I brought some Valentines flowers for my desk at work this week. They made my cube feel beautiful and fresh and natural in a way few cubes can claim to feel. I think I need to get a plant in there.
On Friday (when I work evening shifts) I saw them and felt distinctly homesick.
It was the big birthday on the 19th. Mom turned the age when she would have retired back int he day and David turned the age just before luck.
Megan spent the day as princess Jasmine and would answer to no other name.
Pax attacked her squeeky toy with a vengeance.
Kiernan was pretty laid back and ready to read.
He was also, I am happy to report, ready to garden
We brought the little green house up on Friday and laid out some flats.
Mom took the day off for her birthday and we talked plants and spring in a wistful way and she went off to buy us some potting soil.
I took Megan ice skating for mommy and Megan day. I was curious to see how her lessons had been paying off.
She seems more comfortable but mostly wants me to hold her under the arms and push her around the rink.
This is not nice to my back but it is very sweet. Friday is a very good day to go. There were 3 other skaters there. So in essence we had the place to ourselves.
In the evening David came home and I left for work hoping to spend some quality birthday time with him when I got home at 930. Unfortunately I had a big old panic attack Friday night so basically David had no Birthday celebration whatsoever.
Next weekend I intend to make it up to him with a ski trip...wish me luck.
On Saturday we knew we had a big day ahead. It was the day of the Blue and Gold banquet. This is the anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America. The Cub Scouts always have a banquet on a theme during that anniversary. This years there was medieval. There was to be a cake contest and auction and awards ceremonies. There was also a potluck.
Megan was very happy because she was going to get to wear a party dress.
I decided that with a whole day to prepare for it I would attempt to do something with her hair.
She usually has this amazing mass of Medusa like dreads on the back of her head. Curly and dry hair thy name is Megan.
So I put in a bunch of conditioner in there and then brushed out all the knots. Then I added a bunch of hair oil to attack the dry. Then I added a glob of some anti frizz stuff.
She had what appeared to be the greasiest hair on the planet by the time I was done.
I knew that given 20 minutes or so the oil would settle in and crossed my fingers for the rest.
While we waited for her hair we planted tomatoes.
Kiernan poked holes and planted seeds and then Megan spritzed and covered them. We did only the big sandwich tomatoes as we are still waiting for the seeds for the fantastic rainbow variety of cherry tomatoes that were so good last year.
I was so happy about the warm weather and the seeds that the residual sickness I feel after panic attacks completely evaporated.
One of the contests for the Blue and Gold banquet was a cake baking contest.
I stood behind Kiernan and watched him follow the instructions on the back of a cake box (Orange Supreme Duncan Heines). I helped him lift the stand mixer but otherwise he did every step himself and we were all gratified to smell the delicious cake that resulted.
One of the categories for the contest was tiger cake. Kiernan is in the Tiger Den so that was the one we worked on.
Kiernan and David and I did the orange frosting and then David did the curly looking black stripe and Kiernan did the googly eyes and the straight stripes and I did the names and the rest of the face.
It was lots of fun.
I went in early to drop off the cake and saw that the hall had been transformed. I wasn't sure what a banquet in the land of scouting might entail. At the bare minimum it entailed a great deal of preparation and hard work on the parts of the pack leaders.
I told Megan that as Kiernan was wearing blue, she could wear gold. One of her favorite dresses is gold and she was thrilled.
Kiernan's mien during this very long (4:30-7:30) event shows a great progress from the beginning of the year. All of the stresses of earlier events were here. He had to go up on stage and he had to sit through a lot of stuff he didn't care about and he had to participate in completely unfamiliar activities.
Other than turning red from the heat (and probably blushes as well), he held up perfectly.
No one else made a tiger cake so we knew Kiernan would win that particular contest.
There were some really very cool cakes. If you have a chance go here to see some of them.
I discovered my own name on the lists as press liaison. I felt so fancy.
Kiernan got some 'cubby bucks'. These are dollars that can be spent on various prizes and toys. He picked a cool magnetic loop track and will save the rest for next year. This year he had 40 cubby bucks and now he has 35. There was a bike for 200 cubby bucks. Apparently the boys save up and even go in together on the big stuff.
As expected he won a prize for his cake. Then we went home. Megan felt is was a fine evening. She ate pizza and cookies.
The next morning we prepared (feeling very metal as you can see) for daddy's work activity.
We went bowling.
Kiernan continued his winning streak and placed 2nd in the under 12's (out of 10-15 kids) and Megan ate more cookies and pizza, she also managed a few pins.
Last unit in PE Kiernan's school did bowling (this unit it is hula hoop) so he was especially primed for this contest.
It was such a weird feeling to see a whole crowed cheer for him. I felt like we had gone from a private family thing to a public spectacle more abruptly than I was ready for but also that he seemed to be feeling no pressure from it. He was dancing around and shaking his butt and competing quite well against a girl much older than himself. I was worried he would be upset not winning and he might have been a bit, but he told her good game and congratulated her on her win and told everyone he was in the top 3. He was very pleased with the whole experience.
Children are a wonder.
After all the people both David and I needed a break so we went across the street to guitar center to be near the music. The drum department was an especially big hit.
Very Metal.
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