Happy Fifth Muska!

Emmuska was very excited about her birthday and had been counting down the days until we got there on her calendar. Unfortunately I had gotten sick just a couple of days before her birthday so wasn't feeling up to what we had originally planned on doing. Thankfully Emmuska understood this and took things all in stride. She enjoyed helping make the day special but also understood keeping it a little low key.

Sick or not no birthday is okay without a cake. (I learned this last year when I was miserably sick on my birthday and unable to make my cake...) So Emmuska set to work helping me make her birthday cake. Even if I had been in tip top shape she would have wanted to help - she loves to cook.

Given how much of the process she took care of for me with regards to her cake I feel pretty certain that if I'm sick again this year I can just set her loose in the kitchen and know that I will still get a cake out of the deal. And that is a comforting thought.

And of course all that hard work must be rewarded with the chance to lick off anything that came in contact with the cake batter. (Excluding the cake pans of course.)

She had to wait all day for Mycal to get home so she could open presents. Whenever I think she isn't being patient enough about something I try to remember this (as well as the patience she exhibits regarding Christmas) and know that she's actually doing quite well.

What could this one be?

A tea set from Grandma and Grandpa!

Look how excited Liberty is about this. That pretty sums up all of our feelings about this tea set. We love it! It's a really nice hard plastic set that you can actually use. Emmuska had been throwing little tea parties for months with a really cheap dollar store set. Every time she got it out another piece was broken. This was the perfect replacement.

Grandma and Grandpa also set a cookbook and a couple of baking sets. One for doing cupcakes and and the other for cakes and pies. Emmuska was so excited about them. She keeps going over the recipes trying to figure out which one we can make with the ingredients we have in the house. The cookbook (not pictured sorry) is amazing. It's perfect for kids and a lot of fun. We've made a couple things out of it several times.

After doing presents Emmuska and Liberty had a little tea party while I finished making dinner. This picture makes me laugh because it pretty much sums up the relationship between these two. Emmuska can frequently be found doing something for Liberty that Liberty can (and sometimes would rather) do for herself. Many times Liberty graciously accepts the 'help' as she is doing in this picture. Other times she pitches a royal fit and disallows even Emmuska's shadow to enter her personal bubble. The dynamics of their relationship are so often changing that I'm often baffled and sometimes even frustrated by it but then I'm sure that is very similar to how my relationship was with my sisters growing up.

Back to the tea party. Tea parties around here pretty much go the same way. I make up a thing or two of hot chocolate and put it into the teapot. Then I put milk into the creamer holder (is better word for that dish? I obviously need to study up on my parts of the tea set terminology).

Emmuska serves the tea (hot chocolate) and tops each cup off with a little cream (milk).

We all gently stir the cream into our tea and then delicately sip our tea.

Until Samuel discovers what we are up to and figures out a way to crash the party. Not that he's trying to crash it just that cup mastery is a skill he's still working on.

'Can I scoop the hot chocolate back into the cup?'

'Mmmmm, that's a nice cup 'o tea'

After dinner we did the cake - which of course had to be a piggy cake. The funny thing about the piggy cake this year was that she batted around the idea of doing something else but when it came down to is she still wanted the pig which was very relieving for me as I'm not really sure how I would have done some of the other things (mostly cartoon characters of one sort or another) now I have a year to contemplate any other design I might be able to do if asked. Hey I did make a Dora doll...maybe I could pull something awesome off for next years cake...maybe.

Libster's Third

Praises be sung! Blogger is letting me upload photos tonight which means for your viewing pleasure we have pictures of Liberty's third birthday. It was a pretty exciting day for her. She and Emmuska played nicely pretty much all day (a miracle around here - they usually have some sort of falling out at least once a day...). We all went out in the afternoon to pick up some wrapping paper - where I gave each of the girls a few dollars each so they could buy each other presents. They had so much fun picking things out for each other (or rather for themselves then showing each other what they picked out at which time the other would decide the chosen item would be the one they purchased). We made pizza for dinner and chocolate cupcakes for dessert which we were able to share with Liberty's best friend Abby - something she may have been more excited about than anything else that day...she really loves spending time with Abby.

 Three candles in her princess cupcake (decorated with a dress-up ring to make it princess-y). It's hard to believe she's already three!

She really got into blowing out the candles on her cupcake this year.

Of course it may have taken a few tries but there where a lot of candles! ;) I love how her arms got in on the action to help give her the bodily momentum to finally vanquish those flames. (Actually I love just about everything about this picture from the smoke rising off the candle to her puffed out cheeks and closed eyes - it just has so much fun and happiness captured in it that it makes me smile every time I look at it.)

Finally present time!

You can't see it here but this box housed a doll from her Grandma and Grandpa - the second she got it out of the box she named it Dora and it has been pretty much everywhere Liberty has since she got it. She absolutely loves her 'Dora Baby'.

Which makes this stroller she also got very handy.

That is until Samuel notices it has wheels and is meant to be pushed around at which point he's convinced that it's really supposed to be his and a territory battle ensues. Fortunately generally fights over the stroller are dwindling.

Emmuska modeling her present from Liberty - dress up shoes. Emmuska loves princess dress up stuff so she was very excited about these shoes.

I was really excited about how well the day turned out. Liberty had a great day and loved everything she got - there weren't any meltdown and I managed to make pizza and cupcakes. That's what I call a fabulous day.

Sam-Attack Turns One!

I know this is terribly late (much like my ice cream sandwich post which I have been informed once or twice happened quite some time ago...) But I still wanted to share a couple of pictures from Samuel's birthday.

We didn't do a whole lot for his birthday but Grandma and Grandpa sent out the perfect toy for him to enjoy:

I opened the door to this rather large box a couple of days before Samuel's birthday. I pulled it inside and started to open it and was quickly rushed by three very excited children. When it was evident that Samuel was very interested in 'unwrapping' his gift I asked the girls to let him try.

Considering the truck is almost the same size as he is he did a pretty good job wrestling his gift out of the box.

Of course he had to give it a good visual inspection to ascertain that it was a well built piece of machinery...

Then he saw that I had the camera out so he had to put his inspection on hold to give me one of his grins - I'm beginning to think he and the camera have a relationship - you know the kind where the camera is hopelessly devoted to him and he is casually interested now and then but other times indifferent...yeah I know it's a timeless tale...

Then Emmuska pushed one of the buttons and the thrill of the truck was back - I mean what can possibly compete with truck noises in a little boy's world?

I mean could this boy be any happier about his truck? 

Probably not. 

 And of course we had to do some cake for his birthday. Samuel was very excited about this part of the celebration. He loved the cupcakes and as soon as one was finished he was off to get another one - sometimes by any means necessary. Let's just say Liberty might have lost a cupcake or two...

Happy Birthday Sam-Attack - it's hard to believe it's already been a year. You're getting so big and doing so much. I only hope I can keep up with you throughout the year to come.

The Big Four...

A few days before her birthday I was looking at Emmuska and surprised to see how spindly she has become over the last couple of months. It is as if she lost any remaining baby fat she had in less than two months. (She was definitely chubbier, in that child sort of way, in August than she is now...) While she's no Aurora there's no doubt that she's growing up and into a new phase of life.
I LOVED this picture and was pleasantly surprised with the fact that I managed to get it. On the morning of her birthday Emmuska's grandma called to sing her Happy Birthday. I got my camera out in time to hear SuZan ask Emmuska how old she was. Emmuska started to say three then this look came over her face as she realized that she was now four. It was precious! She absolutely glowed with the realization that she had added a whole year to her life.
I left the gift buying for Emmuska up to Mycal but took her out to spend the money from her Grandparents. I figured we might as well make sure she gets what she wants. (That and part of it was shoes so I had to have her try them on...) Almost more exciting than picking out the gifts was picking out the wrapping paper...and then helping me wrap the presents. There was no way she was going to get left out of this part of the process.
So we snuck into the craft room to wrap presents. (We snuck because I didn't know how much help I could use while still being able to effectively accomplish the task...funny thing was how much Emmuska loved the 'sneaking' part of it all. I thought it was funny because the birthday girl and I were sneaking to wrap her own presents...maybe it's one of those 'you have to be there' things.) There were a couple of presents that I had gotten for Liberty as well at the same time like some jammies and a bib, that Emmuska had gotten as well so I would ask her 'Do you want me to wrap these up and wait for your birthday or do you want to use them now?' Every time the answer was 'Wrap them up! I want to wait until my birthday!' Of course she then asked me everyday until her birthday if she could open them yet but still I was impressed with the patience.
My crowning achievement for the day! Honestly while I'm certain this kind of tactic will be so 'not cool' at some point in the future I'm very pleased with my effort this year. (And it's not just about the looks either...the cake tasted awesome!)
A birthday classic. Better yet has been Emmuska telling me for the last week that she 'blew three candles out with one breath!' A crowning achievement you can be sure.
Since I never got the cupcakes made for Liberty's birthday we had her blow out candles too. We also had our friends over and had their son blow out candles on a cupcake since they will be on the road for his birthday. Something I learned from this birthday is to make sure you have a gift for everybody to unwrap... I hadn't planned properly for that aspect this time around but at least I learned.
I absolutely love how thrilled she is to unwrap these presents. She is so excited over what she will find under the paper despite the fact that she picked it out and wrapped it up. Here she is so surprised and excited over this present even though before she unwrapped it she asked 'Is this my coloring book?' Kids are great!

Liberty's Birthday

I can not believe Liberty's birthday has already come and gone. It really snuck up on me this year. Overall I think it was a rather joyous event - at least she doesn't seem to feel traumatized by the lack of a birthday cake.

One of her gifts was this 'band in a bucket' which has quite naturally been a huge hit as far as she is concerned. She and Emmuska love playing the various instruments which are all quite perfect for her as far as durability and skill go. (Okay I'll admit it...there are a few times I have to retreat to a different corner of the house and this is one toy that does have a 'bed time' for the sake of my sanity.)

She loved what Mycal surprised her (and me) with...here she is giving Tigger a piggy back ride. (Which was after she gave him many kisses...) As you saw in the first picture she loves to dress him up. I'm not sure what it is about his size and shape but he apparently does clothes better than her other stuffed toys as none have received the amount of attention on that front that this guy has. (Yeah there are some other pictures I'll have to upload later...)

I thought that we weren't doing presents for her this year so I didn't do any shopping for her at all. That evening I was trying to make cupcakes (before I realized I didn't have enough sugar...) when Mycal walks in with Candy Land and this Tigger stuffed animal. They have both been huge hits. I'm slightly jealous that Mycal got to do the shopping but at least Liberty was satisfied with the results. (And I got to do a little later on so it was okay.) Liberty hasn't quite mastered the concepts behind Candy Land but she loves to play it with us still (in her own way). It has been a fun addition to the activities of the house (and a little more quiet than the bucket o' band).

Here she is giving Tigger some love. I'm impressed with how much she likes this animal...she just never struck me as a Tigger sort of gal.

And playing Candy Land with Tigger. (Her preferred non-parental game partner as he doesn't try to dominate the game...) She also got a lovely pair of sneakers that Emmuska calls her 'Care Bear sneakers' because the hearts on them look a lot like the Care Bear hearts. (My children might be too exposed to commercialized products...) I was actually quite impressed with the connection as she's right they really do look like Care Bear hearts but there isn't any other Care Bear-ish image anywhere near them so it's pretty good on her to remember the image and make that connection. She also got new jammies and a fun Mickey Mouse bib (yeah she picked it out but I'm thrilled about it too...hopefully we save some shirts and I'm saved from spending my entire meal retying the kitchen towel around her neck.) She will be getting a couple more presents on Emmuska's birthday, saved so that 1) Emmuska doesn't make off with them before she gets her own and 2) Liberty has something to open and doesn't get upset and or try to steal Emmuska's new things. Yeah it's a delicate balance with these two but generally we make it work. ;)

Celebrating

I absolutely love my birthday. I look forward to it each year. When I was a little younger I used to have an exact countdown from the first of the year to my birthday and would (honestly) tell everybody I talked to how many days away it was. Mind you that wasn't all that long ago. Since then I have mellowed in my approach realizing that most people probably don't really want to know when there are 87 days to my birthday. I'm not quite sure what exactly it is that I so love about my birthday. It isn't really about me getting older because - let's face it there aren't exactly any new rites of passage with age for me anymore. I don't think that it's really about the presents or the cake - although those are always so much fun and much appreciated (okay it might be a little about the cake...) I think what I really love about my birthday is that it is my special day to celebrate me. For twenty four hours I get to revel in the fact that (in my mind anyway) everything is honoring my existence, my contribution to life. I think that in some way I really let myself appreciate all that I am and manage to do and how important I am. It's something that can be easy to forget in the insanely busy life of moving here, fixing that, going to this and making sure I get all my school work done on top of everything else. So I love the chance to sit back and really see how much what I do matters.

This year was wonderful. It ended up being a really nice birthday. I missed Mycal and it would have been more fun if I'd been able to do something with him too, but as it was I had a completely enjoyable birthday doing things I love to do with people I enjoy being around. The elements favored me so it was a gorgeous day. Grandpa watched Emmuska and Liberty was extraordinarily bright and happy. It was a wonderful day and it felt like almost everyone and everything was celebrating it with me.