Happy Birthday Eva and Micah!

Micah in his spiffy new Woody jammies, with "Bulleyes" and his fire extinguisher that actually squirts! (haven't told him yet because he'll be a menace with it)

Eva so pleased and excited that she finally got the Jessie she's been wanting for months

I didn't do a special post for Micah on his birthday because Andrew was out of town. We were going to celebrate a few days later... but a few days morphed into two weeks. He didn't seem to mind and we thought it might be nice (read: easier for us) to have them open their presents at the same time, share a piñata, etc...

This morning when Eva got up the rest of us were already up and watching some Lazy Town. We greeted her with a song but that was a little overwhelming so early in the morning and sent her running out of the room. When she re-emerged Micah gave her a big birthday hug and greetings. I think we all enjoyed it more than Eva did though :)

So now the kids are officially two and four! When I ask Micah how old he is, he says, "Big."

Eva is quite excited to now be four. Though there are some things she's waiting on until she's eight. Watching "The Wizard of Oz". Initiating relationships with her classmates. Attending English class at school (doesn't like parts of the teacher's face). Standing up during music class.

Today when we dropped Eva off at school, she cried. This school thing is good, but incredibly draining for her. By today she was feeling just about done. Good thing it's the weekend!

They had a pretty fun day at school. They worked on the traditional Day of the Dead display, did cooking class, and had music class. Eva sang one of the music class songs on and off all afternoon. For snack I sent a cake and they had a little birthday celebration for her. Sang to her in both english and spanish. Eva did a little some kinda something with a globe (I didn't quite understand her explanation) and then she served her classmates.

She really loved the cake! I am so glad. I don't have a tried and true, go-to cake recipe so I practiced this week. Made three cakes. The first one, chocolate zucchini, turned out well but she didn't really like it. The second one, carrot cake with chocolate chips, turned out ok and she didn't like it. Last chance, last night. High pressure situation. I went with a simple vanilla cake. And didn't hear the timer go off. Came out a little overcooked. But I slathered the fresh whipping cream on those hockey pucks and garnished liberally with fresh strawberries and kiwi. I figured if the cake were inedible, they could still enjoy the fruit and whipped cream. It really did look nice, if I do say so myself. When we picked her up, Eva commented how much she loved her birthday cake! Phew!

Day of the Dead altar display

Andrew took the day off today (!!!). So great. We picked Eva up after school and went to a restaurant called Peter Piper Pizza. One of those places with the games that give you tickets you can redeem for cheap plastic goodies. Kids ate a lot of pizza and played a lot. We played a lot too. Got addicted to the basketball game. It was fun but also gave me a headache.

Goat in back of truck on the way to the pizza place

Self-portrait in Peter Piper Pizza. You can see Eva and Andrew in the background

We came home and opened presents. Big success on that front! Then we had strawberries and whipped cream. We have a piñata but figured we'd had enough excitement already. So we postponed it until tomorrow morning. The kids fell asleep in a flash.