The Birthday Party Planner

    Yesterday morning, Keith went in later than usual which thrilled the girls. They don't usually see him until he gets off in the evening. Somehow, by intuition or something, Evelynn knew that it was Keith's birthday. She sang out the first 'Happy Birthday!' and was delighted that it was someone's birthday and that would be her Daddy.

    No sooner had Keith left for work, Evelynn called a meeting. "We need to make Daddy a cake." And she had it all planned out. It had to be chocolate. And she really, really, REALLY wanted it to be in the shape of a dragon. Toothless (from How to Train Your Dragon) to be exact. I agreed to the chocolate and added the idea of peanut butter frosting, but wasn't so keen on a dragon shaped cake. There were other things to accomplish before his return home.

    The lack of a dragon-shaped cake did not slow Evelynn's planning down any and she quickly thought to put her 'Toothless' toy on the cake. She went on a rampage looking for her dragon. Digging through one basket she found two of her other dragons and insisted they had to be present for the birthday. She finally found Toothless, but his wings were missing. It was a near crisis, but she was vigilant. She eventually found the wings and could not wait to see the cake.

    Then Evelynn asked me who was coming to his party. Well, we weren't exactly having a full blown party, but told her I would call some friends of ours to see if they would swing by for cake. Evelynn, the party planner, was pleased and began counting down to Daddy coming home. She even cleaned her room and was quite upset when Caelan messed it up a little by playing with her Barbies. Keith finally came home and our friends came over. Evelynn was beside herself with excitement and was so glad to plan this for her Daddy. The evening was a success and Keith and I have marvelled at the nature of her heart and her party planning abilities.

   

Belated Blog Birthday

I realized a couple of days ago that the first anniversary of my blog has come and gone. The first post was on February 2, 2010. In light of that, I put together a short video of the girls over the last six months or so. I don't tend to think myself too technologically challenged, but this video has been a bear in just getting it to upload. All uploading angst aside, I hope you enjoy!

The Values of Willy Wonka

   

    My children love the Johnny Depp version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and many of the characters have taken on 'family' meaning for us. I can guess that for those who don't know the impact this movie has had on the girls they would be slightly confused, if not concerned, upon hearing Evelynn say "Please don't put me in the trash" or "Please don't make me a blueberry" or "I don't want to be shrinked." But what it comes down to is when they are misbehaving selfishly, refusing to take 'no' for an answer, or being disrespectful, I have only to tell them that they are behaving like Veruca Salt or Violet Beauregard or Mike Teavee and they completely  understand the seriousness of their offense.
    To be threatened with Veruca Salt, they know that because she was an ugly brat, she was pushed into the garbage chute. Her repetitive 'I wants'  were too much and the squirrels took care of the problem that her father would not.

    When the girls do not listen to me, I ask them if they want to be a blueberry. Of course the answer is always no and Evelynn, at least, says she does not want to be like Violet Beauregard. Evelynn calls it a 'Bloober' because of the British accent of Charlie Bucket. She insists the British know how to say blueberry more than I do. Oh, well. She neither wants to be a blueberry nor a bloober.

 

  For rude, hateful and disrespectful behaviour (I thought about correcting that 'British' spelling, but maybe Evelynn is rubbing off on me, so I left it), the culprit would be Mike Teavee and Evelynn does not want to be "shrinked".

 

   This is serious business, folks. As of yet, we have not used the lesson of gluttony that Augustus Gloop fell into (chocolate, if you remember). Of course, Charlie Bucket is the more disciplined character here and Evelynn thinks he is 'so sweet' and who could argue with that? The lessons that can be drawn from this movie are priceless. So if you hear my children beg not to be shrinked, turned into blueberries or thrown in the trash, it's not that I would literally do that. But as long as they get the point, I have no probem running with the concept.

The Irish and Those That Wish They Were

Leprechauns, castles, good luck and laughter

Lullabies, dreams, and love ever after.

Poems and songs with pipes and drums

A thousand welcomes when anyone comes.