Genetics is some freaky stuff....

Lulu has been very interested in death and dying lately.  The grandfather of one of her classmates at school died suddenly in his sleep earlier this spring and Myra was very close to him and took it really hard (not wanting to go to sleep and nightmares when she did manage to fall asleep).

And while we were in Europe, the grandmother of my best friend from elementary school passed away from heart issues.  It was especially poignant because Shannon's mother is already dead from breast cancer, so she viewed her grandmother as the last link to her mother.  Once we got home, I sat down to write a condolence note and Lulu was very interested in what I was doing--what was I writing, who was I writing to, why did the grandmother die, etc.

And periodically since then, we have had conversations, always in the car as I'm driving no less, about death and dying.  She now knows that both of my grandfathers are dead and that all of Daddy's grandparents are dead.  This afternoon, she wanted to know why Nanny wasn't dead (sorry, Nan!) and predicted it would be in a "few weeks."  I quickly answered that I hoped not!

Morbid little kid, isn't she?

They are also learning about family relationships in school and she's been fascinated to learn that Umpapa and MauMau are my parents and Opa and Oma are Daddy's parents and that Nanny is MauMau's mutti.

So, after her (hopefully incredibly false) prediction, she turned her attention to Umpapa's parents as we drove to Whole Foods.

"Are Umpapa's mommy and daddy gestorben (dead), Mommy?"
"Yes, Baby.  Sie sind (they are) gestorben."
"Why?"
"Well, they were very, very old, not strong, and sick."  (this was in German, but I'm translating)

After I parked the car in the parking lot, I had an opportunity to turn around and talk with her face-to-face and this is what I saw:

the crazy hair was her own idea--she wanted LOTS of pony tails this morning

I wish I had a photo for comparison's sake, but this is classic Grandpa Dan (my Dad's dad).  He used to peer out at you from over the top of his glasses, just like this.  And more often than not, his eyes were in a skeptical squint, too.

I miss him, but it warms my heart to know that at least a part of him lives on....whether she knows where she gets it (or not).

Dancing Queen

Lulu is turning into quite the exhibitionist, as you can see from the chairs that she demanded we sit on and watch her while she danced this weekend.  The music is Led Zepplin's first album (Daddy's choice) and the mechanical whir you hear in the background is Mommy's ice cream maker (homemade chocolate chip ice cream FTW!).

The dancing, however, is ALL her.

Random Photos from my iPhone

These are just some random photos I've taken of Lulu over the past week or so with my iPhone that I thought I'd share.  Apologies for the picture quality--these were snapped on the fly.

wearing her new butterfly (!!?!) birthday dress from Tante Hellen

cutting up strawberries for a smoothie

don't worry--it's with a butter knife!

see?

someone dressed herself that day (including the headband)

dirty face from a S'mores chocolate cupcake

someone's idea of interior decorating with leftover bandanas from her birthday party...

quite talented, eh?

enjoying ice cream at Whole Foods with Mama

I asked her to open her eyes and this was the best I got.

crazy hair day at school:  she wanted pony tails and lots of clippies in her hair

LOTS of clippies!

"Lulu, why are you wearing a glove?"
"So, Dido can't scratch me."

Play us a song, Piano Man!

Merryhill had a small potluck and concert last night for the kids.  I think it sort of snuck up on everyone because there was a smaller crowd than last year (or so I was told because we weren't there last year).  It was a potluck dinner and everyone brought food.  I just went to Whole Foods and bought some Quinoa Slaw from the deli case and we also brought the leftover ice cream from Lulu's birthday party last weekend.  Someone else brought cupcakes and they were a big hit with our resident Little Miss Sweet Tooth!

After dinner, there was dancing and music!

Lulu and her friend Myra

someone didn't enjoy getting singled out to sing happy birthday

reminds me of Woodstock pictures....

I forgot my camera, so all of these photos were taken with my iPhone (apologies for the poor quality on a few of them!).

Presents at the Afterparty

So, once everyone left the pony party and we finished helping Laurie clean up and put away tables, chairs, etc., Gropius and I headed home to put together our "Afterparty" for later that evening.

 First up was a 20-30 minute resting period after being in the heat for that long.

 Then, we got moving. I went to the store and got last-minute groceries while Gropius prepped the burgers. We had bacon-brie burgers on brioche buns and a tasty red onion compote. Other than that, it was just potato chips, grilled corn and a tasty pink lemonade sangria. Emphasis on simple food, prepared well, with lots of conversation.

 We had several of the same folks over from our guest list to the pony party earlier that day:
 Derek & Hellen
Todd, Delia, & Max
Tim, Melissa, Jamison, & Patrick
Tina & Shaya, now joined by Karsten

 And some additional friends who wouldn't have enjoyed the pony party/lots of small, screaming children but who wanted to help celebrate Lulu's birthday with us:

 Garth & Deb (Melissa's parents and Lulu's surrogate in-town grandparents)
Auntie Kate & Uncle David from next door

 I had baked a third (??!) birthday cake earlier in the week (in addition to the two dozen cupcakes I took to Merryhill--yeah, you do the math!), but I went easy on myself and just made my personal favorite: double-decker yellow cake with dark chocolate frosting. After dinner, we busted that one out so Lulu could blow out her candles. Gropius cute slices while Lulu opened presents. Then, it was just more conversation til folks went home and Gropius and I patted ourselves on the back for surviving the day and went to bed!

Auntie Kate, Tina, Hellen, and Deb enjoying the pre-dinner drinks....

Baby J, Lulu, and Shaya enjoying the bubble gun w/o bubbles--go figure!

birthday cake and candles

Lulu has figured out you're supposed to read the cards first!

looking for all the hidden 4s in Shaya's birthday card to Lulu....

looking at her new book from Auntie 'Lissa

Opening her presents from Oma and Opa:

stagecoach!

Vielen Dank, Oma und Opa!

Who knew I could make such (unintentional) silly faces?

You can see all the Playmobil on the table.....

a castle with unicorns!!

a present from Tante Hellen and Onkel Derek

The biggest hit of the night though was the 10 cent noisemaker Hellen put on her present. Man, did I regret showing them how it made noise!

what is this??

Shaya's funny!

So funny!

Baby J got in on the fun, too

Mama and Daddy saved their present for last.......

Wow!!!!!

This is a 20" bike--the only size that will fit--crazy, huh?

Whoooa!

Pretty awesome!

taking it for a spin around the backyard.....

Ponies, OMG, Ponies!!!!!

We had Lulu's fourth birthday party yesterday.  We ended up holding it jointly with her "best" friend from Merryhill, Sam(antha), whose mother I knew through Junior League.  It turns out that Sam's parents wanted to have pony rides at Sam's birthday and the only day that was available was Saturday, August 11th--Lulu's birthday.  Since their birthdays are so close (Sam's is Aug 16th), Laurie and I decided that we'd just share the day so Sam would have her ponies and Lulu would get to have her birthday with Sam--the only friend she requested to be on the guest list from Merryhill.

Hellen tells me that through an informal poll of all her friends, apparently I'm a saint for agreeing to share Lulu's birthday esp on a Saturday since that's prime birthday real estate on the social calendar.  I just figured it was a win-win and would make Lulu happy.  If it's good karma, hopefully the universe will pay it forward....?

However, because of the joint nature of the party on Saturday morning, Gropius and I decided to have a second get-together (with most of the same folks) at our house that evening.  I am adamant about there only being as many guests as the age of the guest of honor, so in this case 4 guests + Lulu was my limit.  I like to keep our parties intimate so everyone has a chance to visit and enjoy each others' company.  With Laurie's guest list, we ended up with ~11 children and 25 adults.  Waaay too big for my comfort.

So, everyone came back together at our house that evening, minus Sam and her family, for burgers, more cake, and present-opening.  Laurie and I agreed not to do present-opening at the "pony party" to eliminate any potential conflict (who got more/larger presents) and boredom (having to watch two little girls open presents?).

The only complication was the weather--it was hawt in Sacramento yesterday.  Super HAWT!  As in 104F (40C) at 6pm hawt.  Luckily, there was plenty of shade for the "pony party" and everyone stayed inside at our house.  I guess those are the breaks when you're born in August, eh?  Anyway, I mention that as explanation for why everyone looks a little wilted and shiny in the photos.  Just keep in mind it felt like opening an oven every time we opened a door outside...

For the party, I sewed several flag garlands with red/white gingham fabric and red/white/blue polka dots and stars and brought a bale of straw from the feed store (to the detriment of my car trunk's interior) for the kids to sit on while they waited for their turn to ride the ponies.  I also found a cute western-themed "dig for gold" game:  I filled a tub with sand and buried gold-painted pebbles and plastic "diamonds" in it for the kids to find.  After the party, we took the straw home for the rabbit/garden and emptied the sand (gold/jewels and all) into Lulu's sandbox.  And I can re-use the flag garlands next summer for July 4th.

set up for guests on the patio

digging for gold ready to go!

As the kids arrived, we had cowboy hats, bandanas, and little pin-on sheriff name badges for them to put on as they went outside to play games and on Sam's swing-set.

Lulu and Shaya on the swing-set

Uncle Tim and Baby Patrick

Baby J and Lulu

Shaya searching for gold

L-R:  Tina, Hellen, Gropius, and Derek look appropriately western

The other major contribution I made to the party was baking and decorating both birthday cakes.  Originally, Laurie had planned on a My Pretty Pony theme with LOTS of pink and purple but that made my husband throw up in his mouth a little bit, so we figured out that a western theme would be cute and still pony-centric.  But, I wanted Sam to have her My Pretty Pony moment, so her cake was purple with pink mane/tail while Lulu's was a traditional paint pony.

   

Once Happy Birthday was sung (twice), we cut the cake and served ice cream indoors.  As you can imagine, given the heat, the ice cream was melting pretty fast, but the cakes held up beautifully and everyone was happily munching/slurping away.

Sam and Lulu

The major highlight of the party was the arrival of the horses.  Laurie and I planned the party to run for two hours (11am-1pm) and the horses were smack in the middle of it (11:30am-12:30pm), leaving us with a half hour before and an after for games and cake/ice cream.  So smart!

The Birthday Girls!

the ponies even look angelic, don't they?

Shaya was SO excited when she figured out that she could ride the ponies as MUCH as she wanted!

All in all, the party was a success--everyone went home with horse/western themed goody bags as they left and we were done with party clean-up by about 1:30pm.  Can't beat that!  

Especially when you have another party to put together in four hours......