Life: Idiotropic

Today was the big day -- the day that Luci has been waiting for for more than 6 months -- the day of her 4th - oops - 4 1/2 birthday party. Yeah, her birthday was in September, but we had visitors, and then Kirk was TDY, and then there were holidays and more visitors and vacations planned and busy weekends and more TDY's... until, at last, at age 4.5 and two weeks, we finally pulled it off. One princess party with a houseful of friends.

The invitation information was printed on really cute pink princess paper. Here's the info as printed (without our contact info):

Here Ye, Here Ye…

Due to a dreadfully busy schedule in the Palace Stahlbaum at the time of Princess Lucienne’s 4^th birthday, the old Queen neglected to organize a party. In order to properly mark the joyous occasion of Luci’s birth, she is throwing a royal bash in Luci’s honour to celebrate the Princess’ 4 ½ birthday.

Your presence is now requested on behalf of Queen Tiffany to celebrate the momentous occasion of Luci’s 4 ½ birthday in grand style.

The celebration will be held at the Palace Stahlbaum on 21 April 2007 from 10:00 until 1:00.

The palace is located in the quaint village of Gillrath at...

Please call in your acceptances or regrets to the Queen herself or send an email to tifany74@yahoo.com.

So, the my girls all dressed up in their princess dresses. I had the table set with pink roses, and pretty crystal bowls to hold the treats. The cake was a castle with ice cream cone turrets.

Most of Luci's friends dressed up. They made wands, crowns, and beaded jewelry. They colored and played. We had sack races in the courtyard. Once the yard was cleared of tree debris, they played on the slide in the garden.

The one part that I never like is the present opening part -- it's boring for the other kids. This year I had all the kids sit in a circle around Luci and then the quietest ones went first to pick out their present from the pile, and hand it to Luci. Luci would open it, say thank you, and then I'd get a picture of Luci with her friend. I'll probably print out the photos to put in the thank you notes. It also is helping to keep track of who gave her what for thank yous AND it got the kids up and involved a little more so it wasn't such a boring process. The Italian's open presents as they are handed to them as guests arrive, so it is totally out of the way and not an event at all. I like that too and may try that for the next party.

I wasn't as organized as I usually like to be. Some things planned just didn't happen, but the kids all played and had a good time. Tiara painted faces and made the girls extra pretty with dress up stuff and everyone stayed at least until 1. Some stayed until 2 and then we all rushed off to ballet practice.


It was a nice evening. Luci was at dance for about an hour, then we came home for play time. Tiara had a sleepover to get to and the evening remained pleasant. The sun shining always helps.

I took these pictures tonight when I drove home from taking Tiara to her sleepover. Without our trees, it is still strange to drive into our driveway. I don't like it. It is open and brighter, but very sparse. The birds were flocking tonight in the few trees that remained inside the yard. They seemed skittish - and after losing 12 trees, I can't blame them. I'm sure we have several homeless birds pigeons here now. This is the year for changes here. No more trees and no more windmill views. The road is in now and I'm sure that in no time, the 40 new houses where yellow and purple floral fields stood last year will be built to block our view of most of the 29 windmills that Tiara can see from her bedroom window.