Sunday Outing

There's a pedestrian bridge that crosses over the interstate near Whole Foods, and I've been trying to figure out for awhile now how to get to it. For any Raleigh friends wondering the same thing - I think the best way is to park at the North Carolina Museum of Art and hop on the greenway there. It's kind of a hike for little legs, but it's totally paved so you can take your stroller if you need to. I brought mine, but then Rylan insisted on walking the whole way anyway...

The Saga of Cole's Birthday

There's a boy in Cole's class this year that Cole has talked about non-stop since September. Every time I turn around, it's "that's a game I learned from Bob*" and "Bob told me that" etc. etc. etc. So when I found out at the beginning of November that Bob's birthday was three days before Cole's, I told him he better find out when Bob was having his party so they didn't plan them for the same day.

Assuming that Cole would be invited to Bob's party. Which he was not.

I think this is the most heartbreaking thing about being a parent. You have this amazing child, and you think everyone in the world should kiss his feet because he's so smart and creative and talented. Whatever faults he might have, he's still one of the three most amazing kids to ever walk the planet. And you don't ever want him to get hurt or sad or made fun of or not invited to a party by an obviously stupid kid from school.

Cole wasn't as upset about it as I was - in fact, he announced in a very matter of fact way that he wasn't invited to Bob's party and that he'd like to have a party at Chuck E. Cheese instead and just invite his friend Suchir, so I guess he wasn't traumatized and life goes on.

But in the midst of my feeling like I wanted to strangle the idiotic kid from school, I vented to Miriam that Cole had decided not to have a birthday party, so she decided to throw a surprise party for him. She is the rockingest aunt of all aunts everywhere.


And there was a piñata!


I think Miriam was regretting the pinata after Michael and I insisted it was too cold to do it outside. Look at her face!

>
So I guess if you're seven years old and you get to have two birthday parties, it's not such a big deal if a kid from school doesn't realize how awesome you are.

*Name has been changed just in case we ever make friends with any parents from their school.

A Thanksgiving to Remember

A week and a half ago, our washing machine quit working. We procrastinated a couple days before calling our usual repair guy, who waited a few days to call back and refer us to another guy, who couldn't come for a few days and then didn't have the part he needed, all culminating in the following happy Thanksgiving:

• Michael and I spent $21 at a laundromat on Wednesday night to get us all clothed in clean clothes and stocked with dishrags and towels.
• On Thursday, I woke up feeling nauseous, nixing my awesome pumpkin pie from our dinner menu.
• That night, Rylan started puking...and puked and puked and puked. All night long. Michael and I took shifts.
• On Friday night, my visiting relatives decided they'd better cut their vacation short and head home early.

My little foodies

I love how when I ask my kids what kind of cake they want for their birthday, they pick a flavor rather than a cartoon character. My little foodies in the making.

For his birthday this year, Cole chose an ice cream cake. I searched around on the internet but couldn't find instructions for making one that didn't involve ice cream sandwiches (I already had a gallon of ice cream in the fridge that I wanted to use). Now that I've made an ice cream cake, I'd say that the ice cream sandwich idea is very smart. Also, a walk-in freezer would have been nice.

I made the cake layers on Friday night and let them cool completely. On Saturday, I thawed out the ice cream, spread it into a cake pan, hardened it back up, and then flipped it onto one of the cake layers, adding the second layer on top. Then I froze the whole thing for an hour. That was not long enough, so when I attempted to frost it, ice cream oozed out everywhere. I finally got it frosted and put it back in the freezer. We ate it three hours later, but even that was not long enough for the ice cream to reharden, and it was an oozy mess.


The key, it seems, is to refreeze overnight because today when we had cake for dinner (yes, we do that sometimes), it was perfect.

Happy Birthday, Cole!

We realized yesterday that Cole's birthday is exactly two weeks after mine, and then Rylan's birthday is exactly two weeks after Cole's. So between the three birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, November and December are one big party around here.

We started off the day yesterday with Raleigh's annual Christmas parade. We only stayed for an hour this year, so we didn't see if the Storm Troopers from last year are a regular feature. We actually weren't able to see much at all since we got there at 9:30 and the parade started at 10:00. Apparently you have to arrive at 7:00 in your jamamas to get a good spot. This was the view Michael and I had:


This was how the boys watched the parade:


Rylan had the best seat:


After the parade, we headed to Chuck E. Cheese for Cole's party. We did a family party this year, but let him invite one friend.
Back home to eat cake


And open presents


We also fed the missionaries that evening. As we sat down for dinner, Michael and I turned to each other and whispered, "Are you hungry? Me either..."

All in all, I think Cole had a good day.

Eli Says...

During journal time...

Eli: Daddy, I drew Cole, I drew ballons, I drew a piñata. What should I draw next?

Daddy: Why is there a pinata?

Eli: I'm drawing Cole's birthday.

Daddy: But there wasn't a piñata at Cole's birthday.

Eli: (in a "duh, Daddy" voice) But birthdays have piñatas.

Rylan Says...

Instead of "ramen noodles"...

Rylan: We're eating rotten noodles.

Cole Says...

Cole: I know three bad words that start with "d."

Me: Do you?

Cole: Yes, but I'm not going to tell you what they are. I already told Eli.

Me: You better not be teaching Eli bad words.

Cole: You already know one. You said it one day.

Me: I said a bad word?

Cole: Yes. You said "dead."

Me: Dead is one of the bad words?

Cole: Yes. Dead, deceased, and dying. Those are the three bad words that start with "d."

Cookie Dough Balls

Michael is in New York tonight, and it seems that I haven't been in a photo-taking mood lately, so we skipped journal night tonight in favor of a pseudo-fondue party (using this recipe except I skipped the second freeze part).

Because Kellie gave a thumbs down to the video I posted on Facebook...

...I have to post a bunch more videos. I discovered this new musician named Johnny Flynn this past weekend, and I have become borderline obsessed with his music. Some (Michael) might say I've surpassed obsessed. I may or may not have listened to his album twenty-five times since purchasing it last Saturday. I may or may not have watched every one of his music videos multiple times. And I may or may not have spent several hours googling reviews of his albums.

Michael, I promise it is purely a musical crush. You have nothing to worry about.

(Ladies, besides being a singer, songwriter, actor, and poet, this guy can play the guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin, and trumpet, and is pretty fine to look at, I must admit.)

Here's the video I originally posted on Facebook. I really like the cello harmonics, the catchy drum beat, and the way it builds up at the end.


The string instrumental about two-thirds of the way through this next song is so amazing - I'm pretty sure it's a violin/cello duet, but it could be two violins. And then I really like the violin plucking right after the instrumental.


This is the first song I heard of his, and it's not my favorite by any means, but it's his most popular.


If you've made it this far...this is my favorite on the album:


And Kellie, he's also the guy in Lisa Mitchell's Coin Laundry video.

JOHNNY FLYNN OFFICIAL
website
facebook
myspace
youtube