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| When she asked if she could lick the bowl I had no idea she meant she was going to LICK THE BOWL! |
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| Making a card for Pig. |
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| Baby helping. |
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| Pen reading the card to pig. |
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| Pig reading the card herself. |
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| Pig's cake! |
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| Pen's face in this picture makes me happy we did this. |
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| Pig waiting for me to light her candles. |
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| The guests, from the left: Baby Foo Foo, Arlo, Kitty, Ella, Baby Rose, Ama, Baby Bella, Matilda (who came in her nightgown), Pig, and Penelope. |
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| This was actually about the best cake I ever made. |
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| These two are old friends. Santa brought Baby Foo Foo for Christmas and the Easter Bunny brought Pig for Easter a few months later. |
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| Pig looks like she enjoyed her party. |
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| And so does someone else! |
I don't know why, but when Penelope told me it was Pig's birthday a few days ago I decided to really celebrate it. Pig has birthdays at least once a month, but I usually just say a quick happy birthday! and carry on with my day. She has been so many ages, she has been 10, she has been 6 several times, she was 16 once, but only for a minute. This time she was turning 2. This is actually pretty right on, as Pig was discovered in Pen's Easter basket when she was a year, which would make Pig 2 about now.
Pen was so happy to do all of this. We baked a cake together (and colored the frosting purple, because Pig loves that color), we dressed dolls and animals up in their best dresses, we made a card, and we set up a birthday party picnic on the living room floor (just like Angelina Ballerina's birthday). We even made a quick trip outside for some of the violet's that were growing in our yard to decorate the cake with. We waited until baby was sleeping for the party, and it was so much fun. Pig was really surprised, she couldn't believe how many friends showed up and she loved her cake.
I am so glad we had this day, we have been having some tough days lately. I think Pen is missing her Daddy now that he has gone back to work after being around all the time for a few months, and there has been a lot of behavior that makes life hard for both Pen and myself. Spending most of the day on exactly what she wanted to do (and what she never thought I'd really do!), taking our time and really enjoying ourselves changed her into such a happy little girl. And Pig deserves a birthday, she is really such a part of our family. Her animator does such a great job. Pig has a personality all her own. Life wouldn't be nearly as amusing, or endearing as it is if we didn't have her. And she is so very important to one of the most important people in my life. I was happy to throw her a party. Maybe I'll even do it again next year!
OH MY GOD, honey, this is the best post yet ever!!! I laughed and laughed and then I cried. Laughed at the photos, cried at your description. This is just beyond wonderful. I want to have your permission to post this on my FB page for my friends to enjoy. How would you feel about that? I think it should actually be published somewhere, it is so fabulous. It is the one-year anniversary of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil blowout beginning, and I have been very bummed all week thinking about it, reading one-year-later articles, and so on. This blog entry made me happy to be a human, with humans like you in my family. I want the planet to continue for your sake, your children's sake, the sake of the hummingbirds who are returning to our feeders for the first time today. I love you. Thank you for being my darling niece.
ReplyDeleteWell, I love you too! And I'm awfully glad to have you for my auntie! And I too want this beautiful planet to continue and be a place of beauty and wonder for my babes, and everyone else.I don't mind if you post this on FB. -J
ReplyDeleteHere's a question that occurred to me after I left the computer, and was thinking about that cake, and how it was surely vegan - and you said it was the best you've ever made - the question is: WHO actually ATE that cake? given that Pen and Violet are very small and surely incapable of eating a whole cake, and the guests at the party were themselves incapable of eating ANY cake, really. Did you and Steve have a pig out in Pig's honor on her birthday? Just wondering.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was vegan, and no, we did not eat it all ourselves, though a cake pig out on Pig's birthday would have been great fun! Tom came over for some after party cake the next day, and we all had some the day of and the day after (several pieces). I did have to stop Steve from having the very last piece though, so Pen could have it.
ReplyDeleteSo, from henceforth I think that's what the grownups should do on Pig's birthday. Have a serious pig out. Of some sort.
ReplyDeleteAnd why don't you post that cake recipe on your crunchy sprouts blog? I want to see it.