a super successful adult birthday

I have written before of how I've had trouble making the adjustment to adult birthdays. How I still have incredibly high expectations for my special day each year, even though I'm no longer a kid.

Well. I just turned another year older, and here at the start of my thirty fifth year of life, I believe I am beginning to grow in wisdom. Because I nailed it this year. All of my expectations were met because I met my own expectations! The success of this birthday began early in the week when I ordered my own birthday presents. And the presents I chose were all toys that the kids would love. Ivar has been wanting smoker jumpers for his fire and rescue airplane and has been making a case for why these would be great things for me to get for my birthday. He was convincing and in the end, I actually did want these smoke jumpers because I knew he would be so enthused. And then I got myself a play parachute. It's always been a dream of mine, and now I have one which means play dates are going to rock at this house.

The night before my birthday I cleaned the kitchen, baked muffins for the morning, put out a cloth table cloth, hung my own pennants, wrapped my own presents, got the birthday plate out and set the stage for a fun birthday morning. You might read all of that and think it's sort of sad. But it wasn't! I wanted all of that for my birthday and I have let Rory off the hook for my birthday expectations. I actually took great joy in setting the table for my own party.

But before we had our family party, I met girlfriends at our local breakfast place that serves $5 breakfasts. I organized this myself too and it was such a great way to start the day. I'm hopeful this becomes a birthday tradition for all of my friends in this town! We stayed for an hour and then all returned to our homes, where I found my family just starting to stir. Ivar was the only one up and was so excited to begin the day...or more accurately, to open my presents. He was pretty certain I was going to get some smoke jumpers...

Ivar and I waited for the others and read my Bible together. We turned right to Ephesians and read, "Wake up oh sleeper! The light of Jesus shines upon you!" And Ivar thought that was so awesome, because we had sleepers in the house that needed to wake up before we could open his my presents. 

Then we read about how children should honor their mom and dad so that it may go well with them. And then we read about putting on the full armor of God, which he was thrilled to see was in my Bible too, because he had already learned about the armor at kid's church. We put on each piece of the armor and prayed for our day at Lego Land, that we would be a light and shine bright.

Finally the rest of our family woke up and we met everyone at the kitchen table for blueberry muffins and presents. I got to open my parachute and Elsie and Ivar got to open the smoke jumpers. It was all very exciting.

It was 9:00 and already this day was a success. But then we got everyone dressed and loaded up the car to head to A Mall of Themerica...

(I was going to make this a two-part blog, but I'm just going to plow through...)

Elsie picked out her own beautiful outfit for our special trip to the Mall and she was disappointed that I wasn't going to wear a dress for our special outing. It has been a while since we've been to the mall, and I felt like a tourist. We only went to the fun places, and man we had fun. Lego Land was the top priority, followed by the Disney Store. Legos and Princesses. That sort of sums up my kids these days.

Elsie was spellbound by all of the princess dresses and accessories. That store felt so much like Disney World...the smell was the same, the music, the lights, the happy workers.

This was Hattie's first time in the stroller. Which is crazy, but she was born in October and we haven't been anywhere that has required a stroller since. We ran from the car into the mall and she was smiling so huge the whole time. Her eyes were set on mine, trying to figure out how she was gliding along so smoothly. It was awesome and hilarious. And she was incredible the entire day. She napped and smiled and was happy to be taking in the mall. This was when we were in Barnes and Nobel eating birthday dippin' dots.

We ate at the food court and watched the roller coasters, went to the American Girl doll store, watched the fun at Build a Bear Workshop and decided to call it a day. It was so fun and the perfect way to spend a birthday, doing things my family all loves (and Rory was a good sport to even be at the Mall of America...not his first pick!)

So that's the story of my successful birthday. The bottom line: plan it yourself, but plan it for the one's you're with, plan it so it's fun and special and plan it so that it is certain to be a very happy birthday. Here's to 35!

we love board games!

Have I ever told you that Rory loves to create board games? I just went through my pictures and found just a sampling of the games he has created throughout our marriage. There were pictures of us playing a card game he created with our own set of playing cards made out of index cards and taped icons on each one. That was back when we lived in Nebraska. Then he created another game called Sojourners that we played a lot.

Most of the games he has created have been tested on our nieces and nephews. I imagine it has become a bit expected by our family that Rory will want to test out a new version of his latest game. It's so fun and creative, and they always offer back awesome, helpful feedback.

Four years ago we went to learn about tree tapping at Murphy's Landing, and on the drive home we brainstormed what a board game could be like that centers on tapping maple trees. We loved the idea and Rory went home and drew up the first version of Sugar Maple. This week we got a package in the mail...his first printed game. He created every playing card, token and even the box cover. He created many of the graphics himself and designed the entire game board from scratch using photoshop. I am so proud of this one. Because the game is gorgeous. But not only is it really nicely designed, it is also super fun to play. At the moment I am working on an educators guide that would be included with each game so that a teacher could use this game as a part of a unit on tapping trees for maple syrup. Our imagination is flying with more games with this same vision. Our name is Grovestead Games and the tagline is: Always Educational. Oh, I love it so much! 

Rory wrote about Sugar Maple over on his blog, with pictures of the final design. It was so exciting when that box was delivered. We opened it up and played the game right away. And this game is awesome. It's the right pace, there is strategy but we had no idea who was going to win. Elsie and Ivar could play easily with our assistance to help with the math. It's so fun. And fun to see a vision become something so finished. Hooray for Sugar Maple!

still tuckered, part 2

I woke up this morning to my mom calling. I knew right then that maybe my blog post yesterday was a little melodramatic. She was calling to check on me and find out why I am so tired.

We haven't really adjusted to daylight savings at this house. Everyone just goes to bed an hour later, or later than that actually. And Rory and I are sucked into a Masterpiece Classic called Poldark. Have you watched this yet? Every episode can span the time of a year, which means the pace of the show is fast and the story is always moving. We are plowing through the first season and going to bed later and later. But then Hattie is still waking up to be fed, and she's ready to start her day even if the rest of us are definitely not.

A funny thing happened today, though. Hattie took two very long naps. And Ivar and Elsie have played together nicely all day long. I have accomplished so much, and for all the frustration I felt the last two days for not getting anything done, today has been downright productive. Which makes me believe even more that on the days when it seems I can't get anything done, it really would be best to just stop trying.  Because a productive day will come, maybe even the very next one.

But I'm glad I wrote all of that yesterday because it still stands true. When I was writing it I was wondering if I was risking sounding like a melancholy downer. But I hope when my girls read my blog one day, they have an honest view of the absolute joy and happiness I feel in being a mom, as well as the exhaustion and character that comes from serving my family in this role.

Later this morning my mother-in-law sent me a recent blog post by Ann Voskamp. I read it and enjoyed every single word. So I'll leave you now to click on over and read it for yourself. You'll be glad you did.

tuckered out

Grandpa Paul sent these bull hats for the kids and they loved them. :) 

Rory spent the weekend sitting next to the evaporator, boiling down the maple sap into syrup. Truth-be-told, we were not quite ready for the weather to get warm this fast. Now hear me, the weather has been awesome. But tree tapping caught us by surprise, and suddenly we are gearing up for the whole hobby farming season to begin. I was so ready for winter to come back in October so we could rest after doing so much last spring, summer and fall. And now the winter has ended and I don't feel rested yet to start it up again! I got my hair cut today and my hair lady kept asking me questions and I realized I had answered a lot of them with some variation on, "I'm just so tired..." 

Which is saying something because I've been eating right, getting outside, taking my vitamins, drinking water and drinking tea instead of caffeine. But sleep has been a problem lately, and therefore I am tuckered.

The other thing is that I've been battling that part of me that wants to be productive every day. But some days are completely reactionary when you're home with your kids. I tried so hard to get a few things done yesterday, but they didn't get done. Some days (lots of days) that's just how it goes. I am trying to grade myself on the Panera Plan again. And trying to relax my own agenda to make lots of room for kids that love books read to them, ask for snacks all day long, get hurt and need band-aids and hugs, need to know how to spell new words, can't find the tape to hang their artwork, and a baby who needs her diaper changed, belly filled, and who likes to be held upright all day long to see all that is happening. It fills a day, it does. And I am grateful for this sweet season, so I'll just head for bed now and hope to be more chipper tomorrow...

it should be a holiday

It's becoming my very favorite day of the year. But it's on a different day every year. And I never seem to see it coming. Also it wouldn't be the same day for every mom in Minnesota, based on their personal calendar. But Tuesday was my day. Yours might be this Saturday.

There is nothing like the first day that the weather is warm enough to be able to mother outside. It's just my favorite day. And I forget what it feels like throughout the winter.

But Tuesday was my day. I cleaned out the garage, which is basically one of my top five favorite things to do on planet earth. I love cleaning out the garage, organizing the shelves, sweeping it out. (This might be genetic, as my dad is a joyful garage cleaner too...) I cleaned the garage while Ivar and Elsie drew with sidewalk chalk, brought toys back out to the rock box, found jump ropes and balls that had been put away all winter. They were busy keeping themselves busy.

Oh it's such a fun day. A little foretaste of the summer days to come. And then today we had our first picnic on the back stoop. Elsie commented that she likes eating her food outside and I told her that food tastes better outside. It's a mystery of the universe, but it is true. Ivar thought about it for a moment while he chewed his grilled cheese and confirmed, "it really is true!"