The end of the school year is always filled up with plenty of activity and bustle. It gets a little overwhelming! And of course a big part of that is all the birthdays that need celebrating.
First of course was Matthew's birthday - 14 years now. That is very strange. I don't have the same feelings I used to, the feeling that every May 5th acts as some sort of time machine to 2007 and the experiences of that day. Those feelings have really softened. It's rare that I feel the same ache or same emptiness. I feel more like just an excitement that there is another member of our family who I'll be able to meet someday. I think about him all the time, actually, and I enjoy the exercise each year of writing to him, pondering on him and the bigger picture of this life on earth.
We still love our same tradition of picking up food, hauling it up to a hillside park above the capitol building, and enjoying the spring evening. This year was so clear and just a little breezy, perfect for sending him our messages.
The next star of the birthday line up is me. 48! I am getting dangerously near that big 5-0. I had the most lovely birthday. All I wanted for my birthday was to go shopping for shirts. All of my shirts are the same - striped v-neck t-shirts. And I wanted to find some grown up cute shirts that weren't old lady blouses. It's a tough balance to find. Luckily I have stylish friends to point me to the right stores. (Thank you Misty!) I stopped for a drink, drove around and shopped happily all morning. Then Becky took me to ramen, chocolate pot-de-creme, and a fun movie that was romantic and took place in Ireland. The evening was topped off with a few sweet friends visiting me on the back porch and bringing flowers. Oh and my brother and his wife sent me a huge bouquet. That was so nice. It was a great birthday. I will seriously consider just making that my go-to because I loved it.
And then came Emma! Emma hit quite a milestone - she turned 12! Here she is after putting her photo through this funny app that turns her face into oil paintings from different periods. Kinda sweet, I think.
Part of turning 12 and going to jr. high means, at our house at least, getting an actual phone number. Emma has had a phone for quite some time, but without a number. She was thrilled to find out that she is now no longer wi-fi dependent. She took the opportunity to facetime her cute cousin in Seattle.
Emma's day began with scones and presents. She got clay that hardens when you bake it - she's been loving making little sculptures lately. She got some Avatar Funko-Pop figures (I bet in 200 years that phrase will be very confusing). And my favorite thing was a darling little fairy house, along with a date to go choose some fairy-garden plants from the nursery and we created the cutest little garden that I hope really fills in over the next couple of years. She got right to work making clay mushrooms and things to add to the garden.
We had a small gathering in the evening on our porch - several kids have not yet been fully vaccinated so everyone was more comfortable if we stayed outside. We set up a monitor and speaker outside and the kids played some rousing games of jackbox which made them laugh a lot. It was interesting to see kids gather together after not doing so for so long. They had kind of lost the knack for being at a party and they actually got a little snarky with each other. I did not expect that to happen, and there were a few tears from Emma after her friends went home, but I know she learned about showing love to friends. So I hope it still ended up as a happy birthday for her.
How bizarre it is now to keep thinking that I still have one little kid...like this....
But really she's just not little any more. Braces! Middle school! And she's growing so fast I think she's going to pass up Romney in the near future. I'm so grateful she's our sweet girl still. She's a treasure.
And despite the fact that she's almost a teenager, it doesn't stop her from doing this every once in a while on a really bad day (like the day she got braces and it hurt a whole lot!).
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