A Birthday Week-End

May 19-22, 2023                                                              Most Recent Posts:
Reisterstown, Maryland                                           Time on My Hands – I Love It
                                                                                           A Family Play Week-End

Last time I said I would do an entire post on the books I’d read these weeks in Virginia.  But I’m going to make that next so that I can post something that actually just happened.  It’s almost real time.  Can you believe it

Friday, May 19th was Celia’s 7th birthday. 
How CAN that be? 

I drove the 3.5 hours up to their house.  In our family if it’s your birthday, you get to have whatever you want for dinner.  This birthday girl chose Chick-fil-A.  Is it the chicken nuggets or the cookies and cream milk shake??

Apparently Carrie is the only one who responds when you say “smile”.

This was my mother choice.   What were they looking at?

The girls play bingo and all look at the camera and smile.

The weather was gorgeous all 3 days.  Perfect for walking around the neighborhood.

Celia helps mommy bring the empty recycling and trash cans down to the house.  It’s wonderful when they are big enough to help and young enough to want to…..sometimes.

Although her party isn’t until Sunday, today is her official birthday so presents from parents and Nana get to be opened today.

Very pleased with her new watch.  Pink of course.

And with her new camera.  Also pink of course.

And with her new water bottle which came with stickers and stick on jewels.  She loved decorating it.  What a great gift.  Pink of course.

Saturday morning we take Colin to swimming lessons. 

He looks pretty sharp in his googles.

We were sitting behind a glass window watching so picture taking was a bit difficult.

He was very interested in looking around to the bottom of the pool

I volunteered to do a little pruning of the roses in front of the house.  They had a lot of dead wood.

And looked a lot better when I finished.

Helpful Celia was at it again.

I had to put this in.  SO typical of sister and brother.

Nana brought 4 presents.  Two for her birthday and two for the in between day before her party.  It’s a birthday WEEK END don’t cha’ know.

The set of Junie B Jones books were quite a hit.

Carrie and Matthew’s 8th Wedding Anniversary is the 23rd which is Wednesday after I’m gone so they went out for an anniversary dinner on Saturday night and the kids and I hung out together.

One thing we (well they) did was to put together the wooden train tracks and drive the engines.  Colin is extremely good at design for bridges and curves.

He’s also a champion hug giver.

Sunday is the day of the big party.

But first we had to read some more Junie B Jones.  There were four books in the set and we read two of them while I was there.  It was clear they both liked them since there are 8 or 10 chapters in each book.

Colin goes to swimming lessons which Celia has also done.  She is now taking gymnastics lessons.   It was much harder to get pictures of her not only because of the glass but because there were so many kids and adults of all ages in the room with all the equipment.

You put the block on top of your head, squat down and roll over backwards over the block.   Why?   No idea.

Beginning of a handstand.

Trying to wait patiently for the party guests to arrive.

And of course they do.

Having a pool in your yard really makes for a relatively relaxing party for the parents.  I remember planning birthday parties and it was a lot more difficult than this.

Celia in the hot tub with her two favorite guests, her cousins Fiona and Amelia.

There were floatees of every kind for those who cannot swim.

Pensive moments at the party.

Even mommy can chill out and have pizza.

It really is a great set up for having a party.

It’s wonderful when your sister has a birthday party.  You get to eat watermelon and cupcakes.

And now for the last of the present opening.  Seems everyone brings their presents in bags these days.  No one but Nana and Mommy wrap.

Monday everyone has to go back to work and school.

Celia goes back to school on the yellow school bus that she loves.

This is the last I see of the birthday girl until she gets in her seat and waves from the window,

Nana celebrates on the long drive home with a stop at Brusters REAL ICE CREAM for Jamaican Me Crazy and German Chocolate Cake. 
Eat your heart out Paul!