Birthdays!!

This is the week-o-birthdays in our house -- Claire's was on Thursday and Cory's quickly followed it on Saturday. Ever since Claire was born, her birthday has overshadowed her father's. I still don't think I'm forgiven for being in the hospital for her birth on his special day. I tried really hard this year to make both of their days special yet equal. Let's see how I did:

Claire:

Allowed her to wake up whenever she wanted -- which was conveniently for me at 8:30

Cory:

Allowed him the same privilege which he stretched until 9:50 am.

Claire:

Woke up to a living room full of balloons with which to toss up and hit and throw around and be merry with.

Cory:

Woke up to those same balloons with which to step over, kick away, and mutter under his breath about.

Claire:

Her first present was a new play-dress that she immediately put on to see how it twirled -- a test she does with all her dresses. It passed so she deemed it worthy to wear.

Cory:

Didn't have to get dressed at all if he didn't want to -- a luxury of having a birthday on Saturday.

Claire:

Got a special outing with just her and a friend of her own choosing. After talking about it all week and anticipating a trip to Fairyland in Oakland, we were disappointed to find out it wasn't open due to their new blasted "winter schedule." We made do with a little kid's museum close to home and it was just as exciting because best friend Sydney was there.

Cory:

Got a special outing to wherever he wanted with whomever he wanted (thank goodness he chose me and thank goodness for friends to watch the kids because he chose to NOT have them be invited!) We went into the city yet again for a visit to China Town.

Claire:

Had her choice of Happy Meals from McDonald's (a rare treat for a non-fast-food enthusiast mother) and she chose Chicken McNuggets, of course, which came with a toy that won't stop singing "I want to Move it, Move it..." over and over again.

Cory:

Had his choice of meals in China Town and he ordered the Peking Duck which I now have officially decided that I don't like. Bring on the lemon chicken, the orange chicken or even the sweet and sour, but my philosophy is the less authentic the better. I did, however, do my best to eat with chop sticks and think I would lose a lot of weight if those were my only utensils. It takes me so long to eat and I only get down 2 bites before I have a cramp in my hand and have to take a break. Maybe I'll try a chopstick diet. Cory enjoyed the duck, however , and proclaimed it the best he's had outside of Beijing.

Claire:

As she ordered, she got an all pink cake with all pink frosting -- with sprinkles on top. (how girly!) and she help me make it so it will receive no rewards for appearance.

Cory:

Got a doughnut cake as conceived by Alex. 3 tiers of doughnuts with candles all over it. A dream come true. Did I say we're on sugar-overload over here?

Claire:

Her big present was a little Dora tricycle that I searched and searched for on Craig's list. She has been the only little girl in our "neighborhood" without some wheels and has been forced to push along her play grocery cart at lightning speeds to keep up with the little kids. Now she can ride in style. Thank goodness for Craig's list for our budget's sake.

Cory:

After I searched and searched on Craig's list for a big bike, went to the "shady part of town" for a used bike sale, and went in vain to Target for a road bike, I gave up the search. He has to settle with a subscription to Wall Street Journal. That's almost as cool as a bike, right?

Claire:

Got the movie "Sleeping Beauty" that is "just like Sydney's" and we watched it and twirled our dresses with Aurora.

Cory:

Requested a trip to Blockbuster where he could pick any movie he wanted without any comments or input from me. I guess he hasn't appreciated my choice of movies from NetFlix lately. What grown man wouldn't want to watch Dream Girls on his birthday? He chose an artsy/surreal film called "Across the Universe" and I am keeping my promise not to make any comments on it. In truth, I don't even know what to make of it. I was never into the psychedelic Beatles songs and a little weirded out by the whole experience.

Claire:

With all her day's activities she never got a nap which made for the after-effect of the sugar let down even more dramatic. I think I have a picture of her throwing a tantrum with a birthday crown on her head -- classic!

Cory:

After waking up at 10:00 in the morning you would think that a nap would be out of the question. But he opted out of my "take the kids bowling" plan in order to take a luxurious snooze. 2 1/2 hours later he emerged! And that's classic Cory.

A few pictures of the festivities:

Claire and her new bike!

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!

Cory blowing out the candles of his "doughnut cake!"

Catch Up!

From my journal writing days I remember that if I happen to miss writing for a considerable amount of time that it is no use to go back and try to catch up on the time lost. I get so hung up on trying to recover the past that I give up on the present and words don't come so fast or so fluently. So the two week lapse of blog entries is just that -- a lapse. Too bad because we really had a great time those past two weeks. I feel bad that the world will never know that

• we had our first family guests over for a visit (thanks to my cousin's husband's training in San Jose.) We had a blast discovering our new surroundings like we were tourists. Thanks for the great times, Kwissi!!
• Halloween was a success thanks to our cousins' visit (don't get me started on my feelings about this absurd holiday that I would rather not recognize but do so for my children's sake.) Having people around who actually like the day was a great change.
• We had a soaking wet adventure the day after Halloween in the city (aka San Fran and now pronounced si-tay by our family) and Claire has a hacking cough to prove it.
• We earned out second "warm fuzzy" prize -- an ice cream party -- and we don't mess around when it comes to ice cream. Check this out:

We're now working on our next prize of going to see Madagascar 2 in the theaters.

• And Daylight Savings Time came as complete surprise to us. That will probably be the only time we will ever have the privilege of parking in one of the 10 parking spaces that comprise our church's parking lot. I guess you can take the girl out of the non-time-changing Arizona, but you can't take the non-time change out of the girl! This week has been dedicated to getting my children to stop waking up an hour earlier. I think we achieved that today when they came into our room at 8:45. Well done, kids -- you each get 4 warm fuzzies!!

Well, so much for trying to play catch up. See, it never works.