Celia’s 5th Birthday

May 22 – May 25, 2021                                        Most Recent Posts:
Reisterstown Maryland                                        Spring Brings Changes
                                                                                   A Visit from Carrie and Colin

I packed up on Saturday and drove 3 hours away from calm toward busy Washington DC and then Baltimore Maryland to see Carrie and her family and especially to celebrate my grand daughter Celia’s 5th Birthday.   How can she be 5 already???

Her birthday was actually on Wednesday the 19th but with school and her parents both working, I’d waited until Saturday to drive up to celebrate with them.  So it turns out she had multiple birthdays which I know was just fine with her.

I arrived just after her swimming lesson and in time for lunch.  Colin went down for a nap and she and I went straight to games and reading.

First we played Guess Who.  It’s a great game and she’s definitely got the hang of it.  “ Is your card a boy or a girl?”  “Does yours have glasses?”

She picked out a stack of books and we read them all.

When Colin got up we had our little party.  I’d gotten her 3 different types of presents but it turned out that her mother and I got our wires crossed and Celia already had both of the games I’d gotten her so she had only two boxes from Nana.  That seemed just fine.  This is what happens when you say smile.

When I was her age, clothes would have been a big disappointment to me as a gift but not Celia.  She was thrilled with two new sundresses and wore them both while I was there.  But I don’t think I got any pictures of her in either one of them.  Wonder if her mother did.

The other box was three new books If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, an second in her favorite series Madeline and one I really like entitled The Rainbow Fish.

Here Mommy checks out If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

At the time I bought these snazy sunglasses for her I had no idea her cake was a butterfly.  She really loved the sunglasses.  So did I and I tried them on just in case they would fit me but alas, too small.

Time to sing Happy Birthday and cut the butterfly cake.  Delicious chocolate cake with too many sprinkles for me but she loved it.

Make a wish, blow out the candles.

Daddy cut very generous pieces for us all.  Thanks Matthew!

Colin is really getting into it.

Few things in life I like better than reading and I am so thrilled that both of my grandchildren share my love.  My favorite book went over smashingly.

Our last fun of the day was outside with the rocket launcher.   It was me against Celia.  Colin was the count down and luckily happy to be my fetch it.  Great fun.  Take a look here.

The next day Matthew was cleaning out/up the basement so we all pitched in to help with the toy area and managed to clean out all the bins and bag up three huge trash bags of stuffed animals etc to donate.

This picture is sort of half way through the clean out.

And here is Carrie at the end.  Of course it won’t stay this tidy.

After all that work, it was time to relax in the pool.

Celia was going to demonstrate for Nana what she had learned at her swimming lesson.

It’s the putting her face in the water and going under that is the hardest.

First you learn to blow bubbles in the water.

It was scary but she did it!!

Back inside a lot of time was spent emptying the car bin and sending the cars in races down the slide and then constructing a sort of race track for them.

Sydney wisely realized she needed to get a higher view which would put her out of the way of racing and flying cars.

The lovely Lila had no intention of getting anywhere near the excitement.

Other things available in the play area bins are baby dolls which need to be dressed and undressed and put to bed and fed.

This is undoubtedly THE very best reading chair ever.

Carrie took a short video of us enjoying our favorite activity.  You can find it here.

Coloring is nearly as popular as reading and luckily Nana is small enough to fit on the little people’s chairs at the coloring table upstairs.  Colin is reading rather than coloring and Carrie took a short video you can find here of two little people and one bigger Nana coloring at the little table. 

The Cicadas have started up here at their house in Maryland.  We took a hike down to the stream to check them out.  They weren’t very loud just then but they were quite visible.  In the few weeks it has been since I was there, the noise has gotten so loud Carrie says it is difficult to be outside.

 

On this day their molted skins were everywhere.

We saw them with red eyes and lacey wings.

That stage was everywhere too.  They are gearing up for warmer weather and serious singing.

Colin thought they were very interesting.  Celia not so much.
The Washington Post did an excellent short article and sound clip about this Brood X lifespan if you are interested.  Access it with this link.

Back inside on my last day with them we created Celia’s Cafe where she mostly  made tea, cupcakes and grapes for her two stuffed patrons.

Bear kept looking at the menu and ordering more and more until the table was overflowing with dishes.

It was great fun and I was sad to say good bye to them.

But, Carrie is bringing Celia for her visit to Nana at the farm in just a few weeks and then I will return in September to their house for Colin’s birthday.