Birthday, Part 2

Saturday was Katie's mermaid party - SO much fun! We started planning quite a while ago, partly so I knew she'd stick with the theme! I was excited about everything we decided on (most ideas borrowed from the internet, of course), and so was Katie. So for all of you who wanted to know what we did.....

Katie invited five friends, and they were asked to come in bathing suits - over warmer clothes (this is early April in central PA, after all). The first activity was to make their own mermaid tails. I got this idea from a library book on the Coney Island Mermaid parade, actually. I cut out green poster board tails, and the girls spent nearly an hour decorating them. Stickers, flower pieces (taken from the floor of craft shops by my daughter), shiny and sparkly fabric from Aunt Jen, fun paper, you name it. They had a ball!

I took a picture of each girl with her tail when it was done, and then they all posed in front of our crepe paper "waterfall".

The second activity was to dig for buried treasure. I filled Katie's turtle sandbox with shredded brown paper "sand", and we buried gold chocolate coins, chocolate fish, iridescent bead necklace "kits", and the rest of the 200 beads from the package. They dug with the shovels that came with their pails - what they got instead of goody bags.

Then they used up some excited energy with a freeze dance to Little Mermaid music. We printed out pictures of fish, jellyfish, and mermaids, and Katie made up moves or sayings that they had to say or do when they landed on one of the pictures. It was very funny. I didn't get any pictures of this -- too much movement to make a clear shot!

We ended with dinner: shells and cheese, octopus hot dogs (did you know you can even find *videos* of this on the web?), fruit salad, blue jello aquaria (with mandarin orange goldfish), and the cake.

After present opening, the girls who could stay ran around the house and did more dressing up. They all had a blast, which was even more gratifying for me since Katie's friends didn't all know each other before the party. Neither did all the parents, but we all had fun, too!

Needless to say, we're still cleaning up "sand" and beads... but it was worth it for our five-year-old mermaid!

Birthday, Part 1

Katie turned 5 - yes, five - on Monday, and we've celebrated all week. We started with Geoffrey's Birthday Club at Toys R Us last week.

On her actual birthday we had her favorite dinner (Black Bean Enchiladas) with Nana, Opa, and Oma; ice cream; and presents - by far, Katie's favorite part.
Tuesday was her birthday party at school (they had a field trip on Monday) complete with Mom-made cupcakes. Notice the crown theme for the week?

Birthday presents and cards have also come in the mail almost all week, so she really thinks this is normal. Guess we better nip that in the bud next year.

The birthday party was this Saturday - that's a whole other blog post with more photos!

Spring Break in the southwest

We finally got to take a Spring Break vacation - first time in more than 10 years that I haven't been singing on St. Patrick's Day! So we flew out to visit Dad (Steve) and Cynthia, aka Boppa and Grammy, in Rio Rancho, NM for 10 days. Dave had a conference in Phoenix for the first half and then joined us.

It was so great to spend time with them - we only get to see them about once a year. Katie really enjoyed being with her grandparents, and even managed to be less scared of the dogs by the end of the week!

In addition to visiting we did a lot of sightseeing. We went to several museums - Katie's favorite was the Explora Science Center and Children's Museum (here are Katie and Boppa at the light table). We spent a whole day in Santa Fe - how beautiful! I can see why it is such a tourist magnet. And the three Kelleys went hiking on our last day to see volcanos and petroglyphs. Very cool.

Oh, and the fantastic sunshine and blue skies.....

More ballet

I keep forgetting to post this video, and I finally got permission from my friend Emily - her daughter Kate is the other ballerina dancing with Katie. Katie is still ballet-obsessed, dancing all the time and watching as much Angelina Ballerina as I will let her (not much). She was disappointed to take time off for Christmas break. But they start their recital practice in January, which will make up for a lot, I think.

I hope this brings you a little holiday joy!

Halloween weekend, part 3 (of 3)

The third part of the weekend was my reunion Sunday afternoon with the Dominants - my high school show choir. About two dozen of us from the 1981-85 era showed up and we had a wonderful time. I can't believe it's been nearly 20 years since I've seen most of these old friends, and it was like no time had elapsed at all. We even looked the same. Amazing what tricks the mind can play....

So I stole my old friend Lisa Offley Novitsky's photo from Facebook (have to give credit to Bill Putnam, who took it with Lisa's nice professional camera) - I was having too much fun visiting and reminiscing to take many photos of my own. But I had to share this one of Jill, Lisa, Sara, and Sara - just like it was 1983. What a great group we had!

Halloween weekend, part 2 (of 3)

I guess this should really be titled "Rally to Restore Sanity" because that was the big event for us Halloween weekend - yes, we really went. It was crazy!! Not the people - everyone was fantastic (we didn't even see anybody smoking until after the rally was over, even though we were outside) - but the sheer size of the rally and what that meant for getting there and being there.

We rode the Metro, which took forever, and got there on the late side. OK, that wasn't all Metro's fault - you know us. We walked up the National Mall as far as we could, and still were so far back we could catch glimpses of the last jumbo screen, but that was it. Katie took photos from her periodic perch on Dave's shoulders:



Katie was really good, too. When she got bored, she read books at our feet. But she did pay attention - catch her dancing to the O-Jays and "Love Train"!



The signs were hilarious (here's a picture of my favorite), the talent on the stage (we could hear almost everything) was phenomenal, and - Fox and MSNBC pundits be darned - the rally really did have a message that was terrific. Not that it made any difference in the election, but maybe someday....

Halloween weekend, part 1 (of 3)

When you have a kid, Halloween is a totally different holiday. It will never be my favorite, but Katie thinks it's great. So we go to every event we can (trying to limit the candy at each, if at all possible). This year she wore a different costume for each of the events. Luckily none of them took much work -- or expense -- on my part.

The Sunday before Halloween is a kid party at Bucknell, put on by student groups. Crafts, haunted houses, games, and lots of candy possibilities. Katie was Belle. She did her own hair.

The Friday before Halloween is the Kinderfolk Halloween party - very cute. It starts with a parade around the block, then the kids play games (and the parents go out for coffee!), then we all come back to watch the kids sing Halloween songs for us. And eat, of course. Katie was a black-and-white cat - she designed her own costume, using a cat tail I made for myself in 1988 (can't believe I still had it).

This year, Halloween being on Sunday was a little tricky, since we were in Virginia in the afternoon (see part 3 of this blog section). We made it back to go trick-or-treating with a horde of neighborhood children. Thanks to Dave's mom for being home so we could both go with her; it was hilarious to watch the kids race from house to house. Katie had planned all weekend to be Cinderella, but ended up as Princess Tiana. No photos, unfortunately, since it was dark by the time we got back.

Katie has already laid out her costume for the next four years. I'll have to write it down somewhere and see if she remembers.