Any Similar Revival

It was a big weekend!

On Friday night, we were privileged to witness the wedding of our friends, Steve and Maggie. Chad was a groomsman, and he was looking pretty dapper if I say so myself.

Since he was busy being all wedding-party, this lovely lady was my date for a while.

I’m really not that tall. I’m wearing big shoes.

I actually don’t have any good photos of the bride and groom! Maybe one:

They are the tiny people in the middle. I didn’t bring my real camera.

On Saturday, we bought Aiden a new bike and had his party at the Lester Rail Trail. It was a beautiful day—we really couldn’t have ordered a nicer one. I highly recommend having a party here, because it requires very little from the birthday mom as far as planning. The kids just want to ride the trains and eat cake. I love that plan!

And now I’m entering a short phase of Photo Fatigue. So here are some pages:

Or, Something Like That.

What in the world?

We’ve been going to Dan’s Dogs regularly for years now. But this is the first time we’d ever seen that amazing birthday hotdog hat! Aiden wore it the whole time he was eating his requested birthday corndog. I was a little jealous. I’ve been there on MY birthday before. No one offered ME the hotdog hat. Of course, I’m not a super-cute six-year-old, either.

Heidi tried it on, quick, in case we never see it again.

Aiden looks unconvinced.

Then back home for the birthday cupcake. The rest of us had already HAD our cupcakes while at Dan’s Dogs, but the birthday boy was busy feeding his quarters into the video game table. Too busy for cupcakes, apparently. What a strange child.

Anyways. The cupcake. My favorite, favorite part of these is watching Cynthia’s face.

His party is tomorrow, and it’s going to be great. Trains + small boys and girls + a nice sunny day = happy party.

For once, May Day lived up to my expectations, formed by poetry and the reading of too many books. It was SUNNY. It was NOT RAINING. It was even WARM. Birds were singing, flowers blooming—had I suddenly been transported away from Ohio? NOPE.

Aiden and I continued our tradition of May Day flowers for Heidi, though as you will see, someone else intercepted our offering!

Uncle Frank! He got to the door first!

It was ok, though, because our jammie-clad Heidi was close behind.

Later one, Aiden built a fort with sticks and a tablecloth and clothespins. Then he played in it for the rest of the day. I love this kid.

And to end the day, this golden day, we had some buddies over for a cookout, the first of the season.

And today? Today is a birthday! Aiden is six-years-old today!

Happy birthday to our bright boy!

. . .Her hardest hue to hold. . .”

We had such a lovely day yesterday—golden and muddy and sunburnt. One of those days. We packed up the dog and a picnic and extra clothes and boots and the first aid kit (but no sunscreen, alas) and headed off in the van to Hinckley Lake. Glorious, glorious day.

It was a day to savor, to walk at any pace we wanted, to stop at every dock, to crouch down and watch snakes and frogs and chipmunks. We had no agenda, and it was perfect.

Self portrait by garbage can.

And then we ate our picnic.

And then we played in the water.

No idea who that other little boy is. Just one of those spontaneous friends Aiden makes wherever he is.

He had to change every bit of clothing in the van afterwards.

The dog is leaving dusty puddles of dirt in every single one of the spots in which he has since collapsed in utter exhaustion.

But it was worth it.

The world around here is finally greening and beautifuling. It’s amazing, every year.

Tomorrow is MAY.

Thank you all for your kind words about my sweet Emma-cat. It is weird living without her. I keep expecting to see her around every corner and on every couch. Aiden has a very pragmatic attitude about the whole thing: “Well, we won’t have to step in cat puke anymore.” He is so very sensitive.

This past week, spring arrived in earnest.

Dog with the crazy eye!

We celebrated some birthdays too. Too bad the birthday people couldn’t be with us! But any excuse for goodies and fun dishes, I say.

We have silly birds with nests right outside both of our doors. A robin on the front porch and a cardinal in the yew by the back door. The robin squawks and scolds, but the cardinal just flutters away as soon as she senses our approach. Tiny eggs.

Can you see the blue bit at the bottom of the nest?

I love these speckled cardinal eggs. Unfortunately, the gutter drips all around this nest when it rains. I hope it doesn’t hurt the eggs or discourage the mama.

And, gratuitous food pic, dinner on Saturday night:

Hope you have a delicious day!

Our much-beloved kitty died last night. She was 15.

I hardly know what to do with myself. I have never been in this house longer than an hour without her. She was my good friend, my faithful companion. She was supposed to live forever.

He has been working really hard lately on his attempt to dig through the Earth. (“Earf,” as he calls it.)

Sometimes, I am REALLY bad at sleeping. I toss and turn for hours, my chest growing tighter and tighter with pent-up frustration. I get anxious, worrying how the next day will go on so little sleep. I count hours, weigh the pros and cons of turning off the alarm, and squirm and “huff and puff,” as Chad likes to call it. Last night, after my brain finally shut up, I was sleeping really well. Until I woke up feeling that maybe my alarm had gone off and I’d turned it off in my sleep. And that I needed to fight the desire to return to sleep. So I did. And then I looked at the clock.  1:57. Really? It was pretty hot in the room, too. April is so confusing. One night is SO cold we need our extra “personal sleeping blankets,” and two nights later, we are throwing off duvets and pants and what have you. Anyways. My huffing and puffing woke up my dear, long-suffering husband, who eventually just gave up and went downstairs to the couch. And I lay there, switching sides, sipping once-cold, now lukewarm water, praying to just fall asleep, dang it! It didn’t work until after 4something.

It’s never as big a deal in the morning as I think it will be. Yes, I’m tired. I missed Jazzercise, and I feel half-baked. But it’s not the catastrophe I imagine at 3 in the morning when I’m so worried about my not-sleeping.

This is a lot of boring, probably too-much-information for you. Sorry. This is where I am this morning.

Wanna see more pages? I got LOTs more. But I’m going to space them out, so I have more blog fodder that I don’t have to originate. Lazy.

Oh, blogging. I just can’t figure you out anymore! I used to blog ALL. THE. TIME. All the time. And now, I can barely make myself post once every three months! But lately, I’ve been missing the platform, missing the connections. Missing looking back through the months and laughing at myself and my little life.

I told Chad last night that I want to overhaul the blog and start afresh. Re-launch.

But you know me. Full of plans. Great at the ideas.

Slow to implement.

So this is NOT a plan or a promise. (Heidi!) This is not me saying: “I propose to start my blog again.” Not saying that. Just saying, it’s tugging a little bit on the edges of my mind.

Here is a little cheat: posting recent scrapbook pages in lieu of real blog content.

These are old-ish, from February and March.

I heard grunting and deep-voiced intonations, and something clanking around, so I looked out the door. I saw this:

He looked at me, and said in his pretend-deep voice, kind of like a robot:

“I AM A TRANSFORMER!”

Bungee + broken tonka truck + boy = Awesome.

Yesterday was a Day of Fun with Heidi. She came over to spend the day helping us decorate the tree and bake gingerbread cookies.

It’s crazy how everyone else in the world has more patience with my kid than I do. Heidi was really good making the cookies with him. I would have given up in frustration looooonnnngggg before any of them hit the oven. They were really yummy too! The tree is beautiful, if a bit crowded on the bottom tiers that Aiden could reach.

Best part of the day was when we sent him outside to play and we watched a favorite Christmas movie.

Last summer, some friends of ours gave us this train set they’d used around their Christmas tree when the kids were little. They were moving, and they knew that Aiden would love it. So we’ve been keeping it very secret in the basement all this time, and last night after A went to bed, Chad set it up. The boy was beyond thrilled this morning. The only down side was a lack of C batteries to make it go. So he spent much of the day just sitting under the tree and gazing at the train with adoring eyes.

And then he set up his stuffed animal friends so they, too, could gaze adoringly at the awesomeness.

Finally, after a trip to Home Depot, the train was on the move. Both of my boys were really happy.

I was enjoying the smiles and shrieks of glee.

And this just cracks me up. Myles came in to snarf my face just as we took the picture.

If you notice in the above-photos, he was staring at me the entire time I was taking photos of the guys watching the train. He just wanted to sit by me, and this was his first opportunity.

First, my dearest love. We are the same age again!

And my dearest brother!

Yes, he took possession of my camera for about an hour on Thanksgiving. I always find one of these after such an episode. I just love looking up his nose! Happy birthday, Jon!