The ballerinas in the family dance this afternoon in full costume as they practice for an upcoming recital. Yellow dresses, affordable yellow dresses, have been hard to come by around here. I finally found some at Stuffmart that resemble extra-long polo shirts.

If they impede movement (which I suspect they will) I have an offer from a (”I wanna be like her when I grow up”) friend to help me create three yellow summer dresses. I think part of it is the novelty since she has 6 boys, the other part is her genuine desire to do good for our family.

Time to hit the road. We’ll grab some of our remaining BOOK IT! pizzas for lunch along the way. Maybe I’ll order one of those cool alumnus shirts with my unspent birthday money…

~~May Day UPDATE ~~

My friend (whom I have not asked permission to identify, but am still giving lots of details about her, hmmm… funny policy, eh?) found two darling dresses at the western most Stuffmart, “tender lemon” sizes 8 & 10. She contacted other locations and found another one in a size 7. These are adorable dresses–great for the performance and for Sunday wear later on. She was so excited they just kind of fell into her hands–yay!!!

(If you don’t know the title reference, there are some puppets eager to add to your numeral musical knowledge . More on that later)

It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn’t.
~~Barbara Kingsolver~~

According to Richard, it’s how he successfully pulled off a surprise birthday party for me tonight. I couldn’t believe my eyes–friend after friend walking in to greet me.  Why, we were just picking up one of the participants for our ladies night, what is going on?

Games, food, friends, all add up to lots of fun and lots of love. I am so blessed.

He did this to me back in 1995, caught me completely off guard with a delightful fête one day shy of the birthday I thought I’d never see. (Afterwards I thought that I could die pretty happy if I didn’t make it to midnight).

Tonight I donned the traditional tiara and boa for our ladies night birthday festivities:

Anya behaved rather well throughout the affair, allowing me to play the round of snorta/forks version of pit/spoons. No one was injured in the playing of this game, though one guest was assigned to handle first aid before the round began  =)  We did one round of Taboo,  I gave clues twice because Team A had only 7 people to Team B’s 8. (I know many of you out there wanted to come but were waiting on transporter technology–we’ll try again in another dozen years or so…)

I’m still floating a bit here, putting together bits and pieces in hindsight. I disagree with Richard’s description of my previous birthday celebrations–even in the years things were crazy busy he always managed some fabulous way to express his jubilation for my existence.

Merçi beaucoup, mon amour & mes amis.

(but I’m the one who doesn’t do anything)

Note her hippo/parrot nestled snugly on her shoulder. Emma received the movie story book of VeggieTales The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, with bonus spyglass and the musical soundtrack as birthday gifts.

And they called it, pony love….

Emma’s eighth year is “great” she says. She hopes to go swimming in the summertime and eat ice cream. When it’s cold again, she wants to drink hot chocolate. In the fall, she would like to jump in a pile of leaves with shoes on, a big pile. I think those should be quite doable, even if we have to travel a bit for the leaf collection.

We have to–how else would we see everything Anya would stick in her mouth? Lego alerts, rubber band round-ups, polly pocket pick ups…  Elena has taken it upon herself to vacuum often. She will ask if it’s okay to get Yoda* out and get right to work.

Ephraim hit a new height in his escaping escapades this afternoon, opening the garage door by himself. Thankfully his first few moments of freedom were spent playing with the front door and the doorbell. I hope keeping the van locked will eliminate that route for a time.

I can’t say that I haven’t had time for blogging–the truth is I haven’t set aside the time to do so. I’ve thought about stickK-ing to a writing goal but will see what good old-fashioned will-power-scheduling can do for now. I’m not n.a.k. as often, another factor in the decreased online presence. Typing distracts her most of the time.

Back to the regularly scheduled alternating school & cleaning time (home work & house work).

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*So named because they are both small, green and powerful.