Fairy House

Today was a beautiful, sunny Saturday--a great Swedish pancake morning, but we were out of eggs. I walked to the store to get some, and I passed some people who were pruning a cherry tree. I asked if I could have some branches, and they said, "Sure! Thank you!" because they were wrangling a huge pile of them.

This is the largest bouquet this table has ever seen. Practical? No. Magical and awesome? YES! So what if we have to duck to get around it?

After brunch, Michael suggested Rosalie go out and build a fairy house, and she did, with great concentration. She started with a tepee structure made from twigs, and then she built the walls with lots of moss and leaves. She stocked the inside with berries, then went on to build a series of bridges and gardens around it. Here's a close-up of the house itself. See the berries in there?



It was only a matter of time before the paper came out. It was time to write those fairies a note:

As usual, she left them a pencil and a tiny piece of paper, so that they could respond. I wonder if they will!

Most Brilliant Pun To Date

Paternal units on both sides of the family, take note: she's got The Gene. This morning Michael & I had an appointment with our tax guy, so I was telling Rosalie, "Daddy and I are going to drive you to Molly's before school."

She started laughing and said, "Oh, you're going to drive me to Molly's? You're going to drive me TAMALES? (Like, 'drive me bananas?)"

We started laughing & riffing on that for a couple of minutes:

"Help her, she's gone tamales!"
"My mom and dad drive me tamales."
"Let's go tamales!"
"You drive me tamales."
"Here today, gone tamales!" (well, that's when the joke started to migrate)

Anyway, I was stunned and delighted by her 7-year-old quick brilliance.

Here are a couple of adorable moments from Sunday when we went to a little buddy's first birthday party.

Momentous Tooth Loss!

Sure, you can lose a couple of lower teeth, but who's gonna really know except your mom (and everyone who reads her blog about you)? Anyway, front top tooth #1 is now out! It was a thrilling moment first thing this morning, after weeks of wiggling:

Just last night her snaggle tooth was part of her look as a sparkly green moon face.

Now she's on her way to being an adult (-toothed person).

A fun thing that happened last night/tonight: Rosalie was eating her girl scout cookies and pondering how she could set them up for a food photograph. She sees me doing this a lot, so it makes sense. Anyway, she had two ideas, and here's the first one she had. I am so proud!

Then she decided one of the cookies needed a bite out of it. "Yeah," I said. "Here, make a few crumbs so it looks realistic." Like a real photo shoot!

 I'm starting to have a fantasy of doing food photo shoots with her.

Here's a gratuitous tree-climbing photo from today, too:


Our wonderful kid!!!!!

7th Birthday Bonanza

Rosalie scored in the birthday department this year. All kinds of celebrating!

Since she was only going to have a small sleepover with a couple of her oldest friends for her "party," I decided that we might also have a casual after-school ice-cream hangout near the school to enjoy the company of her wider circle of favorite friends. After ice cream we went across to the Ballard Commons and ran off that sugar for awhile.

Nicolie made Rosalie a birthday crown, just as she used to do at Berry Patch. I'm excited that Nic is now making these for money on her Etsy page. You, too, (or your kid) can have a personalized birthday crown with your interests and age prominently displayed! She is so talented.

Rosalie's crown has a picture of Rosalie in a forest, holding a bunny.

The sleepever itself was quite an event. The girl had been planning it months ahead of time. It was an entire make-believe adventure plot. Here are the blueprints for the different rooms'  decoration themes.

The word at the bottom of the drawing (that's in the basement) is "Face Paint." People were supposed to start there before embarking on the adventure.

Now that you've seen the plans, here are a few shots of how the plans played out in real-life. Most of the set up was performed by me and Grandmama. I am probably feeling 10 times more grateful to MY mom than Rosalie is to hers, for helping to make this vision happen! :)

The forest, where the kids met after having their faces painted, was the place where we came up with our hero names and our special powers. I also distributed special tools that would help us find the stuffed animals in distress.

The first journey was up a snowy mountain range

To a "jungle" of camoflauge-dappled yarn in the upstairs hallway, that hid a little stuffed monkey for Owain. (Not pictured; just imagine a giant mess of yarn taped everywhere in a hallway).

Next we had to dive from a cliff into the ocean (Rosalie's room) to free a sea turtle stuck somewhere in the depths. Saving the turtle was Rosalie's task. Since the party we've had some fun with black light experimentation.

After we swam out of the ocean, we made our way back down the mountains and found ourselves in a rabbit warren.

In the middle of this underground labyrinth was Antonia's bunny, stuck under a silver dome. It was important not to cross over the "walls"to get to the rabbit, or the whole hill could collapse.

Back in the forest was a leopard who awaited Raya, who unfortunately was home sick and couldn't be there. We gave it to her later. The kids were happy to "save" the leopard from certain peril in the meantime.

By the way, since I was their guide in this adventure, I thought it appropriate to wear face paint, too. Meet "Sunny" and "Zelda."

All in all the heroes had a lovely time.
      

Afterwards the kids had a dinner (menu planned by the big R) of mac & cheese, peas, and chicken strips. And of course we had lemon cake with strawberry frosting, which has become Rosalie's official birthday cake flavor after so many years of doing it.

Everyone had not-much sleep, and Rosalie became sick a few days later. So did I. It was inevitable. However, we seem to be approaching normalcy around here, so that's good. I love Rosalie's long-term-planning skills and her imagination. They will take her far, I am sure! Happy Birthday, you awesome kid!