him to make me some? :)


and I said OCP haha, ICP.

[theneolistickid.livejournal.com]

Sorry, they are only available at our headquarters bakery in FL.

[noelove.livejournal.com]

another tactic to get me to visit the homestead I see.

I got my eye on you Grant.

[theneolistickid.livejournal.com]

Pfft. We don't allow your kind in our establishment. We have a sign hanging in our dining room that says "This is a classy establishment. Act respectable." It just seems like you'd be out of place. No offense, I'm just saying.

[noelove.livejournal.com]

classy? you long haired hippie!

[theneolistickid.livejournal.com]

We also have a sign that says "Hippies use rear entrance" but we haven't been able to find it since moving in.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

It actually says, "This is a classy joint. Act respectable."

Are there any new episodes of The Office that we should be watching one of these nights when you get home?

[theneolistickid.livejournal.com]

Nope, we have to wait until THE FALL.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

So stupid.

[pagangoat.livejournal.com]

de-lurking to say wow, you have such a beautiful family! And also, I want that skirt;) Awesome happy post:)

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Aww, thank you :) And, the skirt is really pretty easy. I am not good at clean even stitching but dark patterns and black thread hide that :p

[wanderinganima.livejournal.com]

This post brought a tear to my eyes in a good way. I miss the years when my kids were young ...enjoy it while you can it goes by so very fast :)
Your kids are growing so fast ! HA HA HA
WEEDS is cool ...or all of the 1st 8 episodes that I've seen anyhow I was wondering ...are you caught up on LOST ?
Have a great night !
Teresa

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I am keenly aware of the speed of growth around here lately, it's birthday season after all (Elise is May 1, Annie June 1 and Aaron June 27).

We've watched the first season (of Weeds) so far, on dvd from the library. I've got a request in for Season 2 but there are a couple of people in front of me so it will probably be a couple of weeks (it was the same for season 1, we have some movies to tide us over...and CRAIG FERGUSON).

We are all caught up on LOST. Did you know you can go to the ABC website and turn a dial and watch the whole series in CHRONOLOGICAL TIMELINE ORDER, NOW?

[wanderinganima.livejournal.com]

LOL NO I didn't know that... I will tell you that I did manage to avoid watching LOST for the 1st 2 seasons ( I was never one to watch a lot of TV ) but living with my father I didn't/don't have much choice what we watch HA HA HA so I grew to love it ...but have yet to watch the 1st 2 seasons I guess I should be checking them out.
December is my nightmare birthday month, my son is Dec 2nd a niece is Dec 5th daughter is the 28th and my father is the 31st so I feel your pain with so many birthdays together :O)
btw Ananda's Cake looked so yummy LOL

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

We were hooked on LOST from the get-go. We don't even have cable, we just watch things on hulu or via library dvds or downloads (no or very few commercials and can wait til the kids are in bed). I don't know how we started on LOST but usually there are a couple of shows we're watching constistently (as in one or two nights a week).

[wanderinganima.livejournal.com]

I forgot my grandson is also the 17th of December LOL :P

[(Anonymous)]

Will Ananda be having a blog now that she has a laptop? If so, post a link please.

[fotosax.livejournal.com]

Looks like it was such an amazing day! I'm so sorry that we couldn't make it... everything looks delicious and funtastic.

[babyslime.livejournal.com]

1. Ananda is gorgeous.
2. You and your sister are GORGEOUS!
3. Her shoes. I WANT HER DAMN SHOES.