Birthday Boy

Oh how I love the Birthday Boy.

Over dinner tonight, which were Navajo tacos (my fry bread finally turned out perfect), I was reminded of something Vy would do as a young tot. I was handing out everyone's pills--Toki is on some kind of acid inhibitor, Lolo is taking antibiotics for strep, and Vy is taking DHA pills--when I told the boys what Vy would do when he was sick and we would give him medicine.

100% of the time, I would begin offering his medication gently, the offer would turn into bribing and coaxing and then after he would absolutely, positively refuse to take any medicine it would become a wrestling match. One or two of us would pin him down, and this was no pretty thing, he's a fighter, and all red and sweaty in the face he would eventually be forced to swallow whatever it was we were giving him. 100% of the time we would get the same exact response--Not only would he throw up the medicine, he would throw up everything else that was down there. Serves us right. (A good response right now would be to laugh at us. No rude or judgmental thoughts please.)

On top of that, it took us a while to learn because we were hoping he would outgrow his messy response. And for a long time I felt it was the responsible thing to do to help him get better. However, we finally came to realize that he would just get better on his own.

So for his birthday, I made sugar cookies in Springy cut outs, to decorate. I boiled up a lot of eggs to decorate, and pulled out the stamps and water color pencils for some art. It ended up being too many activities, too many kids, too few hands to help, and a lot of chaos. :0)


Sorry no pics. of the chaos; we were too busy being chaotic.



Of course, we had to have a pinata. And yes, someone got whacked. Good thing it was one of my own, the birthday boy to be exact. This awesome pinata came from our local mercado. If anyone knows how to get a pinata right, it's those guys. BTW, tomatillos were 35 cents/lb. wow!



Last minute, I decided I probably should make a cake. But, I didn't have a cake mix. So it was from scratch--poppy seed cake. I used almond extract instead of vanilla, and canola oil instead of shortening. It turned out.

The boys in his class are so cute and fun.

And here's the birthday boy in all his glory. Something funny I want to remember. He got $6 from his papa and baba. With it, he bought a puffle pet that came with a code to unlock a gift on his club penguin account. Little did he know that when his older brother used it first on his own account that it would no longer work for his own. pooey. So then for his birthday, one of his friends gave him a penguin and a puffle pet. He was so excited! Only to find out the codes were already used. pooey again.

This party was all planned, organized, with invitations sent out just four days before the big day. I was looking at the calender and realized I didn't have much time and really no other days would work out better than that Friday. Love this little boy. It's all worth the chaos.

What the heck. What I wore. The top has no sleeves. I didn't have a top I liked to wear with it so I actually made the one I'm wearing from an old black shirt that morning. Chopped and sewed.

Good Bye Darth Vader

Darth Vader passed away.....who knows when....it looked alive to me at a glance. But nevertheless it was dead and today we had his funeral....I was cleaning the kitchen and the dead fish was bugging me. I called the boys to meet me in the bathroom. I didn't get farther than, "We gather here this day to lay to rest our dear fish," when Lolo breaks down in tears. I was good and held back my chuckles.

We proceeded to say our goodbyes, one of us more tearful than others. And we gracefully poured out his tank, careful not to drop his rocks. But then he got stuck to the side of the glass and shaking the tank didn't help, actually it was a flower vase. His tank shattered to pieces when the boys dropped it on their way to take it to our neighbors house before we left for a road trip. Poor Darth...more than once he has fought for his life. I can imagine him flapping around on the sidewalk while the boys ran back to the house to get a cup of water for him. I didn't have another tank so we improvised with the glass vase. Anyway, back to the hear and now. We poured some water into his vase and swished it around and he finally went into his final resting place. I proceeded to flush the toilet. Lolo was distraught. The toilet? How can this be the right place? Fish love the water and this is the best place for him, I explained. He doesn't even know his body is down there. His spirit lives on in a better place. Lolo seemed to be o.k. with that. He returned to his room to mourn for a few more minutes. So tender. Not more than a couple hours later we replaced Darth with an ugly Goldfish that Lolo calls Goldy. It's so ugly, Toki said this during dinner...."Mom, the fish is so gross I'm going to throw up." Poor Goldy will no longer be invited to dinner. It really is a gross looking fish. He has one bulging eye, a swollen see through tummy, and is just flat out sickly looking. We really will miss Darth.

LOVE these videos and this song

I first was introduced to this song by Justin Timberlake. I laughed and laughed. Then I saw the actual video by Beyonce and loved the song and video even more. Then one day on facebook I saw the video with the baby and fell in love with the baby. Love this song....it gets me moving....maybe one day we'll do our own rendition.

(And this is the full baby video that's worth watching)


And Erica introduced me to this video. I'm even more in love now.

Recent Notes

Made play dough with the boys. For Vy's birthday party, we are thinking of doing a "play dough making" party....but it turned out to be very messy and tricky....so maybe not.

Notice Lolo's sleeve is wet. He sucks on it. Toki has been doing this for years as well. Where does it come from and why? Well.....I did it as a kid. I use to pull clothes from the dryer or washer and suck on them. I use to suck on the collar. Weird, I know. But I craved it. Don't know why.

I thought this was super sweet. The other day, Chris' tool box broke. Lolo one morning after he woke up, immediately asked for a wash cloth. He emptied out his craft box, cleaned it out, and told me this is for daddy's tools. Pure sugar.

Vy, finding a snack. He's so independent. It's actually quite nice. He'll make himself a sandwich and a cup of chocolate milk for lunch.

Here he is working on an art contest project. Water color pencils. My kids love them.


A cute snap shot I love. With the coloring of the picture and the old couches, it looks like it came from the 70s.

Toki loves scouts. Flying his home made kite.

It took us a couple weeks but we finished this version of the Wizard of Oz. Then watched the movie. Wow, the boys really looked forward to reading time together. Next in line....some abridged version of Alice in Wonderland....the new movie looks fabulous.

It finally snowed.

It's pretty....but I'm truly ready for Spring and Summer.


Celebrated White Day today. In Japan this is the day men do something for their women. Sort of a make up day for Valentine's. This year I flaked on Valentine's Day and so for White day, we had some artichokes and I set up a chocolate fondue. I think the artichokes were the hit though.

Love my family.

not a hard thing to do.

We're Robert Downey Jr. Fans

Loved Iron Man I. Looks liked the whole movie was summed up in the trailer but still looking forward to it.