Birthday Number 4!

It's been a great week for Rosalie. We had several snow days this week, which equated to sledding in the park, snowgirl building, and lots of play time with Mommy and Daddy. Not to mention cocoa by the fire, playdates with neighborhood friends, and her first snowball fight! We spent so much time dragging R on the sled that I started calling it the bus.



At one point I was giving Rosalie a ride home on her sled from a playdate when I heard a friend calling my name. She was pulling her daughter, Rosalie's good buddy on a (yes, identical) sled! Somebody should have said, "Pardon me. Would you have any Grey Poupon?"



Then the snow started to melt. On Friday I received a phone call from the place R was going to have her birthday party -- it was a kid's art studio -- and it turns out they had the date wrong. So at the very last minute, I had a birthday party to plan at our house. I decided to do a treasure hunt theme, and after a couple of long, thoughtful errands (JoAnn's Fabric and Top Ten Toys for example), it wound up being quite fun!

The guests came over and as they entered they were asked to follow a colored string around the house (each person had a different color) to get to the other end, hidden somewhere in the house. This was a tangled mess but it was cool anyway, with strategic scissors when things got too annoying.

At the end of the string was a plastic bin/box for them to carry around. They decorated the bins with stickers, then went downstairs to play raucously for a bit while some of us "hid" (as in, "scattered all over the floor") handfuls and handfuls of plastic gems, marbles, beads, and buttons. Beads and buttons were themed for the kids' different tastes: dinosaurs, rockets, cars, sports equipment, kitties, flowers, butterflies, snowflakes, stars, hearts. Then we brought the kids back up and set them free with their boxes to gather the treasure, Easter egg style (if Easter eggs covered the floor like a sequined carpet, that is).



An unexpected and adorable part of this segment of the party: People would find a treasure that didn't quite suit them--and instead of just passing by it, they would seek each other out: "You like dinosaurs. Do you want this?" It was really cool to see them being thoughtful with each other.

Here, Rosalie displays a bead that Owain gave to her, since he knew her great passion for cats.


After a fun final treasure activity with "moon rocks," which were just small toys and rocks that had been wrapped in baking soda paste and dried -- which we dropped into bowls of vinegar to reveal the treasures inside--we had lunch and some birthday "cupcakes:" cake baked in ice cream cones and frosted to look like they were soft serv ice cream. Big hit, there.

We finished up with a group shot of everyone with their treasure boxes,



...and sent people home with a red balloon.




All in all a lovely birthday. Raucous times, quiet times.



She opened the presents after everyone left and was infinitely gracious all throughout her opening session. What a lovely kid she is. She loved all her presents and told us that she loves her friends. Then she sacked out for a long, long nap. The afternoon held some fun playing with new toys, puzzle-doing with dad,



and trying on a special new shirt from Heather et al:


Happy Birthday, you sweet, sweet, awesome girl!

Swing Dancing at the Century Ballroom

I'm feeling so grateful to our friend Hallie who owns the Century Ballroom. When she asked me last month if I thought people would come out for a daytime swing event where kids could come, I nearly started boing-boinging around the room with excitement.

We sent emails out to friends, advertised on Facebook, and the next thing you know, last Sunday we had the first of a monthly, family-friendly swing dance at the Century! I almost cried with happiness when we arrived to music playing, grownups and kids dancing, and the Century's dance floor shining. It felt like coming home, to our old home away from home. 40 adults (and probably about 40 kids) showed up that day--a great first day's showing!



Hallie, when she saw us all swing dancing with our own kids, wisely asked a bunch of kids to sit down and "judge" our dancing for a minute...to give us a chance to dance with other adults for a bit. Such a great idea. The kids didn't mind either.



Then the kids started dancing with each other...


And doing their own interpretive dances....


At one point Michael and I were dancing with each other (note us dancing in the background) and we suddenly noticed Rosalie orbiting the room, half-sprinting, half-modern dancing along the way. It also included rolling around on the floor and making snow angels, sans snow.




Lindy Hopping with kids brings a new kind of creativity.



The kids also discovered how much fun it was to play under the tables. Rosalie met an instant friend at the dance. Here they are being sea otters.


Here's a bunch of us doing the "Shim Sham."



Whew!


Thanks to Hallie and Suzanne (mom of the other "sea otter") for the pics!