Friday, September 9, 2011

She Flies by the Seat of Her Pants

Josie woke up at 12:30am on Sept. 7th to go to the bathroom and sneak into bed with me and I surprised her by saying "Happy Birthday!" which she didn't think could be possible since it was still dark outside. (When a day ends and begins can be a tough concept to grasp.) I assured her that she was 30 minutes into being a four year old and she asked if she could still nurse (she was going to give it up on her 4th birthday, more on that in another post) and promptly went to sleep.

When she woke up "for real", you know when the sun was up and all, I was still sleeping so Rob made her favorite breakfast, steel cut oatmeal. When I finally rolled out of bed, she informed me that today was her birthday and she wanted to have a tea party.

Now we were going to do a tea party on Monday (Labor Day) and we canceled it for many various reasons and she had said this coming weekend would be fine. Now this was just a figment of my imagination and she needed to have a tea party and it needed to be now! I didn't have the makings or the energy for our favorite birthday cake. So I checked my cookbooks and cupboards to put together the following: pretzels, Caramel Almond-Oat Bars from Party Vegan, Health Valley's Amaranth Graham Crackers (we just had these on hand because cookout weather is almost upon us), baby carrots (Josie's request), and Party Vegan's Brownies with Walnuts. Not my proudest party moment and not as healthy or balanced as we like our birthday parties but, we had Good Earth Organic White Tea Sweet Citrus tea and 
This is the best I could do and she loved it. Of course, one can not just have a tea party with your mom and seven year old brother (she wasn't even willing to wait until Parker was home from school) so I contacted Gita. Luckily, Gita's girls (two of Josie's besties) are always up for a tea party and were working on her birthday presents when I called (great minds and all that). So I talked Josie into waiting just a few hours (it reminded us all of one of our favorite Mr. Putter books, Mr. Putter & Tabby Make a Wish where he decides he is not too old for birthdays and asks his good neighbor over, but she makes him wait because she is baking him a cake). She sat on the porch for a while before I convinced her that was no good.
I made her pad thai for lunch, which she ate still dressed in her pjs. I mean really, does she look ready for a party? It was her birthday after all and we can do pjs all day if we have to and besides they are organic Hannas so judge her not. As a side, we ended up ordering Thai from My Thai (Thara Thai was closed, boo!) for her birthday dinner that night (her choice, oh course) and I came to the realization that we like my pad thai a lot, I mean it is really pretty freaking awesome. I based it on Robin's in 1,000 Vegan Recipes, but I add some peanut butter, more garlic, red pepper flakes, etc. and make it my own. This time I used peas, corn, carrots, and green beans for the veggies. We were literally making mmmm noises as we ate and I felt guilty that we were enjoying it with Parker at school.

I digress.
A surprise package arrived to wile the time away. Yes, Josie finally received that KISS costume she's always wanted. (So dating myself with that one. I just don't know what was up with the tongue in this picture.)
Here we go, Pink Batgirl unmasked, much less '70s rock band and more super heroine (not heroin, get your mind off KISS). I had no idea Batgirl outfits came in pink, but they do and Josie picked it out for Halloween (how on top of it am I, I ask you?) and it serendipitously came on her birthday as I was furiously trying to put together a semblance of a tea birthday party and she was impatiently waiting for friends to arrive who did not know about said party more than an hour prior. I could have hugged the UPS man! So Josie ran around fighting crime and Dema donned his outfit. Three cheers for all the Halloween costumes arriving at once.
Queue menacing music. Oh wait, look at the cute toes, maybe just some friendly ninja music.
Apparently, it is a bit embarrassing for the dark ninja to be seen with anyone wearing all pink. Her sparkles might rub off and how on earth would be able to sneak around without being seen in the middle of the night?
A face off with the pink one? Now that is a different story. I'm sure he let her win because it was her birthday and the dark ninja did not get beat by pink Batgirl (almost half his age). Yeah, that's it.
I mean, even dark ninja's have a heart. My toothless.

Gita's girls finally (in Josie's mind) arrived and they partied. Amara and Indigo are so dressed for a fun tea party! Poor Dema in the background. Parties are hard on him, even sometimes his own. He has OCD (another post for another day) and surprises or changes in our schedule on short notice is not easy on him. He and Josie might be oil and water when it comes to being spontaneous, but they work it out. He certainly enjoyed the goodies!
Josie put all the candles on the brownies herself, but we never could get them to light because of the breeze. She was happy with the singing and we'll light something on fire this weekend.
The Caramel Almond-Oat Bars had us at "caramel". Can you see how incredibly rich these are? Just a little bite with satisfy your sweet tooth, but I had a few bites because I couldn't decide what they reminded me of...then it hit me, my mom's English toffee. Not spot on, but close enough to make me smile. The caramel didn't have time to properly set so they were gooey fun. Next time I would save some of the caramel and use it on popcorn or something. Don't even think of the calories in this one!
The kids had a great time playing in the park. Batgirl is Ms. Safety and knows not to ride her balance bike without a helmet.

Amara and Indigo sweet and wonderful gifts:
A reusable snack bag (Gita made it and in pink)! Josie has coveted the girls' snack bags for a while now and she is super jazzed to have one of her own now! Parker was almost as excited when he checked it out after school. He would love to try his hand at sewing one. Inside Josie found two adorable handmade bracelets. The girls love to dress up together so these will be well used.
How cute is this card?
And the fairy and the cute butterfly below?
My favorite is the picture from Josie's 3rd birthday party (coming in post soon) of all three girls in a tree at the park.
Because Josie never wants her friends to leave and they are always up for a sleepover, the birthday didn't really end until they all woke up together the next morning (after a night of eating Thai and watching a few too many Madeline episodes on Netflix). Josie thoroughly enjoyed her 4th birthday, even if I was all last minute or maybe because it was last minute. As our wise neighbor Vicky said when she stopped by the festivities in the park, "Sometimes spontaneous parties are the best. They can be a lot less stress." Less waiting, minimal pre-cleaning, more sweets...hmm, she might be on to something here. My four year old flies by the seat of her pants, kinda like her mama I suppose.
She is smart enough to take off her cape though, so she's one up on me.

No capes! This super ball of energy and passion makes my life so much more interesting. Happy 4th Birthday, Jo. I love you all the muches!

5 comments:

Rachel said...

I am coveting that pink Batgirl costume. So cute!

One of my coworkers brings snacks to work in little reusable fabric bags. She showed me how she makes them, and I'm going to give it a try. I'll document it on my blog. They would make great Christmas gifts.

Susan said...

awww...what a lovely birthday party for the birthday girl--Pinky Pinkster! Those caramel almond oat bars look Delish, mom!!

Love that picture from the 3rd birthday party too. Happy Birthday Josie!

Gita Carey said...

So glad and honored that we got to be included in all of Josie's birthday spontaneity. I can see another big sleepover event just might be called for next month too (and probably before then as well).

Unknown said...

These pictures are fantastic! I loove her cape- "WE CAN DO IT!"
Kerry

VeganLinda said...

Thanks everyone!
Rachel, can't wait to see your fabric bags.

Susan, they are soooo delish! I can't wait to make them again, but I know I shouldn't.

Gita, you know Josie is always up for a sleepover!

Kerry, I need a cape.