Did Alida have a good birthday? I guess you should all ask her directly, but all signs that I've been observing point to a confident YES! I think her birthday met all the goals I can think of for what feels most important about celebrating one's life - it was fun, she was surrounded by many of her favorite people, she enjoyed some of her favorite foods, she got to make a rainbow of cupcakes with Grandma Myers and I believe she felt loved and appreciated. And an added feature to her actual birthday is we agreed to let her "be the boss" for the day.That was particularly stretching for the oldest in our family and the youngest. People wanting to boss other people around and use power because they have power gets Jason, as well it should. Alida was actually a pretty benevolent dictator but still. Kali was the best at calling her "your highness" and remembering to ask Alida's permission before doing things. Terah said a few times during the day that she didn't like when it was Alida's birthday/when Alida was in charge. But she didn't really seem distressed by it in the least. We all made it through the day just fine, and thankfully we all enjoy a lot of the same things so overall it was a good day.
But I'm getting ahead of myself (probably because I have a sleeping little gal on one side of me and a sleeping hubby on the other and the sound of them both sleeping is increasing my sleepiness tenfold)! Her celebrations were rather spread out this year with kickstarting them with her birthday party last Friday. So Friday was spent decorating her cake, decorating the house and preparing for her party - somewhere in there she filled Easter eggs. While this year's birthday doesn't fall that close to Easter, she was not deterred from planning to include a hunt like last year.In the end my dad and I had over 200 eggs to hide and I'm impressed that we only couldn't find a small handful of them. Most recently I found one yesterday when getting out a fresh t-towel. We'll see when the others resurface - our next deep clean?
We had a full table for Alida's chosen dinner of venison and lentil burgers, roasted white and sweet potatoes, pickles, cheese and then cupcakes and ice cream. On her birthday morning I read her my account of her birth and her daddy's. I thought it was funny that my last meal before she was born hours later was potatoes and lentil burgers and while in labor we made a chocolate 0th birthday cake, which is still her favorite kind of cake! After dinner, those that could linger joined for some rounds of Apples to Apples. All departed by bedtime except for one friend that slept over and joined us for Alida's chosen pancake breakfast.
So her party wrapped up Saturday morning, but her "day in charge" was yesterday - her actual birthday. Jason and I were just about to have hot drinks just the two of us when the boss woke! So instead a tea party was enjoyed until it was late enough to wake Kali. Alida decided we'd have her breakfast of ponhoss, eggs and applesauce before all going out to do chores together. Probably wise so no one got cranky from hunger - a good choice by our leader! She also was thrilled to get to establish the dress code for the day which included a lot of pink and red. Some of us had to borrow clothing to be acceptable!
Thankfully Alida let me get a load of laundry started. :) And we all noted how fast hanging a load goes with 5 helpers. We were done in no time and off to take care of the animals.
It was very hard to come inside after chores. It was a perfectly gorgeous day out but the birthday girl could not be convinced that a hike sounded like more fun than playing the Farming Game - or that "real farming" would be better than the board game version of it. I might have gone bonkers if my mom hadn't just gifted me with some cotton yarn for knitting dishcloths. An entire dishcloth later, I had managed to become a full-time farmer. It's not that the game is awful, it just is much more fun on a rainy day or after dark when the possibility for playing in the real dirt is not there!After a meal of sausage gravy over sweet potatoes, we did get a short walk in before field hockey practice. Week 2 was as successful as week 1 - Alida really enjoys it. Back home we enjoyed birthday cake (made by a friend and not with Alida's birthday in mind but what perfect timing) and played some enthusiastic rounds of Boggle. I held a steady lead until Jason warmed up and then I was losing my steam and my winning streak! I showed what a horrible sport I am by being clear that we had to keep playing until I won a round. What a horrible example I am!! Thankfully it was all included with ample doses of laughter.
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