NiNi's birthday

Part of the girls' birthday presents this year was painting and decorating their rooms.  NiNi wanted pink walls but lucky for me I have had an 8-year-old girl before and seem to recall they stop liking pink by the age of 9.  So we opted for green walls and pink accents.  In one of my craftier moments, I picked up some frames at goodwill and covered them in patterned paper and mod podge to match her room.

 

NiNi's birthday party almost didn't happen. Ethan had been sick all week and by Wednesday morning had passed it on to her. Friday night she still had a fever and I knew there was no way she would be up to it by the next day. Luckily all of the girls were available Sunday so we crossed our fingers. By Sunday morning she was about 75% so we doped her up and strapped on the skates. Birthday parties are a very big deal for her and she starts planning the next one almost immediately after the previous year's. The activities, the type of cake, the theme, the invites, you name it. We don't usually indulge her every whim but she got most of what she asked for this year...right down to the Dairy Queen cake (in January) and the candle in the shape of an "8"

Eating cake is sad business

2014 blizzard

 

This is a picture of the egg and dairy case at our local supermarket the night before the big storm.  I was walking through the aisles thinking that this could make for an interesting study of what Americans feel they cannot live without:  Milk, eggs and bread (strata anyone?), but also bacon, bananas, and Kraft mac n cheese.  Plenty of vegetarian fare still available.  The snow started Sunday morning...beautiful, fluffy and perfect for snowman building and snowball fighting.  As we shoveled the driveway, we piled it all into one spot so the kids could sled down our already inclined front yard.  It made a pretty impressive hill that shot them down along the driveway, past the mailbox and into the street.  The pictures just don't do it justice!  Then our down-the-street cousins creeped on over to try it out.  Our neighbors kept peering through the window to see what crazy people were having a party on their front lawn in the middle of a blizzard.  The next day was a snow day.  And the next day.  And the next day.  And that's pretty much when the party ended for old mom.  Two weeks of Christmas break followed by 5 consecutive snow days.  By the end of it I was afraid someone was going to get hurt.  And by "hurt" I do mean intentional violence inflicted by parent onto bored, whining, bickering, cooped-up kid.

 

Had to ration our 1/2 bag of mini-marshmellows for the cocoa.  7 per person.  Now that's roughing it!