Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts

Sunday, April 3, 2011

happy birthday to karl

Karl's birthday was last week.
I asked Samuel what kind of party we should have for Dad and he said, "An AWESOME party."  So awesome we did.
To make the morning special I made a crepe breakfast.  To make it even more special I made everyone personalized "awesome" hats.  I got the hat template from here, she is a party genius.  We thought the baby looked so cute in his mini hat.  But then again, we think everything about Maximus is cute.  He is showing off his tongue tied-ness here.  That is as far as he can stick it out and it pulls in the middle to make a little heart shape.  Oh, wait, this post is about Karl?  
 Crepes, Nutella, strawberries, berries, real maple syrup, bananas, strawberry cream cheese, peanut butter, and Karl entertaining the kids...
 Seems to me that breakfast is sometimes a way to just pack in a bunch of sugar in the morning.  But, hey, it was a celebration.
 To make the afternoon special, we headed to Grind Cafe for some local food for lunch
and stopped at Glass Beach.  The beach is actually full of little pebbles of smooth beach glass.  I guess once upon a time it was a glass dump.  Or something like that.  
I couldn't be there for the evening but to make it special I set up a big ol junk food and movie fest for them.  I bought all the junk food that Karl has ever shown interest in, popcorn, pizza rolls, nachos, root beer, M & Ms,  Robin Eggs, Fritos...and set up a laptop so they could watch a movie and have a party while I was gone.  And I was gone so I didn't have to witness Samuel having Red Vines and Hi-Chews for dinner. 
We did cake the next day.  You know, to drag out the celebration.  Just kidding, we ran out of hours on the birthday clock and we kind of forgot.  This photo shows the mess, that Eva still wasn't done with dinner, Karl's excellent candle extinguishing skills, and just how surprised Maximus looks half the time.  

Celebrating without extended family puts a lot of pressure on the immediate family.  The plus side is that we can wing it and do whatever.  And we are very good at that.

Monday, March 14, 2011

old day

I woke up on my birthday like six times.  Each time grouchier than the previous.  
My poor family.

The day before my birthday I got mastitis.  Sorry if that's TMI but it's a part of my life.  It's a part of nursing (though I didn't know it with my first two).  The first time I got it I told Karl and his face lit up like I just said a funny joke.  That is because in his younger days he worked on a dairy farm and he would treat cows for such a thing.  And for his wife to tell him that she had the same thing as those cows, well, amusing, right?  Um, if you have had it, you know there is nothing amusing about it.  Nothing.  Achy, fever, chills, you kind of want to die but you know that would be bad because you obviously have a baby to take care of.  And mentally, getting this stresses me out big time because the biggest remedy is rest and forcing people to let me rest is a very non restful feat.

So, I had that to deal with.  And then, sweet baby Maximus decides that he needs to wake up more in the night and be a little less content during awake time (please let it just be teething, please let it just be teething, please...).  

And THEN, there is a tsunami watch.  I found out because mother-in-law texted me.  We don't have a TV and I had no idea.  It didn't end up being a huge deal here, especially for us because we live about 500 ft above the ocean level.  People closer to the water did have to evacuate but we didn't.  I did throw some clothes, a flashlight and some food into a bag just in case.  

So the waking up (at least) six times was because baby was sad or hungry, or because I was all fevery( and then chilly and then fevery again), or because the tsunami sirens were blaring, or because I was worried we would need supplies, or... I kind of felt like I was just wandering all night.  

I woke up (the last time) to birthday wishes from my family and on Facebook (feels weird, I am blogging about Facebook) were birthday wishes/ I hope you're okays.   People were worried and I didn't realize it.  

But then I started worrying about the people in Japan.  Um, my people in Japan.  My aunts, my uncle, my cousins, their kids...
It turns out, everyone is accounted for and okay.  My cousin, who we are the closest to happened to be out of town for work.  His wife was visiting his mother and his daughter was in Guam for vacation.  His home is on the 15th floor.  And the insides were like a giant picked it up and shook it.  Dishes, bottles, TV, piano, everything broken.  No one was home, no one was hurt.  

I keep wondering about my friends there.  Some of them have checked in on Facebook, and when they do, I give a sigh of relief.  But  then I keep wondering about the other ones.  

And then how about the people that I don't know?  I keep thinking about how cold it is up in Sendai.  I hate being cold.  People that once had everything they needed had everything washed away in seconds.  And now, since kids are my business right now, I think about the kids there.  Little baby Maximus' that need food and shelter.  

So, um, that was my birthday.  It was a lot to process in my (pounding) head.  We did celebrate.  We went to dinner.  Karl and the kids (with the help of that oh so nice Betty Crocker) built me a cake with 35 candles (to humor Samuel) on it.  I said I wanted cards from the kids and I got them.  Eva went on Youtube and learned how to make some lilies and a star basket to put them in.  She kept exclaiming how technology is amazing. 

Karl may be able to come up with some grouchier birthdays of the past but this one my take the (birthday) cake (ha, ha).  

As time goes on and I see more and more coverage of the devastation in Japan, it seems to sink in more.  I remember where I was when 9-11 happened.  We were in Chicago and I was a teacher.  I will always remember that day.  Sprinkled with celebration, but with a sad, somber undertone, I think my 35th birthday will also fit into that file.  
This is the cake that Karl and the kids built for me.  The kids were excited to put so many candles on it.  I was so focused on blowing out the candles in one breath (which I did very very fast) that I blew them out and Samuel said, "You didn't make a wish."  He was totally right.  Like I said.  Old.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

eva celebrates with yellow and butterflies

For her birthday shindig Eva wanted butterflies and the color yellow.
I wanted to make some tissue pom poms but she noticed that they looked like butterflies during the process so that is what she made.  

We also make some origami butterflies and hung then from the light fixture.

For the food, Eva wanted pizza, lemonade, and watermelon.  Dear Papa Murphy helped us out with the pizza.  I made the citrus punch that always seems to be a hit.  But Eva wanted something more along the lines of Country Time.  Whoops.  We bought a watermelon but since it is not even close to being in season, it was gross.  So I got a bunch of watermelon candy.

It was Superbowl Sunday so I made sure to put out tons of snacks.  
My mom made the yellow butterfly cookies and Karl's mom made the chocolate chip cookies.  Eva wrapped the utensils.  It is very very Eva to do something like that.  I made little bouquets of flower and butterfly suckers for party favors.  And then I forgot to hand them out.  They are still sitting on my counter.  
I made a couple of salads, seven layer dip, artichoke dip, bean salsa, and my sister-in-law made dill dip (and was so nice to send it down even though her family couldn't come because they were all sick).



Boy.  We love food.
The boys watching the game.  Samuel the blurr.
Samuel loaded his plate up with chips and declared, "I like crunchy things."  
Notice the plates.  I found these plates with the cup holder.  They cracked me up so I got them.    They seemed very Superbowl-esque.  
Karl's mom made yet another amazing cake.  
And even more than we love food and a good party, we love Eva.
and these are a few of Eva's loves in her seventh year:
beautiful things
making beautiful things
reading
writing notes
watching shows
folding things
playing with her brother
sour cream

and if you are wondering... it is a month later and much to the dismay of my much taller husband, those butterflies are still hanging.  


Tuesday, March 24, 2009

ligers, dumplings, cake... happy birthday karl

This is my 200th post!
Warning:
This post is not for PETA people, animal lovers, and I'm guessing most normal people. Guys, hunters, gather round...
I am behind on my posts because of the lame internet connection. I am skipping ahead to Karl's birthday.
So, we went to this city called Harbin. It is a four hour drive from where we are staying right now. The reason? To see these tigers. Specifically, to pay money to watch the tigers devour live animals. Ew, I know.
We pile in a bus and drive around these Siberian Tigers like it is no big deal. The first lucky victims were these chickens. A guy drives up in a Land Cruiser and just chucks them out the door. The tigers are all over the car and the guy seems unphased.


Ok, so here is where is gets gross. I felt compelled to share all the grossness. Maybe to diffuse it a little. A little goat. A cute little goat. They let it loose. It runs a bit and then all these cats attack it (which apparently is unnatural because in the wild these animals hunt alone but when we are dumping goats out of cars for money, do we really give thought to what is natural anymore?)

Next, is Karl's birthday present from his dad and Jill. A cow. A cute little yearling (I am learning lots of new words from my country boy) gets dumped out of the truck. Look at the tigers go. The saddest part was the mooing/crying.


So, those that have been to China (it is crazy how many of my friends have been to China) can agree that this next part is "so Chinese." Once the tigers get the cow dead, two SUVs pull up. One guy GETS OUT (note: tigers are all around) while the other guy shoos the tigers away. I show him lighting the fire cracker that he throws to get one of the tigers to back off. They tie the cow up, and, get this one, DRAG it around so the cats will chase it. So sad. Even sadder that it was entertaining us. In the end, they chop up the cow and drop big hunks so all the tigers get a piece.


Here were some other cats:

The white tiger. Yep, perfect for printing onto black velvet. A liger. Yep, bred for its skills in magic. And that black thing.


And here are some awesome signs: The service promise that among other mistakes does not list the phone number for English speakers to call. The price list for the live animals. Gross, I know. And check out this candy bar I found. Guts. We tried it, it tasted chocolaty, nutty, creamy, and crunchy. Nothing like guts at all.


But, Karl's birthday celebration was not all disgusting. These nice ladies made us this tasty lunch. Handmade fresh noodles are one of my favorite things, ever. Of course, the fresh dumplings also make me happy. This meal for three? $2.22 US.

This nice guy decorated this cake for us. It took all the guts (and not meaning the above candy bar) I had to go and order this cake. The only thing that we could communicate were the numbers and "happy birthday." This guy made that animal out of frosting in like 1 minute. The detail was amazing.

Since all of us were sick and achy and tired, we stayed in and ate cake. The flowers on the table are from a couple of people from the university. They knew it was his birthday (because they were lucky enough to see Karl's birthday cow get eaten). Karl got all the candles out in one shot. He was a good sport and wore the crown that the bakery provided with the cake.

Monday, March 2, 2009

and this is how we celebrated Eva...

So, a while ago, I had to take a break from blogging (and everything that was practical for that matter) and focus on my then current project... Eva's sixth birthday party. A baking party. With images of 10 cute little bakers (wearing aprons with ribbons and frills and felt flowers) dancing in my head, I sewed and sewed and sewed. I know it sounds insane, but, seriously, I love doing this kind of stuff.

As the girls arrived, they found their aprons (I personalized each one) and decorated their chefs hats with heart stickers. We then started making little pizzas (thanks, Pillsbury! That was so nice of you to make the dough for us). One girl decided that she wanted her pizza in the shape of a heart. And, well, that meant all the girls wanted heart pizzas. Michelle, my friend/mom on one of the party girls, was working hard shaping when Drew says, "That looks like underwear!" Hearts, underwear, picky, picky...
While the pizzas were baking, they made fruit kabobs. Blueberries were the favorite. They also jumped on the couch. But not with the kabobs.
Pizzas done. Everyone ate. Little girls don't eat a lot of pizza. They would rather jump on my couch. But not Eva...
Eva ate and ate and ate. She made that thing and she was determined to finish. Look at her all alone. It is so so so so Eva (and kinda me, actually). She went and got a knife and fork and worked and worked. She is stuffed (and funny, really funny).
Next, decorating tiny bundt cakes. Jenn, you don't read my blog but if you did, you would know how much I use and love the mini bundt pan you gave me. Little girls like frosting. They got to choose a flower and stick it on top. They looked so perfect wrapped up with a mini rubber spatula and a red cookie cutter.
For the cake, we did chocolate cupcakes with pudding frosting (because sometimes the best part about being the cupcake maker person is that you get to choose what you make).
Eva loves pinatas. You really get to know a person's personality when you see how they go at it at the pinata. So funny to see how aggressive these sweet little girls can be. We put the prizes in baggies so everyone got the same. Next, presents. Eva, being Eva, spent days opening the packages. For a while there, it felt like she was opening a new toy everyday. I think that is a great way to do it. See Eva, in the middle (um, still eating her cupcake) with no apron? I didn't think one of the little girls was going to come so I didn't make her one. Eva was so sweet and let her wear hers. Someone taught her well (it was Karl. Not me, the apparent RSVP nazi).


Eva and Katie.
Thanks to all that came, helped, and to all those people that came up with most of these ideas.

So, that was all the kid stuff, right? We had lots and lots of food for the adults that helped and for the family that came later that night... Olive Garden soup knock offs,
Zupa Tuscana and Pasta Fagioli, my mom's (mega awesome) clam chowder, French bread, "Those Rolls" from Lee's market in Logan (courtesy of Gumma), artichoke dip, veggies and dip, window pane sugar cookies and tons of candy. Grandma Geddes made another beautiful cake. We asked Eva what she wanted and she said, "A dolphin, with a wave." Huh? Where did she get that idea from? Grandma certainly delivered. This dolphin got way more than just a wave, it got a beach, an umbrella, a palm tree... the works.

Grandma
Geddes also showered the kids with Valentine gifts. A tradition that my kids adore. So nice. Lot's of people came to celebrate Eva. Thank you so much. And thank you, Eva, for being a girl so worth celebrating.

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