kirsten's birthday party

Here's the cake, sprinkled nicely.  Julia showed up shortly and wanted to park a bunch of weird toys on it.  I told her to please not to.  "Let's just leave it plain this time."   Hmm.

It's not as exciting as it could have been true.



Kids eating supper above, and all the kids in the dining room eating with my dad.  Me and Mom were in the living room.  Others were in the kitchen.

 Time for gifts.  b.g. was excited to help. 

 Here's t.g., the little brother person, perfectly delectable.

And the birthday girl, cute as ever:

The cake, the candles, the singing, all good.

 Here's the rebel child, who realized he was going to have to leave at the end of the evening and then turned ornery.

He pushed his little girl cousin p.j. in the hallway.  It was unclear why.  Maybe he was protecting her from Tim's room, which he deemed scary.  (The new weird lamp?)  Or he didn't want her near the cars he wanted to drive?  Who knows?  She was most insulted and told a dramatic version of the situation.

Then when it was time go to, things were thrown, attitude prevailed and we weren't sure whether to laugh or look stern.  Stern isn't easy, honestly.  THEN he poured out a bottle of water on the living room rug and it was curtains for him.  "Time to go!  We're leaving now!"  Kisses and hugs, and they fled.

Then all at once, there he was at the door by himself.  Of course we let him in and he said, "b.g. not want to go home. I want to stay here more."

Okay, that's a true story.  Angry and does not want to leave Grandma's house?  Timeless tale. I've been there myself.  Why would I ever leave Wisconsin or my grandparent's home?  Even now, the place owns me.

In a minute Alicia was at the door, and sympathetically clucked to him and took him out the door again and that was the end of the evening, pretty much.

Little Jay left to go back to Wisconsin to school, and Kirsten and I talked about work for a while.

And now it's the end of the day, technically even the next day.

Life is good.

Happy Birthday again, you beautiful girl.    love you forever, Mom