The Heathen Housewife

Today was a red-letter day, that’s for sure. Everything went smoothly, and I hardly could have asked for a better birthday for my new little three-year-old.* The weather was a little chilly and overcast for an outdoor party, and there was more than one kid running around with a pink nose, but – well, let’s look at some pictures.

The birthday girl woke up in a pretty good mood, and was delighted to discover a baloon boquet waiting for her in the living room.

Harmony and Haribodji (Grandma and Grandpa) showed up to watch the girls for a few minutes while Joe and I went to the park to set up. They got a little lost on the way to the park and ended up a little late to the party, but it was no big deal. Joe’s dad is so sweet holding Sophie. By stopping and taking a picture, I really ruined the moment because they were so cute interacting with each other.

Here is the cake all set up at the park. The kids had a great time checking it out, and I had to monitor it to keep them from poking at it. It’s pretty messy, but the three-year-olds didn’t seem to mind. See the “dirt” in Scoop and Muck’s shovels? That’s frosting. I *am* the shiz when it comes to kindergarten-style cake decoration. I had a hard time keeping Julie interested in playing because she wanted to blow out candles and cut the cake.

I found these cool party favors at the paper supply store – they’re bubble pans and bigger-sized wands that you wave in the air. They were a hit with the kids and the adults.

People were pleasantly surprised when I asked them to take them home at the end of the party, and I think every family did.

Here’s a picture looking down the table as I’m lighting the candles on the cake. Julie is obscured behind the little girl in the yellow, but I know I impressed a few people with how much I can do while carrying a baby around in a sling.

Here’s Julie blowing out the candles with Daddy and Harmony looking on. Oh, and I guess that’s me and Sophie in the foreground on the right. I was surprised how excited she and all the other kids were about wearing Bob the Builder party hats. Oh, and Julie cried while we sang Happy Birthday to her. I think all the attention focused on her was a little overwhelming.

She recovered quickly, and enjoyed her cake and ice cream with a side of Tostitos, which she doesn’t get very often. She also had her first undiluted juice straight from the box today.

My friend Jen had the wonderful insight to offer to take a picture of the whole family, since us moms don’t often make it in the pictures when we are the ones taking them. Check out the sweater on Sophie. Look familiar? It fits her really well, and I love the way the cables look all crisp and happy when they are stretched out just a bit on a real human body. It makes her feel all cuddly like a teddy bear.

Here we are opening the mountain of gifts people brought. I specifically asked every single person we invited with the exception of Joe’s parents NOT to bring gifts. Nobody listened except for one very good friend who I appreciate. I’m not going to complain. It’s just that we have so much STUFF as it is. I wanted lots of friends at the party for Julie, not lots of stuff. Well, we got both and life is good. I was really impressed with the quality of all the gifts. Most were not expensive, but they were all things I would have picked out myself – not just junk. I think by asking for no gifts, I at least achieved moderation – some people brought just a few sheets of stickers or little hair clips. That I can respect.

The party ended and we came home and tried to unload all the junk. Julie got to play with a few of the toys, including the new Lincoln Logs the grandparents bought for her. The rest I am going to put away and bring out maybe once a week so that she can enjoy the newness of each one individually. Joe took Julie to run an errand this afternoon so I got to take a little nap with Sophie. We treated ourselves to dinner out, and then it was time for bed. Here’s Sophie in her little footie pajamas for the first time this fall. It’s going to be down in the upper 40’s (That’s around 8 Celsius) again tonight.

My office room is a total wreck. I usually tease Joe about how junky his office room is, but mine is worse by far right now. All the birthday gifts, the clothes I was trying to sell last week, giant buckets of yarn, all kinds of papers and general detritus that has been collecting while I scurry around doing things more fun important than putting it away. It’s going to stay that way for another day, too.

Right now I’m going to go start *another* pair of socks. I need some plain stockinette to take with me to the Harlot tomorrow so that I can give her my full, undivided attention, and I’m sad to say that even a simple pair of Jaywalkers is not simple enough for that. I have to look at my knitting to do increases and decreases. Can’t have that. So, for tonight I will just make a toe or two and have them at the ready. I have a feeling tomorrow will be a second red-letter day. It’s going to be a freakin’ scarlet-letter weekend, which is perfect for one in which the Heathen meets the Harlot.

*Okay, so technically she’s not three till Tuesday at 12:30, but we’re limiting our celebration to today to avoid confusion. As far as she knows, today was her birthday.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 10th, 2006 at 3:04 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.