Birthday Love

My Love had a birthday, and we decided to ended up stretching it out over the whole weekend, to accommodate all of the other weekend scheduling fullness a large family like ours typically encounters. Celebrating became a very nice, prolonged, yet relaxing affair, including, among other delights, breakfast at our favorite Cafe Hon's, dinner and a great movie, a special trip a week ago, a cheery video message from Job, and a couple of specifically requested practical presents. The lingering celebration was greatly enjoyed by all involved...we might just make this a new tradition.

Craig's birthday came to a fun head on Sunday evening, just as the Ravens (bay-beeeee!) game was getting started, hence all the purple attire above...well...

...except for the Gommy Girl, who generally believes princess attire is entirely appropriate for all situations.

I'd baked brownie cake layers on Friday and Maia and Gommy had done a wonderful job of frosting, stacking and decorating them on Saturday, and we actually candled, sang and ate it all a la mode on Sunday.

Yummm....

Gommy busied herself making a card for Craig, a task she relishes on any and all occasions.

Love, joy and blessings, My Love...and here's to at least 45 (or is that 54?) more wonder-filled years!

Much Love. Take Care.

 

Game Day

Craig really loves Sunday afternoons in the fall.

After church service he cooks up a veritable smorgasbord, dons his purple attire, and 

settles in to watch the BALTIMORE RAVENS kick some football butt!

CAW! CAW!

Today he even made a purple cake...

...which Gommy was only too happy to help him decorate...

...in her own special Gommy-Girl way...

...tutu required, of course.

And of course, we didn't have any difficulty finding homes for all those slices of purple cake!

And by the way, it was the Ravens all the way today, babeee...37 to 7!

 

Take Care. Much Love.

  

Sunday Evening Snacks

Early morning service at 8:00 a.m.

Hours of "Risk", the board game Josiah fell in love with this past school year during Games Club :~)

Great long-overdue catch-up conversation with Auntie Joanne...
and lots of oogling her new car.

Three hours of SAT Prep Class for Maia.

Lots of hours of college shopping for Job with Craig.

A little reading of The Paper Bag Princess,
a neat zany girl-power book, with Montgomery

..

A couple of joyful kid-soaked, mosquito-laden, sword-fighting, scooter-riding 

hours of fun outside with seven little neighborhood friends...

one dressed like a ballerina-princess, another like a cat.   :o)

A couple more hours of such inside, but with only four friends this time...

and a baby brother and a mom.

One extended over-tired Gommy meltdown.

A little bit of the (non-animated) 101 Dalmations movie.

And finally,

 a big tray of slightly unorthodox Sunday evening snacks

for an impromptu showing of Hoodwinked Too! with favorite next-door buddies.

Thanking God for a full, rich, blessed Sunday.

Much Love. Take Care.

 

 

Just Ducky Returnings

We've lived a lot of life since my last post 51 days ago.

Children have graduated high school...and Pre-Kindergarten!...prom-ed...
zoo-ed...spelling bee-d...performed...celebrated...cried...won awards...
doctor-ed and orthodontist-ed...headed off to colleges (at least for the summer)...and to camps...mural-ed...berry-picked...pool-ed...
firecracker-ed...firefly-ed...lemonade stand-ed...and even become adults
(Job turned 18 today!)...to say nothing of what the "older" adults have been up to.

Somewhere along the way I lost my blogging rhythm, but would wistfully glance this way every few days with a sigh. I missed you little blogging outlet. I missed the way you slow life down for just a short while each day, and encourage reflection and contemplation. I missed the way you allow me to tangibly celebrate the journey, with all of its wilds and wonders. And so I did return...

There is so much to share...I truly don't know where to begin. So I thought I'd simply start with a front porch evening meal shared with Baby Ducky.

And why not?

Take care. Much Love.

 

A Neighborly Nicety

Look at these adorable bunny cookies! Such a sweet surprise from our good neighbors to the south (Johngideon's fun-tastic block buddies) Connor and Carson (with their nice Grandma Evelyn's help).

They're actually made from a stiff pound cake recipe...delicious!!

Needless to say, they didn't make it very long in our house.
(By the way, no we did not adopt a child...the other little girl in the photo is Montgomery's school ace Isabella, who was spending the day with Gommy.)

Take Care. Much Love.

Penny Power

Johngideon discovered a new fun activity recently...counting and stacking coins, well pennies to be exact. Craig and I are very encouraging of this new found interest for him, as Craig is an intentional end-of-the-day pocket dumper and we usually have jars of change in several spots throughout the house. However, we're not frequent coin rollers and only tend to get around to it a couple of times a year.

As Josiah was preparing to make an errand for a promised all time favorite meatball marinara sub, I realized I didn't have any cash in the house to give him, and I didn't at all feel like running to a bank. Then I thought... aha, the change! So I quickly rolled up some quarters and off he went! However, change rolling, I've come to find, is rather addictive, and I found myself in the study for nearly an hour, stacking and rolling coins of all denominations.

Maia joined me for awhile, as did Josiah prior to his errand. But, the one that really found the activity irresistible was Johngideon, and after we'd ploughed through all of the "silvery" coins he went on for hours counting and stacking the seemingly endless quantities of pennies. I made him stop at some point to eat, and then he was right back at it. I'll tell you, that kid is a penny-stacking virtuoso! When he moved from floor stacking to table stacking, I knew we were nearing the end, which was a good thing because he didn't seem able to stop himself until all of the pennies ended up in neat stacks  and rows.

He was very proud of his effort, as were we! Such diligence and perseverance!

It took Craig and I a few days before we got the gumption to get all of those wonderful stacks and rows in to rollers, but they eventually all made it (mostly because we needed the table space in the study...and, because the stacks became too tempting for Montgomery's destructo nature to resist!).

Now we know who to call for help when the coins start overflowing their containers...Johngideon to the rescue!!

Take care. Much love.

A Fun and Unusual School-Nite Dinner

Tonight we stopped by Mama Cucina's, a neighborhood Italian restaurant, for Johngideon's school's fundraising night in support of the second grade. The restaurant donates a percentage of their Tuesday night earnings to the school, so the school rallies to get as many families there as possible. We have never attended a Mama Cucina's night before, and weren't quite sure what to expect.

Johngideon had a blast! When he walked in he was thrilled to see his awesome teacher, Ms. Rice, at a nearby booth and soooooo many kids from his class with their families. It was like a party atmosphere with the kids visiting from table to table...it kinda felt like dinner with a huge Italian family. The few other patrons there not from the school were either delighted by the energy, vibe and excitement, or were bewilderingly looking around at the gaggly ruckus of young people, not sure what was going on. The food took a loooooong time to get to the table, but nobody minded and it was really good when we got it. It was a fun, unusual way to dine on a rainyish school night.

Much Love. Take Care.

Learning How to Fry Chicken

Job wanted to learn to fry chicken.

So Craig taught him...

...outside on the back deck...

Mmmm....yummy!

Take Care. Much Love.

(By the way...all photos compliments of Josiah...Go Josie!)

An Evening of Shakespeare

Maia transferred to the Theatre Department at her school just in time to be assigned a role and an opportunity to prepare for the annual Junior Acting Ensemble Shakespeare Scenes. She was so new to the department, she wasn't sure she would get an assignment, but she did (by the way, I love those BSA educators!), and a neat one at that (at least by my "I'm not really a fan of Shakespeare in general" barometer)...she portrays Portia in a scene from Merchant of Venice...one of Shakespeare's most wonderful female characters.

While the actual Shakespeare Scenes productions are not until May, the acting students get the opportunity to "practice" their scenes at a delightful local cabaret in Little Italy: Germano's. This Italian restaurant is awesome (you have to try it when you are next in Baltimore), and the owners Germano and his wife Syl are gracious, very involved hosts who love to support the arts. Their two daughters both attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, and they have lovingly provided a venue for so many art students to perform at their Cabaret. The Cabaret is held in an upstairs dining room with warm, cozy ambiance, excellent wait service, and I'll repeat again...fantastic Italian food! The last time I attended Germano's Cabaret (with Maia), they had a number of cast members from the Broadway musical "In The Heights" singing whatever they wanted to sing for us with a local accompanist; the cast was in town for a run of the musical at our Hippodrome Theatre and Craig, Maia, Job and I had seen the show days before. The Germano's atmosphere made the cabaret evening a joy for both the artists and audience and we all just had an awesome time!

So, Shakespeare Scenes (in practice) was no different in delightfulness...only better because my Maia was performing. She was so nervous beforehand because it was her first time performing as an actor with the School for the Arts, and she didn't feel ready yet to do the scene. Can I just say that is Maia's normal process...and then she absolutely blows the performance away! We've experienced this with her in dance as well, so we've come to know that when she says she doesn't feel ready, it really means she is more than prepared by normal standards but hasn't yet reached her super high perfectionist standards.

I wasn't able to take photos during the performance for obvious reasons, but caught Maia and other members of the ensemble just before the show in an adjoining "green" room...

 and then afterwards when they emerged again for their bows with their awesome instructor Donald Hicken (far left)...

This is just an awesome group of incredibly talented kids! And they are wonderful people as well, which is much more important. Maia was absolutely excellent! (Of course I am biased -- no apologies here-- and thought she was the best of the bunch! -- sorry, Maia, I know you'd rather I not said that....but Mommas are allowed some liberties -- and I've pretty much thought you were the best of the bunch everywhere you've been since the hospital nursery!).

Craig was unable to attend (he was out-of-town and so disappointed), but Auntie JoJo and Adrian joined me and Gommy and we had such a nice evening. Gommy loved her "buttered noodles" which are just about the only thing she'll eat for dinner these days (thanks for the accommodation, Germano's), and we grown folk thoroughly enjoyed our delicious entrees as well. And, yes, taking a 4-year-old to an evening cabaret of Shakespeare is not my greatest idea of fun (however we did enjoy the "intermission" stroll outside in the night air and meeting the "cute little white puppy in the pink dress"), but that was just how the evening was stacked up for our family. All in all she did pretty well, until the very end, and that was alright by me (note the back of her in her photo...she wasn't in a picture-taking mood...but sure was silly!).

I hope to have many more evenings of Germano's, and sooooooo many more opportunities to just enjoy Maia thriving and enjoying using her God-given talents. It was a wonderful evening.

(Not sure what was going on with the date on this ticket...Hmmmm....well, what's a few months in an entire lifetime...right?  right?)

Take Care. Much Love.

Cupcake Joy

Recently seen in our travels...the awesome roving Icedgems cupcake van!

Perfect for an afterschool snack for the littles...mmmmmmmmm....yummy!

However, after dancing delightedly and excitedly with the insistence of the must-have pink cupcake, Montgomery decided after one lick that she only liked the cake part (!!) because the pink frosting didn't taste like bubble gum (!!!)...(for the record, I could have baked her some plain cupcakes when we got home!) So, all the pink frosting ended up smushed in a napkin in the trashcan...but, I guess as far as overpriced cupcakes go, it's all about the experience.

Johngideon loved every tasty morsel of his chocolate on chocolate on chocolate on chocolate treat!

Full disclosure: In their super-skippy-excitement, both Johngideon's and Gommy's cupcakes experienced a moment each of concrete pavement action...before the first bites were even taken. Who knew cupcakes were so slippery? (Or so hardy...the frosting was barely dented...they actually rolled...scary?)  We employed the five-second rule (well-known by moms everywhere!)...and a quick napkin swipe...no shame here (a little dirt-flavor adds to the ambiance of gourmet roving cupcake van sidewalk dining!)

...and "requests" for somewhat  more subdued dining movement.

And the biggers enjoyed the rest of the box of treats when they got home...mmmmmmm!

     Take Care. Much Love.

I Didn't Know...

So I thought I knew the things that made my children glow with delight, but I learned something new today. Auntie Joanne walked in the door with a treat that had the younger set smiling with glee as they rushed for their handfuls...

Costco Churros!

Apparently there's even a repetitive jingle the kids sing to express their delight over these sugary cinnamony sweet twisted dough delectables!

Who knew? Auntie, of course!

Thanks Auntie!

Take care. Much love.