A few Memorial Day photos

It was a long road trip to Baltimore. Yes, I'm grateful for the minivan and the newly-repaired DVD player (which we hardly used, actually). But I was less grateful for the pouring rain we experienced along almost the entire drive, turning our trip into a grueling 14.5 hours - we arrived at about 5 am, and the last three hours were by far the hardest.

It's great to be here with Uncle David, Aunt Gina, and cousin Isaac, though. Miles and Eleanor took to baby Isaac (aka "MY cousin" as per Eleanor) right away.



Charlie the cat took a little longer to warm up, and Elmer the mostly-labrador is still the terror of Nora's young life, causing shrieks of panic whenever he enters the room. Seriously, I don't remember ever being scared of dogs; how did fear develop?

Uncle David made Miles' day by finding him a helicopter to visit, at the Fort Mead museum.



We also climbed around on the tanks...





---until we noticed this sign. Oops!



Yesterday morning we went strawberry picking. The kids helped mostly by eating, but the adults managed to collect enough for a strawberry custard, strawberry pie, strawberry syrup, and who knows what else.






We also splashed around in David's tiny backyard pool. Here's my photogenic husband with the dripping kids:



David also took some family photos, which were unusual in that I looked pretty decent (as if I have a chin) in most of them, while the kids were both grouchy and glaring in most.

Mother's Day...

...and I finally received the traditional pasta necklace! You know you're a real mom when your kids make you a necklace out of dyed penne, right?

And yes, I am being the good mom and WEARING the pasta necklaces. Today, at least.

backhanded compliment

As I was leaving tonight for an audition, Eleanor says,

"Wow, you look really pretty, Mommy!"

Miles chimes in, "Yeah. Much better than before."

Thanks, kid.

Eleanor's butterfly birthday party

So I settled on a butterfly theme for Nora's 3rd birthday. We invited over six of her three- and almost-three-year-old girlfriends, played a couple games, made a craft, and ate snacks and cupcakes. It went off pretty well! I am convinced that for this age, a morning time slot and brief duration (less than 90 minutes) are key.

Here's Eleanor in her butterfly dress (which I made last fall, but she hadn't gotten to wear yet), matching beads on her braids, and the blingy necklace and bracelet I made her for her birthday (real pearls and Swarovski crystal, thank you very much!) Of course, after about five minutes, she got tired of them and whined until I took the necklace and bracelet off. Sigh. Oh well; maybe in a few months I can win her over.



The bracelet, complete with butterfly charm.



I also made matching name bracelets as party favors for all her little friends, rather than the usual goody bags full of candy and small things to lose or throw away.


As the girls arrived, we gave them each "butterfly antenna" headbands to wear. We played "pin (well, tape) the antenna on the butterfly" first. Butterfly poster courtesy of Scott!








Then we headed downstairs to make our craft: tissue paper flowers. I tried to pick something within a three-year-old's grasp, but I overestimated; it was beyond one of the parents, too! The girls liked the flowers, though their involvement basically extended to choosing the colors of tissue paper.

Our final activity was supposed to be a butterfly hunt (like an Easter Egg hunt ) but I couldn't find any tiny plastic butterflies, so instead we hunted for the butterfly's "friends" (snakes, lizards, frogs, and other bugs), which Scott hid around the upstairs during craft time.





For snack/lunch, we had fruit, "caterpillars in cocoons" (aka pigs in blankets, but I thought my renaming was fairly clever), and tiny finger sandwiches in the shapes of butterflies and flowers.

And of course, the piece de resistance: butterfly cupcakes!



I made eighteen of them, in pink and yellow. The wings and antenna are made out of chocolate and pastel melts, freehanded onto wax paper and then wedged into the frosting with some chocolate frosting for bodies. Pretty cute!


It was kind of hard to fit candles on, though!


All in all, a good party! And this afternoon, the whole family got naps, so a good day for all!