birthday miscellany

A quick and late miscellany today.

1) Yesterday was Pita's birthday party. She had a lot of fun. She loved when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her, loved eating cake (of course), and seeing everyone and playing with her cousins. We also got balloons that she's been playing with a lot. Next time we need something fun and different to do in the dead of winter, I may just pick up a balloon for her. Pita's favorite birthday presents are some cheap party bead necklaces Chris and I picked up for her, a rocking horse, a diaper changing set for her doll, a hedgehog family for her dollhouse, and a little Kleen Kanteen (just like Daddy's- well, Daddy's isn't pink).

 

Brushing hedgehog hair! I think it's hilarious that they came with their own hair brushes.

I'll share more pictures tomorrow.

2) I had a very productive work day today and it felt great. Some kids were absent so I had time to write an entire report. Then I did a lesson with one of the classroom teachers and loved a little book she had made for all the kids. Turned out she had a whole book of reproducible stories with fantastic language and speech sound targets- one for each month of the year. I'm excited to use some of them. I ended up staying at work a little late, talking about something else I'm working on with another teacher and the principal. It feels good to have days when you're working hard, but doing new and creative things along the way. 

3) You may not remember when I discovered the amazing pairing of cupcake with Popchips, but I do! Oh yes, that could not be forgotten. When I realized there would be leftover birthday cake from the weekend, I began to fantasize about evening snacks of cupcakes and Popchips. Sweet and salty are so good together. Tonight my fantasy became reality.

Oh, yessssssss! 

4) We've had below zero and single digit temperatures here for a few days. Really, really cold. And now we're getting another 6-12 inches of snow later in the week. I really do like snow, but it's getting to be a bit much. It almost gives me a claustophobic feeling, all that deep snow covering everything. All my planters, shrubs, everything outside are covered by feet of snow. Out front we have mountains of snow along the driveway and it got pushed back further today to make room for more. It's too much. Driving through our neighborhood where the snow piles are nine, ten, twelve feet high (at least), I feel like it could swallow me up. It's so much that it's too deep for us to even play in. Celia would be buried!

5) Outfit of the week: 

What's all that stuff, you ask? 

Bathing suits, of course! Her favorite things to dress up in are my bathing suits, my underpants (I've really been putting off posting any pictures of that, but it will happen eventually), and her bead necklaces. She's on to something with this because warm, sunny, grassy bathing suit season would be pretty nice right now!