Fudging the dates

Calvin's birthday is just around the corner - only two days away - but since this year it happens to fall on a Monday, and since a two year old doesn't care about dates, we celebrated today instead.  As with most things that are new to him, we spent the week preparing by reading books about birthdays and talking about our plans for the day.  Although he did have a solid opinion on what he wanted for dinner, that being "pizza, artichokes, strawberries, happy birthday cake" (honestly, in his words), two year olds are, thankfully, blissfully unaware of the usual birthday hullabaloo, and our party planning consisted of buying ingredients for a carrot cake, digging the last year's leftover decorations out of the basement, and deciding whether to pick up the pizza or have it delivered.  Calvin  With the recent heat-wave we decided to bake the cake (carrot) early, before it got too hot to use the oven (another great reason to order pizza for dinner) and then walk into town for the Dexter Ice Cream Social in order to get out of the house for the morning.  That turned out to be a great choice - the breeze and cloud cover made it more comfortable to be out of doors than in, and Calvin enjoyed the Social like it was one big birthday party.  He got a balloon, he got to feed llamas and goats, and he even got to take part in the all essential birthday pony ride.  Twice.  And he wasn't particularly shy about telling everyone that it was his birthday ("oh, and how old are you?"  "two!").  Then, following a much needed afternoon nap, he woke up ready to have a party all over again, which was a good thing, since the kitchen was already filled with one.  And, what the family party lacked in pony rides, it made up for tenfold with good company (his four favorite grandparents, his favorite aunt, and his favorite mom and favorite dad), food, and presents (of which his favorites happen to be a helicopter, a dollhouse, and condiments - yes condiments.  Who knew they made wooden condiments???).  We just hope he doesn't expect pony rides and a petting zoo every year.

The usual picture overkill can be found in the June 2008 album.

To mothers everywhere...

Happy Mothers' Day

Happy Easter

We wish you all a blessed Easter.  We celebrated Easter weekend the hard way - by moving into our new house.  Don't get us wrong, we are happy to be here, but instead of searching for eggs we're searching for, well, just about everything we own.  And, since it is a bigger house, it takes nearly twice as long to find everything.  But in addition to moving heavy furniture (in the wake of the first post spring snow storm, mind you) we also celebrated in some more traditional ways.  Though we didn't actually get dressed up for the holiday this year, Calvin did at least try on his new suit, which he will be wearing to a very important wedding in just a few weeks.  On Saturday, after the moving of said heavy furniture, we were able to share a wonderful dinner with Calvin's second cousin, Iris, and her family.  And on Sunday morning Calvin did get to partake in his first ever hunt for colorful eggs.  Ask Calvin what he did, though, and he's likely to tell you that he hunted for pretzels, because that's what we put inside each plastic egg, and that's what he yelled out each time he found one.  We weren't even sure that at his age he would be able to grasp the concept of egg (or pretzel) searching, but once again we underestimated the powers of food.

More Easter pictures here, and more spiffy suit picture here.

We could use an extra day

We fill our days to the absolute brim with work, eating, sleeping, and yes, even a little playing.  We stretch our days to the very last possible minute, falling into bed when we can no longer keep our eyes open, then drag ourselves into consciousness as early as we can possibly stand to do so (or maybe as late as Calvin will let us) the following day.  Our lives are bursting at the seams, and we absolutely love it, but there is just not enough time in the day to work in everything we want and need to do.  That is why we strongly advocate the use of Leap Day, February 29, as an official national "extra day" holiday.  Think about it - no one will miss it!  We base nearly everything on a 365 day year, and when leap year rolls around we have to put into effect special circumstances to make up for it.  What better way to celebrate life than to just take it off.  It could be a national day of ecological and economical awareness - no stores would be open to entice unsuspecting citizens into spending money they are hoping to get from stimulus packages, and the TV wouldn't be on to broadcast mind-numbing programs into our supposedly peaceful homes - everyone would just have to go outside and enjoy the trees (since the grass in this area is under several inches of snow).  We think it's a great idea, and we celebrated this hopeful new holiday in the same way we celebrate all other holidays - by taking lots and lots of pictures.  Enjoy them, because this holiday won't come around for another four years!
You can see more Leap Day pictures in the Feb 08 album. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Nothing says "I love you" like a toddler in tulips.

There's more where that came from.  Check the February 2008 Album.