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

[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.