Kevin went to The Netherlands on a business trip for a week, during which the boys and I were extremely happy to welcome Gran-Gran to the Menagerie House. I just remembered that I did post about her toy-induced trip to the ER, but really, other than that one bad night, we all had a wonderful visit. Our only complaint is that it was too short, but the good news is that she will return, hopefully for Kiri’s birthday party at the end of March.

Since Kiri is a bit young to care much about the specifics of his party, his brother was happy to step in and take charge of the situation. He was more than happy to instruct Kiri as to the importance of a desirable theme for his party, and he came up with two themes. He couldn’t decide which one, robots (since “Kieran needs to learn about robots”) or food (since Kiri has yet to meet a food he dislikes), was best, so I asserted my maternal rights and picked a Spring theme.

That was partly because I’ve had enough Winter, and partly because I want to make the cake. I’ve gotten all into decorating cookies this winter, and I would like to expand my horizons a bit and try a fancy cake. I’ve had my eye on this bunny cake pan for a while, and with a recent sale at my favorite baking store, Fancy Flours, I was able to finally able to fit it into our budget. I think I will have to make two bunnies for his party, and then possibly I’ll make some egg and baby bunny shaped cookies for the children to take home. I thought it would be cute to make carrot cakes, but they are so moist I don’t know if they’d really make stable 3-dimensional bunnies. I may punt and make one chocolate and one French vanilla, or possibly lemon. Perhaps I will think about how to decorate them and draw inspiration from that. Also, I’d best got on the mission of consulting a calendar and picking a date for the fiesta.

While I’m on a creative segment here, I’ll mention that I have joined Chichimama’s latest knit-a-long. I would love a pair of nice warm mittens, so these will be for me. Since being frugal is so very necessary chic these days, I turned to my stash for yarn and found a nice variegated purple-pink heavy cotton yarn. My only concern is that the colors are so busy that the main artistic point of the mittens, a long cable running from wrist to fingertip, will be hidden. Then again, I want to make this “Just Enough Ruffles” scarf at some point, so maybe I’ll go ahead with the pink and purple first for fun and to get mitten knitting experience, and then pick up a pretty solid color color later to make a second pair of cable mittens and a JER scarf in the same color. I’m almost finished with my gauge swatch and it looks like it’ll be spot on, which rarely happens for me, so clearly the variegated yarn would be quite usable for this pattern. I just have to sew together the sweater I’m working on for Kiri to wear this Spring and then I’m free to make the mittens.

Speaking of creative pursuits, Santa left an easel for Liam this year. He loves to use it on days when he is willing to stay still for a few minutes, and Kiri has taken quite a shine to painting himself. When I chose the word “himself” I didn’t mean it in the literal sense…

..but Kiri took it that way.

The statement, “Kiri, we only paint paper!”

…does not stop Kieran, the All-Surface Painter.

Now, of course, if one is decorating cookies with frosting then one obviously has edible media on  hand…

…and on face. How amazing is that???

But the best part – the most exciting artistic discovery ever…

…is that a loyal dog makes such a huggable canvas!

In other news, we are seeing the beginnings of sibling rivalry these days. It is clear that the boys adore each other. When he is unaware of adult eyes Liam will not uncommonly watch Kiri play for a few minutes and then walk over, give him a big kiss, and whisper “I love you, Kiri K!” And every day at 8:30 A.M. the saddest boy in the world is Kieran. That’s because Liam’s kindergarten starts then and we have to leave him at school for a few hours. As we get into the car, Kieran will point to Liam’s car seat and shout, “Yee-Yee! Yee-Yee! Mommy! Yee-Yee! Now!” (He hasn’t gotten the hang of the “L” sound yet.) And the tears, they flow. On days when Kiri is inconsolable I will turn into the driveway of the house immediately behind the school. It belongs to one of the faculty members, and it affords a good view of the kindergarten play yard where Liam and his classmates are at play. We watch for a few minutes until I am able to calm Kiri enough to make it through the morning.

On the other hand, however, there are loud and screechy daily battles over my lap because neither child will share that spot with the other. And when Kiri misbehaves, Liam is not above reminding me that whatever the crime (large or minute) in question is, well of course, it is most certainly not his doing.

“Mommy, good job cleaning Kiri up. You see, I am old enough to know that painting my face is wrong, wrong, wrong. And Kiri…is not.”"

Point taken, kiddo. Now, enough crowing already.

Valentine’s day is upon us. It’s not a holiday I pay much attention to, but it is a big one with the grade school set. Liam’s class had a Valentine’s Day celebration today. Each child brought in a Valentine of his or her making, and then they had a swap…

..and Liam got to bring home this beauty.

And then, after snack…

…they made heart necklaces from felt and wool roving…

(not the best photo with part of Kiri’s head there, but it shows off the hearts the best of the ones I took)

…and made Valentine’s Day ornaments. I have never seen an ornament like this, and I think it’s gorgeous.

Liam was especially proud of this one since he made all of it himself with the exception of tying the knot on the thread. “I even sewed the ribbon into a loop by myself, Mommy!”

And here it is in its place of honor on our “Valentine’s Day tree.” The boys and I made Valentines and hung them on the tree while whiling away our Snow Day last week.

The Snow Day was also a great time to play with the ferrets…

…get them all rowdy…

…and more than ready for a nap!

This is Pippi enjoying an afternoon siesta.

I’ve spent way too much time on this post already, so I will end it here. These, my friends, have been the highlights of the last couple of Menagerie House weeks. Lots of everyday fun and games about sums it up, and I am not complaining one bit. So come back soon, ya’ll, and I’ll give you a knitting update (with pictures) and a collection of Cute Conversations.

Happy Valentine’s day!

Since we were trying to keep things simple and non-stressful, we didn’t plan any formal activities. Instead, we let the children play as they wished for about an hour, maybe a bit more. The visitors loved checking out Liam’s toys, and he had a fun time showing them off. We set out some chips, a fruit plate, and a veggie tray along with cider for hungry guests, and the adults had a good time visiting and watching the children play. I have some very sweet pictures from that early part of the party, but I’m not going to post them as I don’t have permission to show the other children in this format.

After the children were played out and asking for cake, we brought it out. Liam asked for a ‘purple robot cake” this year. It took me a few days of careful conversation to figure out what constitutes a purple robot cake, but after consultation with both Liam and the bakery, the masterpiece turned out like this:

Liam just squealed with delight when I arrived back from the bakery with this cake, and judging by the squeals of his friends, they liked it too. It is a 12 inch round cake with one devil’s food layer and one yellow layer. It was frosted with vanilla buttercream frosting, and the decorating was done in two shades of light and dark purple icing.

Liam blew out his candle, and then we all had ice cream and robot cake. While the adults cleaned up a bit, the children played some more. Then Liam opened his birthday presents:

This one turned out to be a crown from one of his classmates…

…and this is a train music box from Kevin and me.

Finally he worked his way through his presents. The younger children were looking like they’d had enough fun, and it was getting dark and cold outside. People started heading off into the evening, but before going out the door, each child received one of these:

Some children decided to have their purple robot cookies as dessert after dinner, while others were eaten before the buckles were snapped on car seats.

All in all a fun party, a happy birthday boy, and a nice afternoon visiting with friends.

And now – time to start the Christmas decorating in earnest!

I started cheering, Liam joined in, and Kevin came down the stairs to see what the commotion was about. Today is Kevin’s 40th birthday, and it is as if those steps were Kiri’s big present to his Daddy on a milestone birthday. Kevin was a bit miffed that he missed the steps, but he’s going to get to see lots of them soon. And there’ll be a second hand to grab onto when crossing streets and parking lots. What a great feeling – two little warm hands to hold, love, and encourage. Happy Fourtieth, Kevin!

I’ve had a realization of my own, too. I guess things are different with the second child because the first thing that went through my head was, “Don’t walk too close to the steps!” Then I did a double-take and my thought changed to, “Oh, wait, he’s not walking yet. Wait… yes he is! Those were his first steps, right here on the porch!” When this happened with Liam, I’d been waiting for steps for seemingly forever with baited breath, encouraging him frequently, and despairing when he was 14 months and not walking. Kieran, on the other hand, at 14 months, started walking and it took me a minute to realize we had just climbed one of the big childhood milestones. And to realize I’m not fretting every little thing with him the way I did with Liam. I hadn’t even been worrying about another late walker because I was too busy having fun with the boys. And that realization is a pretty darn big parenting milestone, too.

It’s been a wonderful day!

At any rate, Kieran’s birthday this year actually fell on Easter Sunday, April 23rd. We figured that that Sunday probably was not the best time for a party, so we voted for the next weekend, April 29th. Liam and I chose a “teddy bear” theme for the event, and we had some fun picking out teddy bear napkins, cups, and so on at Target. While we were there we found some fun teddy bear stickers for goody bags, and of course Liam was allowed to add another engine to his collection of trains because you can’t go to Target and only buy stuff for one kiddo, right? (That wouldn’t be fair at all, or so I was informed.)

We invited a pretty small number of close friends and neighbors. While there were a few families who couldn’t make the party due to various conflicts, we still had enough people to make for a cheery afternoon without the whole thing being crowded, noisy, and generally overwhelming for the children in attendance. My general plan was that we would have some snacks, the children could do a craft activity while the grown-ups visited, and then we would have cake and ice cream and the older children could help the Birthday Boy open his presents. As happens with most plans involving small children, things didn’t go quite to plan, but things still worked out well.

We had all of the families but one arrive pretty much together. We got everyone inside and set out the drinks and snacks. It was such a beautiful warm day that after about five minutes Liam and his friend J from across the street decided they wanted to go play in the backyard. After that, all the children decided to play outside, so instead of doing the craft project, we ended up with the grown-ups and Kieran inside visiting, and the big kids and a couple of dads out in the yard playing catch. After a while our missing family arrived – they have 15 month old twins and had been forced by an errant overtime nap to either arrive late or awaken a sleeping toddler. I’d say they made the right choice, wouldn’t you!

We finally realized that we were 2/3 of the way through our allotted party time, so we decided to bring out the fun stuff – cake, ice cream, and presents. We got the cake from the same bakery that made Liam’s birthday cake last fall; that cake was so delicious that the thought of having again brought big smiles to our faces. So we ordered the chocolate-chip cake with buttercream frosting, but minus the fire engine theme. This cake was decorated in blue and yellow icing, with a teddy bear, some balloons, and “Happy Birthday, Kieran!” drawn on the top. We treated Kiri to a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday to You!” and everyone dug in to the goodies.

I fed Kieran some cake, and he spit it out. I tried it again – he spit it out again, and then flat out refused the rest. Ever ready to help his brother in a moment of need, Liam consoled Kiri with, “Don’t worry, Kieran! I’m right here and I’m your big brother. You don’t have to eat things you don’t like on your birthday, that’s my rule. So I’ll eat your cake for you. Don’t worry!” I am happy to report, however, that Kiri about threw himself out of my lap in his haste to eat more ice cream, so the Birthday Boy did end up having a tasty treat on his birthday after all.

By that time some of the children were tired and some of the families had to leave to take care of them or to go various places. We said our good-by’s and thanks you’s, and then with the remaining guests we sat down and helped Kiri with the unwrapping. We truly have some wonderful friends who love our children, and after the unwrapping, Kiri was left with some much-needed warm weather clothes and an assortment of fun toys including an airplane, a truck, and a puzzle.

By far his favorite gift is a fabulous “Gnome Home.” I’m actually planning to tell you more about this toy in another post as it is just a work of art and you really have to see it at a time when you’re not skimming through an already-too-long post. My friend and talented knitter Lisa knitted and then felted a woolen house with removable felted roof. Then she knitted a half-dozen wee gnomes who live inside the house. Kieran loves to pull the gnomes out and drop them back in their home time after time. Sometimes, though, he prefers to sit and watch out the window while rubbing one of the soft little gnomes across his chubby baby face. It is the sweetest thing to see.

And with that, after everyone was filled with cake and the last present unwrapped, we looked around at a collection of now very tired children. Our remaining guests collected their belongings and their children and made their way home. It really was a wonderful party. To those of you who were there, thank you so much for coming; it’s a pleasure to have such wonderful friends with whom to share the milestones of our children’s lives. And to those who couldn’t make it, no worries, I’ve got the pictures below!

The Birthday Boy waiting eagerly for his party to start…

Here come his Big Brother with the balloons. Everyone knows you need balloons or it just isn’t a party.

“Hey, look! I’ve got my own balloon! Whee!”

Here’s a shot of Kevin telling Liam to keep his hands out of the birthday cake. Liam couldn’t for the life of him figure out how Daddy knew he was stealing the icing. Hee hee!

The cake with its candle, all ready to go!

“Mommy, Mommy, ice cream! More! Ice cream! Where have you guys been hiding this stuff all my life?”

Seriously, I have never seen a baby sign “more” so quickly and clearly.

Wow, who knew birthday parties are so fun? I mean, where else can a guy find all this crinkly paper to tear and cardboard boxes to play with?”

And here’s Mr. One himself. He was so worn out he fell asleep in the middle of dinner. It was fortuitous that we had already gotten him ready for bed.

And there you have it – the run-down on Kieran’s 1st Birthday. Thank you for sticking it out this far and reading all the way to the bottom. For my next post I promise the keep the word “brevity” in mind as I write. Have a wonderful evening, everyone!