Tea Party

So by the time I saw the kids on Saturday afternoon it had been a few hours and a second party since the face painting and much of it had worn off. Evan looked like a faded Frankenstein panda and Vivian like a new age hippie.

And they were still in that state when it was time for Taylor to sit them so Jo and I could go meet Gordon, Amanda, Travis and Jen for dinner downtown. Vivian had organized a tea party for Taylor. She had a sign up on the front door, an additional arrow pasted to a wall inside the house in case Taylor should lose her way between the front door and the back, and the stuff arranged neatly and carefully outside. Tea (made from fresh garden herbs), lemon juice freshly squeezed, apricots for snacks, and tiny cups, saucers, spoons and even place cards with names on them.

RR21

Saturday promised to be a beautiful day and it was. I loaded up all four bikes into the car and left for Samsung and Rosedale Ride 21. Jo showed up with Vivian and Evan about an hour later. They did the Children's Ride with Jo. I saw them start and then I left for the short 23 mile ride.

The kids finished, got their faces painted and left for Rowan's birthday party. Jo said that Evan was extremely serious and you wouldn't have believed it from looking at his face but he kept repeating "Mommy - this is so much fun!". And once Vivian gained some confidence, she was off and riding on her own. I socialized, saw the amazing BMX exhibition and enjoyed the beautiful day. This morning we did a rough calculation - though we had fewer riders than last year, we raised at least as much and perhaps more than the 20th Anniversary Ride last year. Sweet.

Beds

Vivian's bed usually looks like a tornado has just swept through, dropping a random selection of naked dolls and stuffed animals. Periodically and after protracted and highly emotional negotiations with Jo, the number of stuffed things are brought back down to a manageable number so as to leave some space for Crazy and Vivian to sleep in the bed. And on Fridays her bed get's made and Miguel neatly arranges the dolls and animals in some arrangement that he must think Vivian would like. This is what she found this week.

Meanwhile Evan has taken up residence under her bed. One day he announced that he didn't want to sleep in his bed any more. Vivian has a semi-bunk bed - its raised on stilts but you have to be a midget to occupy the space under it. Which suited Evan. So Jo moved his mattress to under Vivian's bed and dismantled his bed. It's the same Oeuf crib that Vivian first used when she was a baby. Then it was converted to her toddler bed. Back to crib for Evan. And then again to toddler bed. One or another of our children have occupied it for most of the past eight years.

Evan has attached his stuffed animals to the slats under Vivian's bed so they dangle around him as he sleeps. It's a little weird.

Evan is now campaigning that his mattress also be taken away so he could just lay on the hard wood floor in his blanket. We haven't acquiesced yet but he wakes up most mornings that way. This morning Jo ordered him a new full sized mattress on Amazon. Stay tuned.

Early Bluebonnets

Our kids wouldn't be Texan if we didn't have a few sets of bluebonnet photos for any given year. These are from the Murchison fields with the Shah's on a Friday evening.

My favorite Bluebonnet Photo from two years ago was this one. It was the wallpaper on my phone for a long time.