8th Birthday Moments

On Thursday, Fiona turned eight. EIGHT. She's a delightful blend of young heart and old soul. The same few minutes will find her sweetly taking care of Yogi and pushing every button to aggravate her sister. She's full-on sass and we are working on some back-talk issues (ugh!). But it is so much fun talking about bigger issues with her and discovering the world through her eyes. She has a heart for social justice in the world and will do big things.

We've been bugging Fiona for a few weeks to decide what she wanted for her birthday. She's really been struggling to think of something. I offered up getting her ears pierced. She asked if it hurt. I told her it did. She decided to wait on that. And somehow trumped what I thought was my ace. Foiled.

The day before her birthday, I asked her (yet again) what she wanted. She smiled sweetly and told me she knew. Then she said, "I want you to surprise me, mama. I know it will be great." DANG IT! And less than 24 hours to be great. I was feeling foiled again. I wracked my brain all day at work and finally had a light bulb. She's been bugging me for a robe. Thanks to Google, I found a beautiful soft blue and purple fair isle print robe in her size. I wouldn't have it on her birthday, but I could show her a picture. It was perfect.

I was just about to hit the purchase button when I remembered that Q and D have also been asking for robes. So I figured I may as well order robes for them too. I could give them the robes at Christmas. Then my brain decided that it seemed weird to give F a robe for her special birthday gift and then give her sibs the same gift at Christmas. I overthought on that for a few hours. Long story long, I bought three robes. For Christmas presents. And still had no.birthday.present.

I was honestly about to give up and admit to Fiona that I had nothing spectacular up my sleeve. Then I remembered that I was holding another ace. Quinn. I asked Quinn what Fiona wanted. She didn't hesitate and said "the Barbie ambulance." I asked why F didn't tell me that. Q said "because she knows we already have a ton of Barbie stuff. But she really wants it." Good enough for me. A quick look on my Target app, a couple clicks, and one Barbie ambulance was waiting for me to pick up at the EP store next to my office. When I told Mike what we got her, he said "oh yeah. She's been telling me she wants that for over a month." No, I didn't hit him. Yes, I really wanted to. [The squeals of delight when she opened it tell me that I did, in fact, "do great." Amen for Quinn!]

There was quite a to-do at school for her birthday. She pretended to hate it and clearly loved every single bit of it. She wore a birthday hat all day that her teacher made her; her name was on the morning announcements (and Q got to tell her class that it was her sister); and F's class made her a "birthday star" book. It was actually super cute. Each classmate wrote her a little birthday message and drew a picture and her teacher put it together in a book.

As the girls were looking over it, Fiona proudly showed Quinn what her friend Liam had written. Quinn assessed both the message and the picture carefully. Her verdict: "Liam loves you." Fiona got all red-faced and giggly and then their voices dropped into some super secret sister conversation and I couldn't hear them. I'm trying my very best to ignore that particular piece of the turning eight puzzle!

As a family, we've been watching the revival of Double Dare on Nickelodeon. Mike and I were huge Double Dare fans growing up, so we thoroughly enjoy watching it now with our kids. We all think that being a contestant would be about the best thing ever. Fiona has told me that she would love to be my partner and that our team name would be "Super V Girlpower." She asked me very seriously if I would be okay getting messy and full of slime. I told her I would enjoy every minute of it. She liked that answer! Of all the kids, she enjoys the trivia part of the show the most - and is starting to get a few questions right. She also really likes that the host is short - and owns it. A good role model for her.

When Fiona has free time, odds are that she is playing Barbies or reading. The basement is a constant state of Barbie disaster and she has a minimum of four books going at all times (I currently count five in the living room. Who know how many are in her room). My cousins gave her a bag of books at her birthday party and she had finished five of them in under a week. I told her that she needs to move away from graphic novels - simply because we can't afford how fast she reads them.

Her very favorite is Babysitter's Club. She reads the graphic novel version, but I may try to find a couple used copies of the originals - to give her a bit more of a challenge and to see if it takes her a little longer to read it. While she hates her math homework every night, she does not fight us on the 20 minutes of reading that she is supposed to do!

And that, my friends, is eight. It is all the things big and little mixed together into an incredibly fun, sweet, and sassy package.

Finally, it's not a birthday post without answers to the annual questions:

Favorite color: Blue
Favorite friend: Evelyn
Favorite show: Newsies
Favorite book: Babysitter's Club
Favorite food: Macaroni and cheese (not mac and cheese. she very specifically said macaroni)
Favorite thing to do: Art projects
Be when you grow up: Vet

Finishing Out the Summer

I had high hopes to finish our summer recaps before Fiona's birthday. So close ... But here you go - the last post about Summer 2018.

This summer was a good one! With a team of 7, 5, and 4 year olds, we were able to pack in the adventures and fun. The kids occasionally ask for a baby sibling and we keep telling them that a) no and b) a baby would cramp our style. While Dec will still take a nap, he doesn't need to every day (and we are trying to get him used to not taking one before kindergarten starts). So for the first time in eight years, we were not bound by a nap schedule. And we were not sad about it! In fact, we might say that we made the most of it!

We always have a bit of doctor appointment roulette at the end of summer with Q's well check, three specialty eye doctor appoinments, and an endocrinology appointment for Fiona. I got them all scheduled for the last week of August - and then found out I needed to go to Texas for work that week. I was able to arrange my flights so that I could do Dec's eye appointment and F's endo appointment and still make the late flight. Then Mike just had to do the girls' eye appointments on his own.

The great news was that all appointments went incredibly well. Fiona's endocrinology appointment went so well that we got kicked out of endo! We love getting kicked out a specialty appointments. She is still under 1% for height - but her growth velocity is right in the middle of the chart. She is averaging just over 2 inches a year, which is a perfectly acceptable growth rate. As long as her velocity stays at a good rate, we're good. [Sidenote: Q informed F that she is taller than her now. As expected, it has not gone over particularly well ... sigh ...]

My Texas trip was hot. Like so incredibly hot. I was a little afraid I would melt. The work part was fine. But the best part was getting to have dinner with three of my favorite ladies. One is a current co-worker and two are former co-workers. We had the best time catching up over Mexican food and margaritas. And while I was down south, my parents came south too - to hang with the girls for a day while Nanny J danced in a parade at the State Fair.

I got home from Texas in time to go with my parents and sister to Fort Snelling to do the inurnment for my grandma. It's been almost a year since she passed. And I'm not going to lie, we liked having her and her pretty pink urn in my mom's kitchen. The kids loved saying hello to her and the rest of us enjoyed having her around. We briefly considered bringing a fake urn - but figured, ultimately, she'd want to be with Grandpa. All my mom's siblings and several of my cousins made it for the inurnment. We had a late lunch together after the service and had fun catching up as we are spread all over the country!

Our Labor Day weekend was really low key. We got lots done around the house, readied the final things for school, and just hung out with each other. We did decide to go to ValleyFair, but severely underestimated the heat. We were there less than an hour and the kids all asked to go home because they were so hot. However, as we were walking out, they asked to stand in the the path of The Wave ride. We typically don't let them because then they will be soaked for the rest of our time there. But since we were all hot and leaving anyway, we said "why not." And let me tell you - that was a highlight of the summer. They loved it and stood there for several rounds of the ride. Once they were sufficiently soaked, we headed home for dry clothes and air conditioning.

We ended the holiday weekend with a visit to the original Ms. A and her family. And had our annual "back to school" dinner with the neighbors (even though school didn't start until Thursday, I can pull off a dinner better on Monday than Wednesday). In the midst of that, we sold our double stroller. We are officially stroller-less!!! It seemed fitting that one more vestige of babydom rolled out of here at the end a summer where we ditched training wheels, life jackets, and naps.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

We are all about balance around here ... or we at least try. So the day after the girls and I went to Newsies, we took advantage of Gma and Gpa still being around and all went to the Twins game. I got four tickets through a work recognition perk in the Legends Club (which is my dad's favorite place to watch a game). So Grandpa found us three more tickets online and off we went.

My seats were in the fourth row and Gpa had three seats in the front row. Fiona happily waltzed down to the front to provide some entertainment for Grandma. Lucky for Gma and Gpa, no one sat next to them ... so at one point, they had all three kids down next to them. Not sure how that was for Grandpa's ability to watch the game, but Grandma and the kids were tickled by it.

It was, unfortunately, a pretty slow game and the ball was not in play very often. That meant that three wiggly little bodies had a hard time sitting still. We did some walking to look at all the memorabilia. I taught Fiona about Kirby Puckett - and she asked all kinds of questions about the images of Twins greats on the wall.

Maybe she was inspired by her wardrobe ... I had loaned her my favorite Twins shirt, which happens to have been my grandpa's shirt. She proudly sported Great Grandpa's shirt - and couldn't wait to show it to her own grandpa. It was definitely too big, but not nearly as too big as I wanted it to be on her!

The kids successfully made it five innings, including a Twins homerun (and fireworks) and several hot dogs. The trio claimed they didn't want to leave (some small ones may have wailed), but they also couldn't sit still anymore. For the sake of Grandpa and letting him actually watch the game, we called the game.

They are already talking about next season. Maybe we'll even make it through seven innings next year!

It's a Fine Life ...

Carrying the banner. A mighty fine life, carrying the banner through it all ...

We've sure been carrying the banner for Newsies here the last few weeks. You cannot say that we have not taken advantage of Mike working at the theater this summer! It's been all Newsies, all the time. We've seen the play (some of us multiple times), we listened to the soundtrack on repeat (thank you, Google Home), and we've finally (according to Fiona) watched the movie. 

Fiona says it's her favorite movie. Ever. Declan wants to be Jack Kelly, while insisting his favorite newsie is Crutchie (the fact that I told him that the actor who played Jack Kelly also played Batman ... hello, Christian Bale ... may play a part in that). When you call for Quinn, she will occasionally enter a room and say "Never fear. Brooklyn's here." To say they are fans is in understatement. To say I don't hate it is also an understatement. 

The girls got their first Newsies experience the weekend after we got back from GR. We've had the tickets since February and were going with Gma, Gpa, and Auntie. It was Q's first play at the dinner theater and both she and I were nervous about her ability to sit still that long. She was a little wiggly, but did really well. It did not hurt that we had amazing seats and one of the sweet newsies (Race) kept making eye contact with her. She really loved that! 

At one point during the show, they threw balled up newspapers into the audience. Race threw his right at Q and it bounced off the top of her head. Fiona also had a newspaper bounce off hers. Cute blondes in the front are irresistible. At another point of the play, when Medda was out in the audience, she snuggled up to Grandpa. Apparently cute grandpas are irresistible too!

Fiona and Auntie lived their best lives during the play and were so over the top happy when it was done. They both thought maybe they'd just stay there and see if they could sneak into the evening show. We didn't let them, to their chagrin. Q and I boogied out ASAP at the end because she had to go to the bathroom. When we were done in the bathroom, we ran into a couple of the actors on their way out. Q played it cool but thought it was pretty awesome. Auntie and Fiona were NOT pleased that we hadn't kidnapped the newsies for them!

Also not pleased ... Declan. You have to be five to go to Kindergarten and five to go to the theater ... he's not a fan of these rules! However, D had an ace in the hole. Daddy. That Wednesday, Mike had secured tickets for the two of them to go to the Director's Room for the matinee. Dec was so excited to have a boy's date and truly enjoyed the first half of the show. At intermission, he asked to go home. It's tough on a dude to miss nap. Maybe there was something to that five rule ...

On the girls' last official day of summer vacation, they ended up going to work with Mike. Nanny J was already back in school and we were just trying to piece together coverage with the late start in S-town. Somehow the girls managed to get themselves invited to the Director's Room for the matinee and spent their final day of summer watching the show one more time. Fiona was in heaven! And Quinn was glad to have the ability to move around during the show! 

I may or may not have seen it for the third time this week with my sister (who also desperately wanted to go again and was pretty jealous of the girls' encore viewing) and my friend Wally and his boyfriend Matt. It was not a responsible choice on a crazy busy week - but was SO much fun. Much needed irresponsible behavior!

I think we may be done watching the play at the theater. But as I had to go silence "Jack, Crutchie, and Davey" in the bedroom tonight, we may be carrying the banner for a while longer here at home. 

The Party and The Park

Real truth: we can get to Gma and Gpa's house at 4:00, run all five Vs through the shower, decorate the garage, and be ready to throw an epic Descendants-themed birthday party for an eight and six year old by 5:00. With a little (lot) of help from Gma, Gpa, and Auntie. It's the stuff legends are made of.

Luckily, I had anticipated that despite my best intentions, the pull of the lake would be too strong and we would stay until the very last second possible. That may or may not have totally happened. So much of the food was already prepped and we had my cousin Trish make the cake - both because it was less stress for me and because her cakes are amazing. The girls were in heaven with their Mal and Evie cake!

The party was incredibly fun and laid back. It was a beautiful evening, so we just hung out in my parents' yard with food, cake, music, and family. The kids enjoyed having full run of the yard. Dec and Otto continued to get all the wrestling out of their systems and Quinn organized multiple races around the house. Despite a day at the lake, they still all seemed to have plenty of energy to burn.

My favorite was Fiona determining she was too old for all that silliness and curling up on a lawn chair with her new Babysitter's Club book .. but the best part was Hux climbing right up in her lap with her. She was so excited to snuggle him and read to him. He seemed quite pleased with the plan as well. With all the grandparents, a big batch of cousins, and plenty of cake, the girls declared it an awesome party. It was even pretty easy to get everything cleaned up (with Auntie's help!).

The next morning, while Mike and Grandpa patched up the boat from the Thursday night mishap, the kids and I got one last dose of the cousins before we headed back south. We met Anna, Liv, Otto, Hux, and Milo at the park just down the hill from my parents' house and had so much fun. The big cousins talked all week about how it is so great and so amazing that those babies get along so well! You'd think they saw each other all the time instead of every few months. They delight in each other's company and have each other's hearts. They also pair up in different ways - and it's always fascinating to see the dynamics.

This morning, the girls and Otto were all over playing with each other and Dec and Hux were having the best time. Especially once Hux figured out that Dec would push him in the swing! We all gathered at the picnic table for some fruit snacks and then did hugs and the obligatory "Johnson good-bye" - which Mike swears lasts an hour. It's like 20 minutes tops. Ish.

With that, we wrapped up our summer travel and headed home to get prepared for back to school. We had a few fun summer things left up our sleeves though. Including a football draft and preschool picnic still that weekend. Life is so good in the summer!