Happy Birthday Brixton

Birthday joy

Our Unity is now 8 years old. We've been able to celebrate with a houseful of relatives, which is always fantastic. My mom helped us plan and run the panda-themed birthday party. The kids had fun making panda masks and other fun crafts. She is definitely taller than last year. Always growing, always keeping us on our toes. She's loving and loyal, generous and goofy. Happy birthday to Unity!

Wild things

        Brixton had a Wild Things themed birthday party. My mom made tons of amazing decorations, including the front door sign and the Max cut-out. Unity helped a lot with the art and made each kid a decorated name tag.
 The highlight of the party for me was Brixton reading the book to all his friends- he was really proud and it was sweet how they all settled down to listen. We had a good collection of people from many areas of our life-it was fun to get them all together for a rumpus.

Longest Day

We had a weekend full of light, full of friends, full of hard work and projects. A weekend of three birthday parties, a gathering of my Quaker parenting group at Meeting, and Chris working on a big house project that involves replacing some siding, and digging a trench to put in some rat-proof wire against the side of the house. Phew. We celebrated the longest day by filling our days up to the brim. 

Let's hope this coming week is a little more steady. The solstice is fun and all but there's a reason it only comes twice a year. 

Theo's party

A few days ago, we got to help our friend Theo celebrate turning two. He had a fun backyard party with hula hoops and a pinata. At first Unity wasn't interested in being the oldest kid at the party, but she bonded with  Leia and had fun helping her out and carrying her around. 

Celebrate good times

It has been a full on celebration for the past week. I'm used to sharing my birthday, I've done it my whole life. My birthday has always been sandwiched between my grandma's and my brother's, so when I was little it was always close to a week of celebrations. When I first met Chris and he told me his birthday is the day before my grandma's, I almost fell off my chair. 

Just to add a little twist to this busy time, I managed to injure my calf muscle in Zumba class last Monday night. So, a lot of my week looked like this: 

            It doesn't hurt much, it's mostly just super inconvenient. Chris has been a champ helping me out,
and we joke about how we switched places. He has a new understanding of how hard it is to try and be a caretaker along with all the other responsibilities of house and kids,  and I have a new understanding of how staying in bed all day makes you crazy.

I have some crutches so I can get around a bit. I have to stay off it for another week, and then I can do some physical therapy and start moving forward. So it's really just a small setback.

Unity made me a felt bird in a cage for a Mother's Day/birthday present. 

We had a party weekend, with a party for Chris and I, and then two other birthday parties for friends. 

Whew. It was tons of fun though.

                                                      A sneak peak of a present I got for myself. Stay tuned.

Birthday books! I'm excited. 

Spring Kids are 7

Friendships change as time passes. We don't see each every week anymore and in some cases we barely see each other once or twice a year. Communities shift and change as the kids get deeper into other things- school and actives, loose teeth and spelling words and everyone is so much taller.

But we walked each other through those sleepless dreamy days, walked beside each other at one of the biggest life transformations any of us will ever know.

So we still get together to celebrate the Spring kids, one more year.

Just for fun: Spring kids turn six, five, four, three, two, one, babies. 

Party time

Spring Kids are 6

Yesterday we celebrated the Spring Kids turning 6. We were missing a couple of kids this year- it's getting hard to navigate everyone's schedules, but we try. We hung out at the park and had cupcakes with sparklers in them- the kids were mesmerized. We are so lucky to have this crew of fun and funny families to travel with on this wacky road of parenting. 

Here's some history: Spring kids turn five, four, three, two, one.

                                             
                                                             Sparkling water tickles.

                                   
                                          Waiting for the cupcakes.

                           
                                         Spring Kids are 6! and a couple of siblings snuck in.