First Day of Year Six

Happy Birthday Sarah! The Banana woke the birthday girl up long before the crack of dawn. We watched a litlte episode of Old School Sesame Street (a new and terrific DVD that Gregory acquired yesterday . . . all episodes from before we were born, and hilarious ones at that. . . the kids LOVE them). We opened a huge stack of terrific presents before Daddy went to work this morning: a princess and the pea game made by Haba toys (I LOVE Haba toys), lots of fantastic art supplies, a tea set to have tea parties with dolls, a Fancy Nancy calendar, and lots of other fantastic birthday treasures. She was terribly excited.

After a small Cheerio snack, a little bit of playing, and a little bit of cleaning up by mom, we were ready for Breakfast in the Bathtub. Because Mr. Sneaky Pants had birthday cake in the bathtub with Grandma Robbie and Grandpa Ron on his birthday, Sarah thought it was only fair that she could have some cake in the bathtub, too. So up the stairs we went, with three cupcakes baked in ice cream cones and frosted with chocolate icing and sprinkles. There was a lot of slurping involved. The Banana kind of stole the show for a bit with her amazing cake eating antics, but great fun was had by all involved.

We zipped off to church where I had an instrumental ensemble rehearsal, and then zipped back home so that our friends from up the hill could come over for lunch, cake and some fun playing. It was wild. It was crazy. Sarah had a fantastic time. They played all over the house, and then bundled up for a short time to go outside and paint the snow with squirt bottles filled with colored water. This was a terrific hit (although I had to keep reminding my own children to squirt the snow, not each other, not me and not the house). There was lots of random snow squirting and glee until Sarah got stuck in a snowbank and lost her boot. I rescured her and she was in good spirits, until she put her foot back into the snow-packed snowboot. After a few minutes she decided to go back inside, a decision I supported wholeheartedly as there was a lot of whining happening. What a rite of passage, having your snowboot disappear into a waist high snowbank! I remember being six and loosing a lot of moon boots in snowbanks.

But we recovered! And there was more playing! And more playing! After our friends left Sarah created some very interesting things with some of her art supplies, and sleepily played several games of “The Princess and the Pea” (a FANTASTIC game) before crawling off into her bed and snuggling under several warm quilts.