A Coupla More Birthdays

This is that wondrous month when we have three birthdays every week for three weeks in a row.  My birthday on the 23rd was pleasantly uneventful.  I got to go to my improv class while leaving Adora in the dark with the whole crew as we lost power that evening.  The kids spent the day actually trying to be nice instead of showing me how many ways I am capable of blowing my cool which is my usual birthday m.o.  I had my birthday dinner the following night - made myself stromboli and was surprised with a new vacuum cleaner and some pyrex.  I haven't had a vacuum in years so I spent the better part of a day going around the house and sucking things up.  It was divine.

The following week was Miriam's big 17 (ACK!) which she celebrated the day Sandy hit the shore.  At 5:00 we were rapidly assembling tacos and just as the meal hit the table we lost power for the next three days.  So I have no pictures of her blowing out candles in the dark but who needs light with all that firepower to light up the night? In spite of our best efforts to explain to her that we had gone to great pains to get her a hurricane for her birthday, she was much happier with the Disney Princess accessories.

Today is Ben's birthday and following the new trend in birthdays, he was absent for his as well.  He spends two days and a night each week at "boarding school" with his aunt Beth.  Last I heard she was fixing him his favorite Aunt Beth meal and some apple dumplings.  Lucky dog will get chicken potpie at home tomorrow with  candles in his pumpkin pies for dessert.  He still has to wait an extra day to get the gift he picked out and for which he gave me the link.  This birthday shopping in the 21st century is a bit anti-climactic that way.




Happy Birthday to my Girly Girl and my Bestest Ben!  Love you two to pieces!

Remember Remember...Again

It now seems to be a well-established tradition that our family celebrate Guy Fawkes Day in spite of absolutely no British ties whatsoever.  What started out as a quirky homeschool assignment has ended up several years later as Family Tradition.  Since we don't celebrate Halloween (and not necessarily for the most obvious reasons - who has time to costume 13 people to go about to strangers' houses and collect candy so full of artificial crapola I would never let them eat it anyway - not that they would want to...but I digress...) - we have taken to adopting this way fun holiday as a prelude to the 6th of November which is Ben's Birthday.

A few days before the 5th the kids all start working on crafting their effigies.  Miriam's is always a hoot.  The first year we celebrated she mistook Fawkes for Fox and created a fox-like being for her effigy.  I'm pretty sure several years later she now gets that he's not really a fox but persists in her animal-like effigy creations anyway.  It's all part of the family culture now.

The morning of the 5th I get up and stuff my pockets full of candy and pennies.  All throughout the day the kids approach me with their faux Fawkes and ask A penny for my Guy? and are given a penny or a treat.  They have until darkness rolls around to collect before we build the bonfire and toss those Guys in there.  Watching them burn is a favorite activity followed by caramel apples and sparklers.  We see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot!