Celebrating Angelina's 5th Birthday

Angelina has been asking, oh, since December, when her birthday party would be. I explained July. When is that? "When it gets hot again." Only it's been hotter than hell since April. She's been to tons of birthday parties all year, and has been not so patiently waiting for her own. In the past week, every morning she'd wake saying "Is today my party?"

Finally, FINALLY, the day of the party arrived!


Her actual birthdate is July 3, but because that's usually a holiday weekend, we've been having her party early. This year, we celebrated June 26, which also happens to be our Swiss Wedding Anniversary (7 years!).






Invited were all the kids in her class, a bunch of neighborhood playmates, assorted other friends with kids. Turned out to be quite the shindig!

Angelina is absolutely obsessed with an out of production PBS show, Dragon Tales (we watch on Netflix). I'm not good with theme birthday parties, but I thought I'd try...

This year we have our pool up (3ft x 15ft), kiddie pool for the little guys, trampoline, and thanks to our wonderful neighbor Fredo, who initially asked me months ago if we'd be having a party because he really wanted to hire a pony (he knew a guy...), pony rides. All this turning our house into quite the Fun House.




And having heard my Dad say enough times that no matter how many adults are around during a party, someone must be lifeguard, I took it to heart and asked our neighborhood teen/housesitter to act as lifeguard during the party. Best decision ever. even though it's only 3 ft deep, with 15+ kids playing in it it can get a bit crazy, and it'd be hard for parents to really watch, esp. if they also have a younger kid around.

The ponies were a huge hit, once the kids got over the shock. I didn't tell anyone, including most of the parents, so it was a surprise for all. The kids were more surprised than excited at first, but then they loved it. Most got to have multiple rides.


Then back to the pool.

Then the piñata.

Then singing Happy Birthday.

And back to the pool.

A great party!

Quotable Quotes

"Mommy, can I have salsa? It has to be hot." (says the girl who lives on plain pasta with cheese.)
"I want to breathe fire!"
and she ate it, with crackers and lots of water..



No, this is not an announcement.
Angelina "Mommy, do you think it's a sister?"
Me "HUH?"
A: "The baby in your belly, is it a baby sister? You have a big belly." (as she pats my belly)
Me: "No, sweetie, there's no baby in my belly, that's just fat."
A: "Well, you and Papa need to get working on it."








Having made some art project, Angelina presents it to Papa.
Frederic: "What is it?"
Angelina: "I don't know, but would you mind liking it?"


Angelina: "Can we paint the house today?"
Me: "You can paint your play house."
Angelina: "No, that's already pretty. We have to paint the big house. It needs to have a rainbow painted on to make it beautiful."
Think the historic commission will ok a rainbow? This is Lavaca afterall...


A: "We need to buy Papa a race car so he can drive really fast."
Me: "Who's going to buy it."
A: "Us."
Me "Who has the money for it?"
A: "I know! We can ask Maya. She has lots of money!" (Maya is one of her friends. Later she mentioned something about lots of coins, guessing Maya has a piggy bank?)


‎6PM. Angelina, lips blue and shivering from being in the pool for the better part of 4 hours, "Mommy, after I take a bath [chattering teeth], can I go back in the pool?" Yes, she's my kid.



Angelina: "It hasn't rained in a loooong time. The water machine must be broken."


Daylight Savings Time! Angelina: "The sun is not down, it isn't night time yet."


Angelina "So when are we going to get a puppy?"
Me "Puppies are a lot of work. We have to walk it, and we have to train it to go poop outside, then pick up the poop."
Angelina "I know an idea! Chakapu [our cat] can help! the puppy can use the kitty potty [litter box]! Chakapu would be really happy to help the puppy!"





"I want a new book. It's called 'Mommy Turns Into a Monster.'"

"Mommy, today I'm going to be good and sweet."

"Guess what Mommy! Switzerland is out of chocolate...do you know why? Because I ate it all!"

"Mommy, for my birthday, I want a surprise party! Can you plan a surprise for me? And I want a big cake, and Zoe (her friend) will be inside, and then come out and everyone will say 'SURPRISE!'"



"I want to be a global Traveler. I want to save the world!"
"Est-ce que you have the poi'eau?"
"I want to be a clown." Then a few days later, "I want to be a clown so I can be in the circus!"

So attached to Papa

This morning, as we were leaving for school co-op*, Angelina started crying. It wasn't the temper tantrum type cry but rather a sad, sweet cry. Finally, between sniffles she sobs "Papa forgot to give me a hug goodbye this morning."

I thought by the time I picked her up this afternoon she'd forgotten about that....about 3pm, when she asked what I was doing and I told her I was sending an email to Papa to ask him something, she said "Then you have to tell him he forgot to give me a hug."

An hour later...she's going to the neighbor Felice's house to play, she said "I have to tell Felice Papa didn't give me a hug this morning and I'm so sad."


Finally, Papa is home, she's busy playing in the pool and forgets all about him. Until dinner time and she says, almost in tears "Papa, you didn't give me a hug today!"

Funny thing is, he did give a hug and a kiss!

Sibling Fun

Lenaïc's favourite thing is to push stuff around. If it has wheels, all the better (better for our floors, too). Fortunately, Angelina's favourite thing is to ride and be pushed.

They make a good team.

Cancer Free!

It's official.

Frédéric had his first post-op blood work and CT scan. AFP normal! CT scan, normal!
If the lymph node dissection hadn't removed all the cancer, his blood markers would be increasing by now. They're not, so his testicular cancer is gone. The CT scan results also suggest the kidney cancer is gone.

Of course he'll have to continue close surveillance (blood work every 6 weeks, CT scan in 6 months - will probably be chest x-ray then CT scan of other regions). Having had it once, he's at increased risk to have it again. But at this time, it looks like the decision NOT to do chemo was the right one (thanks Dr. Einhorn at Indiana Univeristy!)

On the recovery front, he's pretty much back to normal too. He got an infection in the incision which was pretty painful and yucky for awhile, but that was resolved with oral antibiotics (thankfully! was worried for awhile it'd required IV/hospital). He's been cycling with us, building a fence, playing in the pool. All things a summer should be!

Stacking

Little Monsters