B-day

This girl's birthday. She's generously sharing this post with her siblings, especially her brother, all of whom benefited from her special day.  :)

It started with breakfast in bed.  There were many willing mouths wanting to taste the wares.  She would offer baby a taste, from the top bunk mind you, and he would open his mouth from wherever he was in the room until he got to her.  :)

Someone is already enjoying his sister's birthday present.

This is my best "Percy Jackson" cake with boxed mix and store-bought frosting. 

I tried to make a pretty cake I'd seen on a friend's blog and here (surprisingly not hard), but mine wouldn't come out of the pan (forgot the flour). 

(I'd buy the gel colors separately for the colors you need-- we tried to mix colors, and our red with blue turned the "purple" more of a brown.)

Banner my friend made for my birthday.  I love it so much I left it up for 3 weeks after our last birthday.  :)

As usual, her favorite present is from her aunt in New York-- a wand just like Hermoine.

Grandma and Grandpa came, her dad got off early, and we all went swimming.  We had such a great time!  

What a great kid she is-- smart, thoughtful, fun.  Life just wouldn't be the same without her.

How was your fourth?

Brave

Kids are already feeling much better (whew!)-- I was bracing for the worst since last time we got sick it lasted so long!

We went to see the film Brave.  We don't go to movies very often (we definitely make up for it at home), so it was a real treat.  My nine year-old said, "it feels like we're about to get on a rollercoaster!"  We were late, so little legs were in a whirlwind of excitement as we breezed through the doors and past golden-popped popcorn.  Little baby sitting on my hip in his tight monkey shirt, wondering what this was about as we had a little happy twirl to the music on our way in.

We sat there, under the flash and fire of the movie screen, bundle of snuggly baby in my lap, and I looked down the row of delighted and entranced faces, all upturned with wonder.  It reminded me of the first paragraph in this.  Little surge of -- these are mine.  It was just as fun to watch them as it was to watch the movie-- and it was a refreshing (if a bit scary for little ones) film. 

And man, I actually related to the main character and to her mother (with the fine balancing act of being a mother myself), as at her age I was never into sewing or anything remotely domestic (see here) (always loved kids, though), and I'm still not great at most domestic-type things.  It was a touching story about the bond and the strain between a mother and daughter as they grow together.


Funny? For today-- my cute three spilled an entire bottle of Elmer's glue in a gooey white puddle on the table and the floor and it was in a clumpy mess in her hair.

Here is a website a friend pointed me to that has helped me check movies beforehand to see if they will be appropriate for my little ones.  It is also good for video games and books, as it gives an age level of appropriateness as well as a red, yellow, or green light for content, ie, green light for 10 and up.