When my parents came over to help celebrate Natalie’s birthday they got to see the results of Michelle and Natalie’s hard work: a strawberry and vanilla checkered cake with The Golden Trio on top. As we discussed ages Natalie was sad that she is STILL the only one in the family in the single digits. Hang in there, girl. Just one more year. One of the highlights of the evening for me was the girls making my dad take a sorting hat quiz when all he knows about Harry Potter is what he gleaned from watching the first movie. Hearing M & N explain everything was wonderful. Turns out he’s a Ravenclaw like my mom!
Speaking of Harry Potter, of course that’s the theme of Natalie’s party this year. She had an absolutely wonderful time being with her favorite friends being sorted, playing an HP card game, playing Quidditch, playing Kahoot, drinking Butterbeer, + eating pizza and Hogwarts house cupcakes we made together in the morning, watching the first movie accompanied by popcorn and soda, and getting awesome presents to boot. Michelle was a super star and fantastic leader for the entire party wearing her Ravenclaw costume and creating a birthday Kahoot about Natalie trivia like what her current favorite color is. It was amazing to see how wonderful all the girls were. Most were Hufflepuff house so I shouldn’t be surprised.
Birthdays are a wonderful time to clean out and reorganize bedrooms. I wish I had taken a before photo of Natalie’s dresser but you’re just going to have to believe me that it was an absolute mess (catch all). Since Hedwig needed a great place to live, we began with the dresser, moved on to the rest of the room, and then I attacked all the kid bedrooms while Hubby and Kate were at a volleyball tournament. My most grateful child was Michelle, who was thrilled I moved her fish tank from her room into my bathroom. She was just so tired of taking care of them and wanted the top of her bookshelf back. It took me days to not be surprised by seeing it its new spot and missing from its old place. (I would like to partially credit Natalie and I watching season 2 of the Home Edit’s Get Organized show on Netflix for this day of getting it done.)
This dog. We love her but she really is so terrible. You don’t want details. I promise. Let’s just say it involves paper towels and floor cleaner and carpet cleaner. Lol.
Danny has had a lot going on this week. He caught some sort of illness that made us almost take him to urgent care but luckily a reading of 98 on my dad’s pulse oximeter let us know he was going to be ok. Danny wasn’t too sad to be missing school during state standardized testing. Lol. He did mange to play in an amazing baseball game even though he wasn’t feeing 100 percent. One of his teammates hit a home run and then another teammate hit a grand slam! Danny and Hubby were both glad to be able to see that. I was home with the girls making sure they had rides to things like volleyball and dance class and watching the Disney+ Turner and Hooch tv show with Natalie while I cleaned up from dinner. I didn’t ask permission to post the next photo but I just have to document it: Hubby teaching Danny how to shave! I figured this would happen someday but I wasn’t expecting it to be when the boy was 12 years old. Also this week: Danny learned how to dip fresh fruit in a sugar and water mixture and then dip it in ice water to make candied fruit. He even looked up how to clean the pan after it had gone solid over night without being asked. I was so impressed. He’s a natural in the kitchen.
Time to praise our oldest now! Kate doesn’t usually share her art work with us. Once I asked if I could see what she was working on and Kate told me there would be a $20 exhibition fee. Lucky for me, her art teacher chose this piece to be a part of the school district art show and it won a blue ribbon! It is so beautiful and sad it makes me want to cry. What talent and grit and emotion. I couldn’t be more happy that Kate got to be acknowledged on this level. As a side note, Danny and his friend C. dared their art teacher to put their helmet on display at the art show. She went along with it and Hubby took it to another level by actually wearing it for a photo while we were there. That gave me a good laugh!
Saturday found us watching Kate’s first rec center volleyball game of the season. She is so excited to play with friends and have some fun playing the sport she loves without the pressure of club level tournaments. Of course their team won but the smiles. The smiles were wonderful to witness and I got to see Kate serve in a game for the first time all season. I must admit I was a bit worried about her shoulder but I heard no complaints afterwards. Later that day I got to watch Danny at batting practice, which also looked like a blast. I’m so glad he felt good enough to not only participate, but to still feel well afterwards.
Saturday also turned into a big day for my parents: as an early birthday present for both of them we bought their first smart phone (an iPhone 12) and Kate called dibs on showing Grandma what to do. I don’t think either one of them expected me to take a photo of the learning process. Lol. Same with the photo below of our family of six eating at Fuzzy’s Tacos after watching Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore together at the movie theater. This is my favorite Fantastic Beasts movie yet even though it was kind of trippy. Everyone in my family rated it a 7 or more out of 10, though. It was so great to spend the evening with our immediate family. I just tried to soak it all up like a warm day in the middle of winter. I cannot think of a better way to spend a Saturday night even if Natalie thought the restaurant was too loud and she didn’t like her food. Good thing she loved the movie!
Next up: Daffodils in the back yard letting us know it is time for Easter. We made sure to take pictures with Marshmallow and the Easter eggs before we hid them around the yard. I love this one because Natalie is saying how much she loves our bunny. He will be turning seven years old next month!
Hubby and I hid 80 Easter eggs, usually with only one piece of candy in each egg but some had two pieces and some had three but the one egg the kids really wanted to find was the golden egg with $20 cash inside. I was hoping Kate would find it because she owes me money but after a loooong time looking Michelle was the lucky winner. I had to laugh because she is the best at saving her money out of all six of us! I ended up giving an object lesson about grace after watching the Church's newest Easter video and put $20 on each kid's chart (where I keep track of the money I give them/what they spend). Turns out Kate still owes $6.50 -- I hope that giant slurpie she bought at the movie theater was worth being in debt. lol. Originally my parents were going to join us for the egg hunt and wonderful Easter meal but with Natalie not feeling the greatest Easter morning and my dad having a surgery scheduled for this week we didn’t want to risk passing any germs onto him. We did talk over their new cell phone about how it’s like having a laptop, a phone, and a camera all in your pocket. Welcome to the modern era, my loves. Happy Easter!
Comments