6 on the 4th!

We had some serious celebrating to do yesterday.  Our sparkly firecracker baby turned six.  Yes. Yes. I know. I can hardly call her a baby anymore.  But she's MY baby. 

We brought a birthday lunch over to my folks. Slop-sloppy joes (or taverns as we call them here in IA), chips, fresh fruit, veggies and dip, cupcakes, brownies and great day in the morning - homemade ice cream. Love that homemade ice cream.  Opened her gifts.  ZHU-ZHU pet, LIV dolls, (plural) flip flops, (too big or not too big with a large discussion on the pros and cons of flip flops to follow) new sparkly markers (how apropos) and a journal, books, and cold hard cash from Grandma GiGi. Life is remarkably good at six. Here she is making her wish and checking it twice.

The birthday girl and her big sister spent the afternoon playing with the plural LIV dolls. Princess Maren was in heaven.  Sometimes it takes a little cajoling, bargaining and frank manipulation to get her preteen sister Marissa to play with her these days.   Yesterday was not one of those days. Who knows, maybe six year old birthday wishes do come true?

Then off on a family bike ride to Mr. Movies.  We picked out Alice in Wonderland  - the new version - with a little trepidation on my part.  Tim Burton is just so out there.  But the newly bonded LIV girls prevailed.  And yes it was weird - very weird - but charmingly so.  At one point in the movie I asked Maren if it was too scary and she said "Yes - but I love it!" and she snuggled in a little closer.  A momma can't argue too much with that.

We hemmed and hawed about going up to the lakes for the fireworks, but since we can go local tonight, the drive and the crowds and the logistics just seemed too daunting.  Have to say we enjoyed our low key day and Miss Maren confirmed that "it was the best birthday ever". Happy Birthday Maren!! Love you so!

The Twilight Zone

It was a long weekend. Princess Maren was sick. High fevers, a little bit of congestion - she stumbled into my bed at 3 AM on Friday and whimpered that her "hair hurt". Poor thing. It does feel like that when you have a fever. So I doled out the ibuprofen, let her snuggle her hot little body next to mine where she promptly fell back to sleep, but I was wide awake, my mind scrambling about what to do about work in the morning. The girls only get sick when the Captain is gone you see...

I had to call in, which definitely made this Monday a bit more hectic. The Princess started feeling better on Sunday, but still woke up with a low grade fever that morning. No church, no Bible study, and not much face to face adult interaction all weekend. I was going a bit nuts, whacky.... how many kids movies could I endure, how many games of Word Challenge could be played, I even attempted Mario Kart on the Wii in an effort to keep Sweet Marissa from going nuts too. I am really horrible at Mario Kart. Bad. Bad. Bad.

Early Sunday evening, my mom stopped by and since the Princess had been pretty much fever free for all of eight hours without the help of drugs, I asked mom to stay with her so I could catch a break. Whew, what freedom is there in backing the van out of the driveway - alone. Is that bad to say? Can't help it - it is how I felt.

I went to the movie rental place in town, not really intending to get a movie for me, but maybe the M's would appreciate seeing Bolt. That was available, and then I just checked out what else was available. That's when it happened. I was walking by the T's and the air got chilly and a fine mist rose from the video display and TWILIGHT leaped into my hands with incredible speed and force. And then the case opened its jaws and attacked my neck, and warm bl.... nah....told you I was getting a little stir crazy.

I have resisted the whole Twilight thing for a long time. Isn't the whole premise and story line geared to the young adult audience? I have long been removed from that age bracket. Yet I have heard women my age positively swooning over Edward Cullen. No one has more FB flair dedicated to him than Edward Cullen. Also, I do not find vampires the least bit interesting. Too cold, too creepy, too bloody, too goth... whatever. Lastly, I inherently do not like things that I think have been too hyped up. But, in my weak minded state I did relent to the powers of Bella and Edward, and found it to be a pretty darn entertaining movie. Yes, even vampires become entertaining if they are wrapped up in an intriguing love story. I do think Ed needs to pluck some 'brow and ditch the white make-up and lipstick. Just a bit too distracting to me.

Now I need to decide, should I resist the books, or just take the plunge and get it over with. What's a girl (or higher than young adult age bracket mom, in my case) to do? I can probably get a good start on them next weekend when it is my turn to be sick. That's what you get when you snuggle in bed with a hair hurting four year old - but who can resist? Ed Cullen's got nothing on that.

The Chronicles of Narnia

The IA Pilot Hubby/IA Pilot Daddy was gone this weekend. Out doing his thing, flying the friendly skies, hopefully avoiding all geese and the Hudson River. So while the Captain is away the girls often play...
...movies. I'll admit, I was sort of nervous to watch it with the girls. I knew some of the parts could get pretty intense for a four year old and an eight year old ( and even a 38 year old wimpy mom) and didn't really want the sole resposibility of taking on nightmare management single handed. Maybe a little selfish on my part, but you think of those things when you are going it alone for the weekend. But, it was GREAT. We all loved it! I had read the books a long time ago, but my memory definitely needed and enjoyed the refreshing. Here are some highlights of our evening.


1. We all huddled on the couch with Maren's comforter (a must for Maren when watching any movie) and the warm pink blanket, movie lighting just right (all lights off with the recessed lighting dimmers at their lowest - another must for Maren - Marissa too actually, well and the Captain has a thing about that too - hmm) with the girls all bathed and hair freshly shampooed. Ahhh, is there any sweeter smell for a Girl Mom?

2. We were at a really intense White Witch moment when Maren quips, " That's cute hair." I think this was the particular 'do she liked.

Leave it to Princess Maren. Speaking of the White Witch, wow, was she mean or what! Talk about Evil Incarnate. Yikes! I don't know that I will ever be able to watch Tilda Swinton act again without thinking of her playing this part. She freaked me out a bit.

3. We all nearly collectively peed in our pants at the part when the wolf showed up the first time. Seriously. They got us ever single time after that too.

4. I think the girls "got it" though. They made the connection. When Aslan was killed, Marissa looked at me and said, "that is just like what Jesus did for us". Maren just gave me a wide eyed nod. We all sniffled on the pink blanket a bit.

So a great movie all in all. The girls have been talking about it all day. Maren can't quite get the title right. I think she calls it the "Kronkinuls of Marmia", but not bad for a four year old. They can't wait til Daddy gets home so they can watch it with him just one (or two, or three, or four) more times. Thank goodness for Netflix, this one may be a keeper.