Thursday, May 30, 2013

Adelaide Rose turns 6


Yay! Another birthday to celebrate.  Ashlynn's got "Happy Birthday" down now along with the blowing of the candles and the clapping!  We love celebrating and this week it was for our sweet Addie.

With every year that passes, on my first born daughter's birthday I inevitably think about that first memorable moment when I became a mother.  That first trip to the maternity ward and all the emotions that went along with it.  She was my first and she's been nothing but magical since.

This year has been full of change for Addie. Starting kindergarten and learning to read has opened up a new world for her. It's been amazing to see her personality blossom and watch the excitement in her eyes when she writes her own stories.  She's still very artistic and I am amazed at some of the fantastical scenes she draws with great detail and care.

She is truly the leader of her sisters.  As the oldest this comes naturally but I am thrilled that Addie loves both her younger sisters and cares for them.  She is fairly responsible and more than once I've seen her take care of Bella and Ashlynn in sticky situations.  She's a wonderful big sister.

Adelaide has embraced jeans and tennis shoes.  Thank God!  There was a moment when I thought she'd be pure princess and I am so happy to see that she's so much more than that.  She's athletic, clever, smart, and creative.  She just also happens to be beautiful.  I love watching her climb onto the school bus with her gym clothes just as much (maybe even more) than when she climbs on with her skirts and dress shoes.

Some of her favorite things are movies!  She takes after her father in this regard.  She loves to sit and get absorbed in a story.  On the other side of things, she also loves to read and be read to.  She adores writing her own stories and then reading them to me.  She still loves wrestling with her Dad. She loves playing catch, riding her scooter and now her new bike.  She loves spaghetti, cheese burgers, fish and rice (her choice for her birthday dinner), and watermelon.  She's the only of our daughters that has a limit on her sweet tooth.  After a few bites of something too sweet she pushes it aside.  She's not extremely keen on breakfast but she gets CRAZY when she's hungry (just like her mama).  She loves to bake with me and is better than most adults at cracking eggs and whisking together ingredients.  She loves playing make believe with Bella.  In fact, the two of them love playing together so much I rarely have to plan play dates for either of them any longer.

Addie is pretty cautious when it comes to new things.  She doesn't like being the center of attention (unless she's at home with her family).  At home she'll act out elaborate variety show type productions with her sisters but in a different crowd she won't even stand in line to take a turn at hitting the piƱata at a birthday party.  The other night she expressed her nerves about going to the first grade and having a new classroom and classmates.

Sometimes, I find myself expecting Addie to act older and be more mature than she really needs to be.  I think this is simply because she's the oldest and on most occasions rises to the challenge.  But she is only 6 now and I have to remind myself that she's allowed tears and meltdowns just like her younger sisters.   She's allowed to whine and fuss at times.  She certainly is allowed to be six years old.

Every new thing Addie learns and does amazes me.  Just the way she uses such grown up words to describe her feelings and situations at school with friends.  It reminds me that she is growing so fast.  I like to keep a memory of her and I close to my heart when I feel like she's growing too fast.  I was home from work still on maternity leave after Addie's birth.  I was rocking her on my chest in her rocking chair.  The creaking lulled us both to sleep and for a few blissful minutes I slept while she slept perfectly contented to have her little cheek pressed to my chest.  It was just the two of us and the afternoon light shone through her nursery window and I could have rocked like that for eternity.

She's going to grown, no matter how often we urge her to slow down and stay little.  She triumphantly announces that "It will happen...I will be _ "(4, 5, 6, 7), ever year now.  I can only hope that every year my lovely daughter and I can hold on to this precious bond we've developed and hopefully keep it strong and let grow right along with her.

The other night Justin and I were reading in bed and like most nights one or both of us comments on how amazing our children are and how much we love them.  This night I said "Isn't it amazing that for the rest of our lives we get to be apart of our daughters lives?"  I think about that often.  It truly is an amazing gift!

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Updates in April and May


So here's why I've been slacking at the blog lately.  The keyboard on our 6 year old laptop is shot. To type anything on that computer I have to click away at the on-screen keyboard with my mouse and it's terribly tedious!  You might have noticed most of my blog posts lately have been heavy with photos and not so many words.  Now you know why. I really miss the thrill of having words bursting in my head for a blog post and have to wait until the other laptop is available.  Often, when I wait. The idea I had earlier just doesn't seem interesting enough to write about.  More likely, I'm just too tired later to do anything but glue my eyes to Game of Thrones.

So much has been going on lately and life is busy, yada, yada, yada.  March through May in our family is one birthday celebration after another and seems to consume most of my time.  It also seems that once I take a blog vacation-even if it's for no more than a week-I start noticing how much other reading I get done.  I've been diving in to some old issues of The New Yorker and man, there is some good stuff in there.
ICS Spring Carnival

But I do miss blogging and there have been some notable activities that I can't seem to let go of.

We hosted a wonderful birthday party for Arabella's fourth birthday.  I enjoyed celebrating with just our family on her actual birthday-day but I'm not going to lie; throwing birthday parties for my daughters might just be my very favorite past time.  Everyone dined on my Paris-inspired Make-Your-Own-Crepe buffet complete with savory and sweet concoctions.  The kids bounced around on the blow-up castle and the Moms had a well deserved mid-day glass of wine.  Arabella loves Wreck-it Ralph and was thrilled with her green cake decorated like Sugar Rush.  The filling inside was strawberry whipped buttercream and it was heavenly.

Adelaide preformed in her Spring Concert at ICS.  The singing was adorable but my favorite part was the class poem that she performed.  Along with four of her classmates she recited two tongue twisting lines to a poem in front of everyone.  She was brave and spoke loudly and confidently.  I was extremely proud of her.


The same day as the concert I organized a surprise breakfast for her teachers as a thanks since it was Teacher Appreciation week.  One of the teachers was a tad annoyed so I just have to keep in mind that no good dead goes unpunished.  Her second teacher was very grateful and even commented on how no one has ever planned something for Teacher Appreciation Week for him.  Even if, the whole thing didn't go over as I had planned, it was still good to round up the parent troops and thank our hard working teachers.

I've been cooking and baking. Some for parties we've attended and some for custom orders.  Business has been fairly steady and I am still enjoying the challenges.  Sadly, I've had to turn down a few catering requests for the sheer size of the event, knowing I couldn't create enough food that would be fresh for everyone.  Those situations make me sad but relieved as well since I can say no when I know I need to.

Mother's Day was a relaxed day at home.  The weather right now, in between short rainy season and long rainy season, is sunny and exceptionally warm. Not hot but just perfect so the girls all put on their swimming suits and we got out the water table.  I made some grape Kool-Aid (God Lord those packets call for 8 ounces of sugar-I added about a quarter of that to our drink.  No wonder I loved Kool-Aid as a kid).  Justin made breakfast and I didn't do any dishes all day.  The girls picked out lovely silver earrings for me as a Mother's Day gift  and we went to Sishu for lunch! It was a great family day together.  I was in awe observing my daughters that Sunday.  All three of them are special and amazing and so much fun to be around.  I can't believe how lucky I am to be their mother.
Booty shake

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

our neighborhood meat house

Some of the best afternoons have been spent walking in our neighborhood to get beer and lunch with our friends.  We have our own little meat house we frequent. 

It's still fasting so we ate injera and shiro with pints of St. George's beer. The beer is cold and the shiro is bubbling hot.  What more do you need?

Turns out Ashlynn loves shiro too!