Pizza and Pink - Ruthie Turns 2

When Ruth Caroline was born during the wee hours of the day after Christmas, it was just perfect.  The holidays (and a horrible stomach bug) had kept my mind off wondering when the baby would be born and she made her appearance right toward the beginning of my sister's week in town with us.  It did, however, add another day of joy to a week already cluttered up with birthdays and his/hers family celebrations!

At 2, though, Ruthie hardly has any idea what a birthday is, much less what she wanted for hers, so like last year, we kept things simple:  made a cake, ordered pizza and invited ALL the relatives in for supper at Grammy's house.  :)  (Thanks to Grandma B and Aunt Heidi for rounding out our meal with salad and yummy brie appetizers!)

She chowed down that pizza.  :)  Poor kid was a bit tired . . . we had spent the afternoon playing at the state park and Ruthie only got a brief nap.

Table full of cousins.  :)

She liked having the cake in front of her . . . having it taken away to be cut was a sore disappointment!  (And everyone else seemed to enjoy eating the chocolate and vanilla checkerboard more than she.)

Opening some of her gifts . . . Mommy and Daddy gave her her own "Mimmie" placemat and baby backpack.

It was a perfect party--everyone Ruthie loves in one room for an hour and a half.  Presents, food, fun, a pretty pink bow which we've already lost

After the Burchett half of the family left, we looked around the room and suddenly felt very small.  It was such a special Christmas and birthday . . . this group may not be replicated again for a while.  

Pancakes and Princesses - Gemma's 4th Birthday

Well over a month ago, our big girl turned 4.  If I think about that fact too much, I just about start to cry, so let's focus on the happy things and talk about her birthday party!

After going through the (75!) pictures from that afternoon/evening, I concluded that there's more to tell than show . . . not too many winners in that batch of photos.  

Back in the summer, I shared a picture on facebook of Gemma cleaning my baseboards with a toothbrush, and John's cousin suggested that her next birthday should be Cinderella-themed.  Perfect idea! Cinderella is actually Gemma's favorite princess, for the simple reason that the Disney Cinderella wears a blue dress!  (Gemma's favorite color is blue and other than reading a few fairy tales, she doesn't really know the stories.)

I had some ideas for the party brewing for a few weeks, but actually threw it all together in just a few days. With two daughters born in December, that's the way things seem to happen . . . maybe I'll get better at the planning as the years go on.

Four other little girls arrived on a Saturday afternoon to a table set up with jewels, sequins, and glitter-glue to decorate crowns I had traced onto posterboard and cut out the night before.  It was a good little activity to keep them busy while everyone else arrived. Lesson #1 learned: Glitter glue takes forever to dry! I had wanted to the girls to be able to wear their crowns later in the party, but that didn't work at all.  One of the party guests had brought some glitter markers, though, and if we'd only used those (and maybe stick-on jewels), then that probably would have worked.

We moved to the living room to do our Cinderella chores.  :)  I had a basket of dusters waiting for them, and we cued up the "work song" on youtube.  This kept them busy for about . . . 2 minutes :)  while my sister, Heidi, and I frantically tried to transform the dining room into a ballroom by taping dollar-store plastic tablecloths to the ceiling!

We then improvised a little bit.  Heidi threw on a blanket, one of the Elsa wigs, and found a fairy wand in her car(!!) and made an entrance as the fairy godmother, directing the girls to hunt for the four little pretend mice (from John's childhood knick-knack collection) and two mini pumpkins (leftover from autumn) which I had hidden around the living room.  Another fun acitivity, during which we cued up "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo!" Lesson #2:  Put together the youtube list ahead of time!

At this point, I had envisioned the girls getting into their princess dresses and crowns to be all ready for the ball, and I had set up Gemma's little princess tent in a corner with the extra dresses we had (and some of our guests brought), but let's face it--all the girls showed up already dressed up, including my own daughter. ;) Despite the lacking "transformation" element, they all seemed to enjoy dancing around the dining room. There were some daddy/daughter couples, some circling, and some freestyle ballet moves, all to the dance song from Cinderella and some Bach thrown in for good measure.

(Apparently I forgot to take my apron off!)

When they tired of that, we pushed the table back into the middle of the room, sang "Happy Birthday" and served the uber simple menu of cupcakes and fruit wands. The fruit wands were dowels with star fruit on the ends, something I'd seen on Pinterest. Afterward, there were several princess plates with cupcakes that merely had their buttercream licked off and Gemma was the only one who chowed down her star fruit, but at least the birthday girl was happy!

Honestly, that probably wasn't enough activity for a party, since this whole sequence lasted under an hour, but the girls free-played and changed dresses a lot while we waited for their parents to come and started making dinner. At the library a few days later, Gemma magically picked out a Disney CD called "Happy Birthday Princess" which had a musical chairs game and fun Belle pretending game on it. They would have been great additions (Though maybe they would have been a bit beyond some of our little guests.)

Now for the pancakes part! When I asked Gemma Grace what she wanted for her birthday dinner, she repeatedly requested pancakes, leaving me a bit befuddled. Pancakes followed by birthday cake? What about vegetables and protein? What about filling up the tummies of her daddy and uncles?  (Gemma was privileged to have four aunts and uncles and two cousins within driving distance and able to come for her birthday! Now, the army has moved or is in the process of moving them all away, so it was a very special birthday!)

Many folks gave encouragement and suggestions on Facebook, and I eventually settled on this menu:

Spinach salad with pomegranate, apples, and carmelized almonds

Buttermilk pancakes (I use the recipe from Southern Living.)

Homemade chunky applesauce 

Cottage cheese

Bacon (We made a big tray of it in the oven.)

I wish I'd made her special Mickey pancakes or something, but we had 10 at our table and it was a little crazy. Thankfully Heidi and Liz helped me with the dinner immensely--I heated two cast iron pans on the stove and mixed up a double batch of batter, but Liz cooked all those pancakes for me! And Heidi did the bacon, salad, and generally helped me not to feel overwhelmed.

We all felt satisfied with that meal, especially the birthday girl, whose opinion mattered the most that day. ;) Then we brought out the cake--chocolate with "white" buttercream. :) I'd just made one layer, using the rest of the batter for half a dozen cupcakes for the princess party.

And that funny kid took forever trying to blow her candles out. She even tried using her nose for a while! But she eventually got them all by herself!

Then it was time for giggles and presents and cousin-love. :)

Everyone else delighted Gemma's heart by giving her very on-theme Disney gifts--a Frozen paint set, "glass" slippers, and even a birthday ball book!

But from mommy and Daddy she got some boring clothes (including a pink Duke shirt!) and homemade bunny slippers. ;)

And Daddy gave Gemma a new little stuffed Minnie that she'd wanted from Walgreens but couldn't have. She'd been disciplined for throwing such a fit over being told "no," but then he went back and bought it secretly to save for a gift.

That was Gemma's 4th birthday-to-remember! We love you loads, big girl!!

The Causeway Coast - Ireland, Day 5

It's been a while since I've written about Ireland or anything . . . but I do want to finish this little series!

Day 5 was Monday, our first full day living on the North Coast, and it was one of our most favorite days.  :)  Picking up from my trip journal:

"Ruthie was up at 6:30 despite the tiring previous day. John sweetly took her to Spar for groceries, however, and let me sleep until at least 8. We had cereal for breakfast and hung out until our guides April and Tim showed up.  

Had some quick tea before driving over to Bushmills to walk a 2-mile trail along a train track to Giant's Causeway.  [This is where it really helped to know some locals. :)  Rather than driving straight to the Causeway and paying for parking, we left our rental at a free spot on the street, got to enjoy the quaint little town and a truly beautiful walk to our destination.  There's also a tourist train for those who'd rather not walk both ways (or at all).]

[Creek running through Bushmills, near where we parked our car.]

"We had picked up sandwiches at a shop hoping to eat on the rocks, but as it began to rain lightly, we stopped and ate at the tourist train station instead before continuing our walk.  

[Before the rain hit, the coast came into view, and we couldn't help but stop to play in some of the dunes!  This is another strong memory I have of Ireland from 7 years ago . . . the chilly water, smooth shore, towering dunes with skirt-like grasses growing in clumps.  Sliding down into hidden valleys of sand . . . :)]

 

[Tim looking like an explorer. :)]

[April and Tim . . . fearless guides and gracious friends.  :)]

  

[Some of my favorite photos are from John's iPhone, and this is one of them!  I suspect that a lot of it is because he's just better at photography than me (knows more, more experience, etc.).]

"It was a good decision; almost all our time on the Causeway was very soggy.  The girls did remarkably well in their rain coats, clambering up the rocks or alternately riding in our packs.  It was fun, though we had to cut it a bit short.  

[Intrigued by this apparent graffiti from the 19th century!]

"Ruthie finally lost it as we began the walk back, and we spent a good bit of time in the train station warming up by the coal fire and drinking coffee (or nursing, in the baby's case).  The sun came out for our walk back and then we drove home.

The two other couples hung out at the house before walking to dinner in town, but we fed the kids some quick pasta and got them in bed. Played   a game of hearts with Sarah and Logan when they got back and Logan entertained us with riddles!  Then we went to bed a bit late.