Now we are five

Big weekend at chez bug. We turned five years old. There was much discussion as to what was expected for this birthday party. The biggest conundrum: we planned the party, put it on Kate's calendar, and she then announced she wanted a surprise party. Hmmmm In the end we held the party as planned and Nona simply took her away before the party and we all yelled surprise when she showed up. That seemed to suffice. Aunt Julie came through with a cake that was above and beyond the call of duty.

Pink of course.

I was feeling absolutely terrible from a nasty cold, so I called on Grandma to provide the decorations Kate requested. With less than three hours notice she had the place looking great. Balloons, banners, streamers, the works. I let Sam's Pizza provide the main course because I wasn't up for cooking. (Okay okay, I wouldn't be up for it anyway. It's always pizza and wings for the birthday.) The kids seemed to like it.

We have three five year old's in the family, so this little table with three chairs has always worked before. This time, however, Connor who will be two in April, was highly offended that there was no chair for him. We had to go find something for him to sit on. They grow up so fast.

Kate got lots of presents, including some stylish new house boots.

Pink and fuzzy...perfect for five.

You might remember that at Christmas Kate received a rather large doll house from her Nona and Papa, the plan being that each birthday and christmas, she'll get a few more bits of furniture, and some more walls will be papered etc. For this birthday she got a spiral staircase.
Homemade by Papa. We are in awe. She also got a pie safe, a goldfish bowl, and best of all:

A dollhouse for a dollhouse. How small would the dollhouse for this dollhouse have to be?

A good place

Have you heard the expression, "in a good place?" In general it refers to some kind of spiritual head place. My good place is more geographical. Last weekend, my parents, my daughter and I went to visit my grandmother, who these days stays with my aunt and uncle. And my oh my what a good place. We slept, we chatted, we knit, we ate and we ate and we ate and we didn't worry ourselves much at all, at least I didn't. Not about the weather, not about my job, not about anyone being bored or annoyed. It was a level of calm I don't normally reach while awake. And the food, oh. My mother, as always arrived with two full meals and a desert at the ready, and my uncles are both great with bread (I am not). We had excellent soup, and fresh bread toast every morning, and home made tortilla chips and guacamole that I could have eaten for the entire weekend. Literally. I may have shoved someone out of my way while hanging over the bowl and making a pig of myself. Uncle Erf says I can make them myself if I learn to drink beer, it's apparently an essential part of the process.

Another of the best things about the weekend is that there were 8 adults and only one 4 year old. (I can only call her that for one more day.) Anytime I got tired, someone else easily stepped in to distract her. Kate got this for her birthday:


From her Aunt Nonie and Uncle Hugh. So naturally we showed up at their house book in hand. Kate and Uncle Hugh got right to work.


They made a purple fish out of white bread, but while it baked it turned and interesting shade of blue/green.


Delicious isn't it? Actually it was delicious. The bakers were quite proud of their work.


Clearly I had a wonderful weekend. I'd go back in a minute, for the guacamole alone!

The easy part?

Last year at this time I started a project called the "Block a Month" afghan in which I assigned myself to knit one block each month last year to create an afghan this January. Round about March I had the brilliant idea to knit two blocks per month, each using a different stitch pattern. The idea was to learn new techniques, so each square had it's own challenge, not the least of which was making each of them come out the same size. I confess I didn't really achieve that part. And so...
The hardest part of the project turns out to be piecing the darn thing together. Here's what the process looks like.

It requires blocking, picking up stitches, pretzel pieces, chai tea, and a very large mess. I'll let you know how things go.

more distraction

Here's something else to distract you from the fact that I'm not blogging much.

More Winter Fun

Last week, Kate and I went with friends to the skating rink, and it was great. Kate's been on ice skates a few times, mostly on ponds when the weather's cold enough. She has to be so bundled up that she can barely move. She's not steady enough on her feet to be on her own, so someone usually has her propped up from both sides, and her feet tend to swing about like a ragdoll. Makes taking pics pretty hard.

But the ice rink was different. We didn't have to wear a snowsuit and she finally started to get the idea. By the end, she was towing me around the place by both hands. And this week, we took Nona and Papa with us, which made all the difference in the world. There was someone to take half the weight, and someone to take the pictures.

The only problem with the rink would be Katy Perry blaring Teenage Dream as we skated. We are unsteady enough on skates, so leaning down to try and hear what Kate's talking about could cause a wreck. Oh, and the fact that there is a snack bar, so we have to stop pretty frequently for popcorn and M M's.

snow man blues

My Katie loves playing in the snow, and there has been no shortage this year. However, we've yet to have a really good snow man snow. It's been so cold that the snow stays dry and light. The really good wet stuff you need for construction is missing. So we've been skating and sledding, and made snow angels, but every time, when we are done, I hear, "But when will we build a snow man?"

Here's how she takes out her frustration:

New Year

I've been doing my annual clean up from Christmas, find places for things, start knitting projects thing. While it's quite a satisfying thing for me to do, it's not terribly interesting to blog about, so here are some pics instead:

Christmas Morning

Little Santa

Oh My Gosh

Just what I wanted.