For the time being, we are just going to savor and love her 12 year old self - which is hardly a burden! We all had so much fun celebrating with her and lavishing her with lots of attention and affection. As noted in the last post, we kicked off the celebrations with Alida joining me for my Friday errands in town. Now you may be wondering HOW is doing a whole list of errands with your mother a birthday treat? Since it included one-on-one time just the two of us and picking out a variety of birthday supplies, it was a good time. She had specifically wanted to select the stuffings for her birthday Easter egg hunt. It was fun to have her company along - a diversion from my normal company on those rounds being either my own thoughts or downloaded podcasts!
On Saturday (also alluded to in the last post) she had another day out, but this time with her older sister! Kali had recently decided to start ushering at the Blackfriar's Playhouse for the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton and had her usher training that day. She learned that the training included a ticket for her and one guest to the afternoon matinee. So she invited Alida to join her and when Kali checked with the playhouse if Alida could hang out during the training, they asked if she wanted to be a junior usher. Indeed she did, so they both went and got trained and then hung out in Staunton (riding the trolley, getting ice cream, etc...) until the show and came home afterwards in very good spirits! Then on Thursday of this week, the three girls spent 8+ hours in town gallivanting from thrift store to thrift store amassing soccer and ushering clothes. I think they are now officially ready for both activities starting up this week. Kali and Alida head back to Staunton tomorrow for their first shadow ushering session (1 of 2 before they can usher on their own). While they were in Staunton, her chick birthday buddies were busy all trying to hatch on the eve of her birth!
Then Sunday was the big day! Now almost a week later, I can't remember the order of operations for the whole day but I can share that the day included all of the following: chick adoring, present opening and activities, favorite meals, egg hunt with family, games, lots of laughter (and a few tears for Luca when he didn't understand refrigerator tag). I can get kinda cranky about various commercialized holidays, but I'm a fan of birthdays. As her mom, it's always a special day to reflect back onto the night her birth (9:08 p.m.) and all the eager and anxious anticipation that came before and all the love and tears and beauty and learning and unlearning that has come since. It's also fun to see how the celebrations morph and change over the years - what is a constant and what interests and desires shift. I think the tradition of new chicks timed to hatch and be brooded inside is probably one of those things that will stick around for awhile. 
Blueberry pancakes, bacon and fresh fruit was the breakfast of choice!
She didn't waste any time trying out the cross-stitch and embroidery kits. She has already determined she likes embroidering better (she's actually working on one while I type).
And the braille slate and stylus were put to use immediately. Kali learned the alphabet quickly so that she could start writing messages to Alida (that she read looking at them and then challenged herself by trying to read them by touch only - her fingertips will need a lot of practice!). Some years I find birthday present shopping to be challenging, but it was breezy this year. Almost too breezy in that there were so many easy and fun things to pick out for a kid that has so many interests that I may have gone a bit overboard. One of the benefits to spending her days at home is that when she gets a bee in her bonnet, she can dive into something for hours on end!! She's got 500 sheets of braille paper, so that should keep her for awhile!Emily, Jonas, Ivy, Jonathan, Christen and Luca came over in the afternoon to hang out, find eggs, and then we played a few games out on the lawn. Refrigerator tag was fun for all of us, but confusing (at best) for Luca to see some of his favorite people chasing each other around while shrieking!
It was an absolutely gorgeous day! When they all departed we joined my parents for a birthday dinner of taco salad, fresh cardamon bread and then ice cream cake that Alida made with Grandma (with a little Skyjo for an appetizer!).
Probably one of my favorite moments of the day was at the very end! Alida chose for us to play Hearts together, which historically has been a pretty fraught game for the Myers family (those of us who are competitive in games really struggle when the queen of spades is given to us). Jason got the queen on round one (safe choice as he doesn't care) and then Alida got it SIX rounds in a row. We had only planned to play 4 rounds total but when she started getting the queen over and over on her birthday (and she is the most competitive of the girls), I said we would play until she didn't get it. With each passing round, it seemed that the sting of getting the queen was replaced with the absurdity and amusement of it happening AND that it meant we got to keep playing! Finally on the 8th round Alida ONLY got the jack of diamonds (which, for those that don't know the game, is the best card worth -10 - you don't want points!). And then to add to the wonder of it, Kali got 23 points trying to got for it (if you get all 26 points you get to get -26 instead and we stopped her from succeeding but just 3 points). This culminated at 11:11 p.m. (happy minute!). It was a very fun end to a celebratory exciting day!!
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