Last year as a single digit

Baby M1
This past weekend was M1's 9th birthday. I can't even believe it. Nine years ago I had no kids and now that's such a huge part of who I am. I can't even picture what life was like before. M1 is my starter baby. The first one. The one who teaches you all about good mothering (and bad mothering) She was a happy sleepy chubby baby. Everywhere we went people drooled over her beauty. Once when we were at a drive-thru window the cashier looked in the backseat of our car and spotted a toddler sized M1 snuggled in her car seat and the lady looked truly amazed as she turned to Kurt and I and announced (in a disturbingly shocked tone) "My, you two propagate well, don'tcha?" Yes ma'am.

new parents with M1So in honor of her 9th big birthday, we took M1 and a couple pals rollerskating on Saturday and then we ended the party back at our house for some pizza and cupcakes. It was so much fun. Lorenz got her a pair of these new skates so we went out skating again on Sunday too. We are skating fools! I had forgotten how fun it is. Soooo fun.action shot
pizza goodness
We finished up the weekend with our traditional dinner at Ichiban on Monday (her actual b-day). We started going there forM1's birthday when she turned five which was the last birthday she spent with her daddy. So we've kept going every year. Kurt had painted the big light (in the background) with the japanese kanji on them to look like aged metal (really they are wood). So it's fun to showM1 and M2 a little something their daddy made beautiful.chopstick pro
And for her birthday I published one of her books that she had recently written/illustrated,
Oh The Love My Boy. She's been begging me to scan it into the computer for months and she was so excited and giggly when she opened it. She's such a great little person and she's getting to be a great big person too.
Happy 9th Birthday little lady.

Birthday Weekend

M2 feeding her babydoll
Well, the cord to charge the camera is lost at the moment, which means no new pictures from the past week, but that would be oh so boring so I'll try to be creative. It was M2's birthday on Friday. 4 years old! Thats crazy to me, as all mamas say. Time sure flies. Actually, baby # 3 is exactly spaced with the other two by some cosmic coincidence. Either that, or I'm only fertile for like one day every four and a quarter years. Unlikely. I made M2 a "white" cake for her birthday. which is sort of funny considering it is virtually impossible to make an even semi healthy cake "white". Since i used unbleached all-purpose flour and sucanat this vanilla cake came out a lovely caramel color. I used sweetpepita's chocolate cake recipe yet again, but replaced the cocoa with extra flour and added some almond extract. I made a very light chocolate frosting for it. It was a delightful cake, and as usual, the non-vegans in the house were very impressed with the great taste.

On Sunday we went and renewed our membership at the Reading Public Museum. I love that place! It has just the right amount of stuff to get through it in timely manner (good for small kids), but it also has such a variety of things, natural history, cultures, art, crafts, and they are constantly getting pretty great traveling exhibits. This past weekend was Fiber weekend which coincided with the Hot House exhibit. I really enjoyed the exhibit, very inspiring to see what people are doing in the textile arts these days. Annet Couwenberg's Act Normal And That's Crazy Enough 2002

But my main reason for mentioning the museum is to give you all a little tip! I join this museum almost every year. A family membership is only $60 a year! But wait, there's more... That membership means that my family can stop by there for free any time we want, plus we get a bunch of guest passes and free admission to the planetarium. But, that's still not the best part! When you join this museum you become part of this system of reciprocal museums. This basically means you get free admission to much more expensive museums in cities big and small around the world! We have used our membership to access the Pittsburgh Children's Museum, The Carnegie Science Center, museums in Cleveland and Philadelphia, the list is CRAZY!! Everywhere you go you can use this membership card. They have never given me any trouble, the reciprocating museums are thrilled to have you there no matter how many times you visit. I would say that in the course of a year, our membership to the Reading Public Museum pays for itself more than 20 times over! Just a tip for all of you parents out there who enjoy visiting museums when your traveling with the family. Go out and support a small science museum in your town or be like me and support the neighboring towns museum, and for goodness sake please take advantage of this amazing system.