Ellie's Golden Birthday

I first learned what a golden birthday was last year when Emma turned 11 on the 11th. She informed me that it was her "Golden Birthday" and she needed an extra special birthday. I hope she felt like it was extra special, but as I recall she cried during her party. Oh well. So, Ellie has been waiting patiently for this April to roll around so that she could celebrate her big Golden Birthday! She really wanted a friend party, but I couldn't very well go against the family rule of friend birthdays being every other year. Not even on the GB year, especially since we've already missed Maddie's and Lauren's. So we tried to make our family party extra special.
Her big idea for a party was a "mall party." This is where we go shopping on her birthday and let her do all the things at the mall that we don't usually do, like paint pottery, go to Build-a-Bear, buy clothes and toys, etc. I tried to accomodate her as much as possible. But when we went to the Painted Penguin (in the mall) and saw how is compared to Color Me Mine (closer to our house anyway) I quickly used my powers of persuasion on the birthday girl. I think the end result turned out much better than anything they could have done at the other place. (I'll have to post pictures later).
Then we went to Khols to get a new outfit of her choice. She really just likes doing the shopping and doesn't care all that much about the clothes--so I let her shop off the clearance rack. It's never too early to teach frugality. :)
Then it was home for cake and unwrapping just a couple more things. Notice the pure excitement at opening the Peek-a-boo Petite. She has been wanting one for months. And then came the gift from her older siblings. A little birdie whispered in their ears something that Ellie might like for a gift. She was thrilled, shocked, and giddy with excitment about the gift certificate for the American Girl Doll--Just like Me!!! Getting the gift certificate was better than getting the real thing because that meant a trip into the city to the big American Girl Doll store that Jill and I had to drag Richard out of the week before. I honestly don't know who was more excited, the 6 year old or the 52 year old. Happy Birthday Ellie!

Chocolate Preztels

Looking for a fun and simple (and edible) craft? Here's what you do. Run over to Michaels and buy this cool pretzel mold. Melt the chocolate in baggies, cut a hole in the corner and let your kids squeeze it into the molds. They had a lot of fun doing this. They were way more interested in eating the pretzels than the "chocolate" anyway, which was okay with me.

I haven't seen you since. . .

Okay, it's been way too long. When I was young(er) I didn't see many of my cousins on any kind of a regular basis, even though I have 80 of them. Yes, it's true. I'm not making that up. With one exception, my mother would often visit her only full sibling. (They have always had a close relationship--I'm sure because they were orphaned young and were all each other had.) Because of that, the only cousins I have known well since childhood were Jill, Jeannie, and Jeff. I spent some fun times in Boston with Jill and that is where our friendship really grew. Well, we decided it was time for a visit, so she flew to Chicago for a few days. What a nice diversion that was. We spent 4 days chatting late into the night/morning, eating pizza, Italian, and chocolate. (Did you know that if you spend $50 at the Lindt chocolate store you get extra chocolate? Oh, and if you buy 3 bars, you get another free.) How long do you think it takes to eat about 8 lbs. of chocolate? I'm dying to find out. She cooked, we ate. She bought us gifts, we accepted. She told us all about her husband who was suffering from a kidney stone while she was visiting, we knew he was going to be fine. (BTW, Jill, is he fine? I assume everything came out okay. LOL--I couldn't help it.) So, thanks for coming. It was fun.

Talent Show

Maddie and Emma had the guts to be a part of their school talent show this year. I was thrilled and impressed. Emma played a song on the piano. She wasn't very happy with her performance, but I was proud of her for doing it.











Maddie sang a song from Wicked (What is this Feeling?) with her friend Megan. She sang the Elphaba part. They had a few back up singers helping them, including Emma. They did a great job.

And then Richard found this little guy outside of the school that night. He kept saying, "Come here, hurry, there's a beaver over here." :0) While I'm pretty sure it's not a beaver, what is it? I'm saying prairie dog. Anyone know?

Heads and . . .

Ellie: Mom, why is it called 'Heads and Tails?'. . . . It should be called 'Heads and Buildings.'

You have to admit, that does make sense.

Field Museum

We had to go back to the field museum because we just didn't get enough last time. There's really no way to see it all in one day. This trip covered the animals and dinosaurs. They have such an incredible collection of animals and they are displayed so well. I love museums that can hold my kid's attention for hours at a time. However, they refuse to try to learn anything while they're there. There is absolutely NO reading of any descriptions or interesting facts.
Me: "Look at this display. It shows how much food this dinosaur had to eat in one day."
Kids: "I'm getting hungry. Do you want to see how much I can eat in one day?"