Mother's Day/Improvised Birthday "Party"

Saturday, May 8, we woke Sofie up before church and wished her a simple Happy Birthday on her official birthday foolishly thinking that would suffice after our marathon Disney celebration the day before.  Unfortunately, the first thing out of her mouth in response was, "Now I can wear my birthday hat, and have birthday cake and blow out my candles, and open my presents!"  My response was, "Oh, crap, I really dropped the ball on this one."

We hadn't planned anything but apparently our little one has gotten wise to the fact that there are certain things one should expect to happen on one's birthday.  Doh!  Well, we managed to scrape together a satisfactory combination of celebratory birthday items and it all worked out.  Next year we may not get off so easy though.  I better start planning now.

Some friends of ours had already invited us over for dinner so we shared Sofie's birthday cake* with them.  Here is the video of Sofie nearly losing her eyebrows while trying to blow out the candles.



That day was also Mother's Day.  Since it falls so close to my birthday, I don't usually expect anything more extravagant than a foot massage and the guilt-free consumption of some sort of dessert.  I was not disappointed.  I also had the pleasure of attending the senior violin recital of one of our friends while Josh and Sofie frolicked about the Biola University campus where the event took place.  Does it make me sound like a jerk if I admit that my favorite part of Mother's Day was the part where I got to sit by myself and listen to someone play a violin without having to worry about my child...the very child that made me a mother?  Anyway, it was a lovely day all around.

*The birthday cake was purchased earlier that same day from the reduced bakery section of our local grocery store.  Before we left the house to head over to see our friends, Sofie managed to kick over the TV tray on which the cake had been perched.  Thankfully the container stayed in tact but most of the frosting slid right off the top of the cake.  We took it with us anyway, along with some white decorating frosting and managed to "fix it" before we presented it to Sofie.

Showing Improvement!

It's amazing what a difference a little practice makes...



Special thanks to the Charlie Daniels Band for backing me up in this video.

My New Trick

Some of you may remember that I made a birthday resolution a year ago to learn to play the violin.  In case you missed it, here is my Facebook status from March 19, 2010...

I've given myself a 5 year extension on my goals of learning to ride a motorcycle/speak Latin by 30 and decided to take up the violin as a consolation prize.  It's less dangerous/cheaper than a motorcycle and I already speak "music."  I don't expect to ever be playing the Philharmonic but my mother, a drummer since last year, is proof it's never too late to try something you've always wanted to do.

Well, in true "me" style, I waited till the last minute to do anything about it.  Here is my Facebook status from March 3, 2011...

I rented a violin today.  I'm not really sure what I'm doing but I did manage to torture Josh and Sofie with several stirring renditions of the G major scale.  Sofie actually quoted one of her Dr. Seuss books and said, "...very very very awful on her violin."  She's smart, a little too smart.

So, even though I've only been working on it for a couple weeks, I now present to you "Happy Birthday to Me."  It took about a bazillion takes to get this video and the perfectionist in me says that even this one isn't that great but I decided to cut myself some slack just this once because it's my birthday.



I was trying really hard to keep a straight face but wowza, check out that nostril flaring action! Yikes. Now, just for fun, here is one of the "outtakes." Don't worry, it's not the one where I use bad words. Enjoy!



I deeply apologize to any actual violin players out there. I don't assume for a second that I will ever be playing Carnegie Hall (at least not on the violin) and I know my technique is probably making you cringe. I'll work on it and if it never gets any better, I'll just tell people I'm a fiddle player.