Month: April 2017

The problem with having a birthday in April, I suppose, is that every now and then Easter will sneak in on your birthday territory.

But considering that I am the one responsible for celebrations in my family, the only person who is ever inconvenienced by the birthday/Easter confluence is me, I guess.

Brian’s parents arrived in the middle of all this as part of Grandparent Week, Pt. 2, and it was really great having them here to help out. Kathryn was a magic cleaning fairy. I was able to run errands and make Eleanor’s cake and dip marshmallow pops while she scurried around, helping put things away.

Jeff was also doing work as the stage manager for the middle school play this week. The carpooling went from usual ridiculous to full-on ridonkulous.

Here he is moving sets around during intermission. There were two contingents of family attending on two different evenings, and we applauded him every time and embarrassed him to pieces.

On Eleanor’s birthday proper (Thursday night) we went out to dinner with grandparents and Aunt Kristen & Uncle Sven. Eleanor chose Shari’s Diner, because she’s been craving a big burger for weeks. Eleanor and Kristen are almost the same height now!

On Good Friday we had our traditional Easter Tea when the kids came home from school (it’s also the start of Spring Break for them, so some celebration was in order). I bought the Hot Cross Buns this year, since owing to my self-imposed dietary restrictions I wasn’t eating any. Sorry neighbors, no buns for you this year. I realize this puts my household at risk for shipwrecks, but whaddyagonnado?

Saturday afternoon was spent taking Eleanor to do baptisms for the dead at the temple for the first time. (Many thanks to our bishop for helping us get her recommend in time.) Eleanor was so excited — all week she kept saying “I can’t wait for Saturday!” “Because of your birthday party?” I asked. “No, because I’m going to the temple!” she replied.

Kathryn spent the morning showing Eleanor the origins of all the family members she was doing work for that day, which was very special.

At the temple, Brian did the baptisms and I wrapped her up in a towel afterwards. It’s been a long while since I’ve wrapped up a wet Eleanor in a towel. Oh, those early-childhood bath years are so long gone, aren’t they?

The temple recorder heard that it was her first time attending and came down to say hello and formally invite her. Usually one of the members of the temple presidency likes to do that, but they were not in attendance at the temple that day. I didn’t mind, the recorder was very kind (and perhaps he doesn’t get to do the welcoming very often).

That evening we threw Eleanor a Groovy 1970s Disco Party. The party ideas all came from Family Fun Parties, and was a huge hit with the girls. I admit I had concerns — with 12-13 year olds, you never know when there will be awkward eye-rolling instead of uninhibited fun. Fortunately for us, it was the latter.

Probably the best idea we had for the party was to purchase a little disco light off of Amazon for $12. It had a sensor built in to coordinate the lights with the music! No other party decorations were needed.

The girls ate pizza for the first bit (already dancing around in their seats), and then they made Pet Rocks. I was floored by how much they loved this and how creative the girls were. A bunny rock! A narwhal! Batman! Another narwhal with a little saddle so a smaller rock could ride on top!

The great thing about kids this age is how autonomous they are. I simply laid out the craft supplies, and they did everything themselves, including using the hot glue gun!

Likewise, I later held out a game of Twister, and they took it, set it up, and figured out a fair system for taking turns all by themselves. Teenagers rule.

After Twister it was time for cake and ice cream. I made Eleanor a four-layered chocolate “Have a Nice Day” cake, with Thin Mints for eyes. The girls called it an “emoji cake.” Ha.

Then, as the finale, we had a Disco Dance Off. I’d like to take a moment to say how proud I am of the rising generation, because not only did they recognize and applaud to the opening riff of “Stayin’ Alive,” the also recognized and applauded the opening to “YMCA.” Watching the girls sing along and groove to “YMCA was one of the most entertaining thing I’d seen in weeks.

Every now and then I came up to girl doing a particularly excellent dance move and allowed her to choose something from my goody bag (I filled it with all the unused samples from Target Beauty Boxes I’d had lying around).

When the party was over (whew) Katie and William presented Eleanor with this snowglobe that they made together. Inside is a birthday cupcake made from Sculpey clay. Aww.

(The present from Brian and me is a new bike, so she can ride to middle school in the fall.)

TA-DAH! Happy Birthday, Eleanor!

But wait . . . there’s more!

The following day we had our Easter egg hunt in the lawn before church. Randy was expert at color-coordinating the eggs with their hiding places. A violet egg in a clump of violets, a pink egg in a tulip blossom. Darling.

Church was a whirlwind of singing in the choir and pounding out glorious Bach on the organ. (I always bring my A game at Easter.)

After church the kids were pinging off the walls, so I popped Ben-Hur into the DVD player. It turns out this was one of Kathryn’s favorite childhood movies. She was eleven when it first premiered in theaters, and she loved it so much she saw it six times.

I still maintain that there’s no way that Romans tramped around in the desert in full plate body armor. Or sailed on warships that way — full armor, all the time! No wonder they were grumpy and whipping the galley slaves night and day.

The kids loved that chariot race, though. Katie screamed and had to hide under my shoulder. Jeff jumped up and down the whole time. It really is an amazing feat of cinema.

Somehow over the course of Easter weekend our small casual family dinner morphed into a formal holiday sit-down for fourteen. But Brian since was in charge of the meat (grilled lamb leg) and the dessert was made by Sister Costco, the stress levels were down. I didn’t even bother cleaning the house. It was great.

Hooray for springtime, hooray Bach, hooray rebirth, hooray Easter!

My parents decided to spend their Spring Break with me this year. It was a delightful surprise, since their original plans were to take a cruise to Alaska this summer.

You hear that, Alaska? I totally beat you.

This, of course, meant that extra effort was needed to show off Seattle in all its springtime glory. This was pretty easy considering that the cherry blossoms at UW hit their peak this week.

Bask! Bask in the petal snow!

If you’re wondering why the kids are with us, it’s because the school district had a non-student day on Monday. My parents were happy to have a grandchild day right off the bat.

We also took time visiting the Burke Museum of Natural History (this actually happened before the blossoms). It was odd — I’d never realized that my parents hadn’t ever visited the UW campus before. Well, we can check that off the list now.

The best thing we did at the Burke was take turns “flying” in front of this bird mural.

 

We also bought the kids giant apple fritters at the Burke cafe. Have I mentioned how much I love the Burke cafe with its genteel wood paneled walls and paintings and stone fireplace? I’m going to miss it when the new museum is built.

We were starving by the time the cherry blossom time was over (sooooo many multi-generational Japanese-American families! It was adorable!) so I decided to share another Seattle cultural institution and take them to Dick’s Drive-In for lunch.

I warned my parents that the burgers were mediocre, and the fries a travesty. They were happy that I gave them such a warning, because they absolutely agreed with me. I describe Dick’s food as “the best thing to eat for someone who’s been out drinking all night,” and I stand by that. And yet — and yet — there was still multiple long lines of people at the windows! Seattle, I just don’t get you on this one.

After lunch we headed to the Seattle Japanese Garden. I was hoping to see more cherry blossoms, but no luck there. It was still a lovely place to explore. My kids always enjoy going around and around on all the little pathways. Jeff took time to read the self-guided-tour brochure as he scooted around, which I found charming.

Yeah, once we returned home we all collapsed on couches. Oh, and Katie lost a tooth! Her very first. She took time to write a note to the Tooth Fairy, asking her to please leave money but please also leave her tooth behind. I understand — when one of your body parts spontaneously falls off, it’s understandable to not want it carted off in the night by a stranger with supernatural powers. Even if they offer you a cash bribe.

Tuesday morning was spent here at the orthopedics clinic at Children’s Hospital.

I am totally impressed by this place. Beautiful facility, great security, streamlined check-in process. We were only in the waiting room for 30 seconds before Katie was called back to the “casting room,” meaning where you “get casted,” or have a cast put on your broken bones. Orthopedists use the verb “to cast” in their own special way, I’ve learned.

The great thing is that Katie now has an efficient Velcro-strap mini sling which will stay in its darn place without needing me to readjust it every 30 darn seconds.

Once Katie was checked back into school, I took Mom and Dad to the place they always want to go when they come to Seattle: to get bibimbap from the Korean restaurant in the Uwajimaya food court in the International District.

I mentioned this to the guy running the counter at the restaurant, and he was so pleased that he gave us free kimchi. So, thanks Mom and Dad for your consistently dependable tastes in food!

That evening was Astronomy Night at one of the local high schools, and my mom and I took the three younger kids to check it out. I love going to this activity because it’s intended for young children, but hardly any little kids actually go. This year it was organized by one of the youth volunteers from the Library Board, so I was happy to support her. She did a great job!The high school students manning the activity booths are therefore usually very pleased to see my family.

We made planets out of styrofoam balls and old CDs, snagged some free solar eclipse glasses, watched a presentation in the inflatable planetarium, and played an astronomy trivia game against a bunch of teenagers.

William and I were on the same team (“Team FloppyFish”) for the trivia game, and we TOTALLY SCHOOLED everyone. Yes, I do know how many moons Jupiter has, thank you very much.

I needed some office time/errand-running time the next day, so after sending out a bushel of e-mails and phone calls, my parents headed up to Lynnwood with me for an Old Navy/Target run. I bought new clothes for myself for the first time in ever. I’ve lost 40 pounds since Labor Day so the experience was happily un-fraught with the usual anxieties. Yay!

That evening Jeff was awarded his promotion to Star Scout at the Green & Gold Banquet. Brian was also given a surprise award for his volunteer work as YM president, which was very kind.

My dad picked out our Thursday activity, and he picked a good one: touring the Boeing airplane plant up in Everett. I’ve always wanted to do this! It was so cool! It was like watching the assembly of a fifty-million-piece LEGO set.

Boeing doesn’t allow any pictures to be taken on the tour (not for fear of corporate espionage, but because tourists have a history of dropping phones and cameras down on the factory floor) but I found this one on the internet:

We spent a long time that evening watching “Put Together Quick” time-lapse videos of airplane construction. It was so fascinating — just the sheer amount of engineering, planning and coordination between thousands of people to make these machines come together boggles my mind.

On my parents’ last day in town, we headed up to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival to see if there were any blooms in the fields. Well . . . there were some. We were a little on the early side for tulips, but there were some. And the daffodils: whoa.

 

After the gardens, we drove up to Edison. I recently read that there was a really good Mexican taqueria there, and a legendary bakery. It was totally worth the extra bit of a drive. This is the best Mexican food I’ve had since moving to WA state.

And the bakery! OMGosh, I’d read about Breadfarm in magazines and in my friends’ Instagram accounts, and it still managed to exceed my expectations. A little on the pricey side (seriously, $1 for a tiny cookie?) but such high quality.

I bought a package of their homemade graham crackers (since I’d read that this is what they were famous for). They looked like little unassuming brown squares but tasted like crispy wafers of spiced butter.

I intended to just have a couple and share the rest, but instead I merely shared 10 of them and ate the remaining 15 by myself because CARPE DIEM, PEOPLE.

Lastly, on Friday evening my parents were real troopers and came along to watch the Pinewood Derby. Eleanor, William, and Katie all had cars to enter into the competition. We once again had the professional derby-runners getting the show going for us (it goes so much faster it’s wonderful). The decorations were so cute this year!

And amazingly enough, I didn’t get any pictures of my parents at the Derby, which is a shame because they went back home early the next day. But it was a wonderful trip, and I hope they can make it back up to see us sometime soon in the future!

So this happened this week:

On Thursday afternoon Katie fell off a 2′ balance beam on the playground at school and landed on her shoulder. The school nurse saw no swelling or discoloring, and since Katie’s mobility seemed fine, she gave her an ice pack and didn’t think any more of it.

I was volunteering at the school that day, and when Katie ran up and told me about her injury, I had the same reaction as the nurse. But I was suspicious . . . when Katie was still unable to lift her left arm above her shoulder, and cried when she changed her clothes, I knew something was up. Because I had seen this before.

The next day was a whirlwind of doctor visits and x-rays, and yup: “non-displaced fracture of proximal humeral.” This means that the bone is partially broken, which means a sling instead of a cast.

For those of you keeping score, this is the exact same kind of injury in the exact same place on the body as the one Eleanor had at the same age (only Eleanor’s happened two days before Katie’s birth, which made life interesting).

I guess my kids all fall down the same way?

As you can see in the picture above, Katie has her arm in a sling, but also an ACE bandage to keep her arm immobile. We’re scheduled for a visit with an orthopedist at Children’s Hospital, and hopefully they will have the correct kind of sling for her with a built-in-strap. Katie’s always wiggling her sling loose and I’m constantly scooting it around on her body to get it back in place. Katie thinks it’s a fun novelty now, but I think she’s going to be mightily tired of that sling by the end.

In the meantime, the doctor’s orders are to “keep both feet on the ground,” meaning no climbing trees, riding bikes, or going on playground equipment. She has a note excusing her from PE for the next bit, and I’ve gotten a refund on her next session of karate class. I hope she doesn’t go stir-crazy from lack of exercise by the time it’s all over.

In the meanwhile, please enjoy some pictures of Eleanor’s modern dance class! It was parent watch week this past Wednesday.

There are only 2 kids in the class, which made it easy to get a snap of her dancing alone.

It’s looking likely that Eleanor will be coming to the end of her dancing career at the end of the school year. I’m not super-thrilled with this class, and Eleanor doesn’t seem super-committed. But we’ll see.