Long Winded Birthday Recap

We got back from our cruise on Monday, Ava's 6th birthday, and Dan left the next day for Denver. It's hard to come home from a cruise. It's really hard to come home from a cruise and step into single parenthood.

The first night was Ava's kindergarten program. We barely made it in time after dropping Dan at the airport and sitting in traffic. Not a minute after we got there, Dan texted me to say that his flight had been cancelled due to the weather.

The weather this spring has been something else. I have had a cute little post with cute little pictures about the weather lined up for some time now. Before I had the chance to post it originally, there was weather that actually did major damage, lives and homes destroyed, and then that post didn't seem so cute anymore. Since then, we have continued to have outrageous weather and then again, major, terrible, tornadoes have done so much damage.

That night turned out to be another doozy and I was so so so happy that his flight was cancelled, even though it meant he'd have to leave at 3:45 am the next morning to catch another. I might have had a major meltdown had I been alone with the kids. First though, he caught a cab to the elementary school where he walked into the cafeteria as they literally sang the last note to the last song.

Soon the storm was raging and just as we were about to go to bed, the tornado sirens started. When they go off, there is a feeling of uncertainty. Take heed and get in the closet or just ignore them? In light of recent weather catastrophes, we headed down, emptied the hall closet, scooped Ava and Luke out of their beds, and turned on the news. We figured we'd wait until the last minute, if necessary, to get Max. These are the moments when I was so glad not to be alone. By the time we sat down in front of the TV, the sirens were silent. We put the kids back in their beds and headed that way ourselves. The next morning, Dan was picked up in a cab whose windshield was shattered and had four huge baseball size dents from the hail. The driver told Dan that 300 cabs had hail go all the way through their windows. He had spent the night in the middle of the backseat, parked in front of the airport, as hail rained on his car.

I had to take Ava to the doctor for her 6 year well check the next day. Ava is just like me (or how I used to be) in regards to shots and medical procedures in general. She has been saying for months that she, "hates summer because that's when I have to get shots". I did not tell her ahead of time that she'd be getting her immunizations at this appointment. And even without the anticipation of the shots, she was plenty nervous just to be examined. She had the shakes and jerked at each touch and could hardly stand to let the nurse or doctor take her temperature, look in her ears, take her blood pressure, etc.

But she did it. She did it all. She didn't like it but she cooperated and was sweet. She thought she was home free and then I broke the news. I told her about the shots. And she was like a deflated balloon. This is one of the things I admire about Ava and how she copes with her sensitivities, she realized there was no way out; no crying or having a fit was going to save her, so she immediately went to work on a plan in her mind of how she is going to cope with this.

She looked at me in the eyes and said, "I am going to sit down and hold your hands, then I am going to squeeze them like this, close my eyes, and think about something else, then they will be over, right?"

Pretty good plan, I told her. And that is exactly what she did. She didn't flinch, she didn't squirm, and she didn't even cry. I'd say, "that's my girl!" but I never survived an immunization that well.



The next day the school nurse called to let me know that she was covered in a rash and to see if I knew what it might be from. The nurse at the doctor's office agreed with me that it was probably from the chicken pox vaccine. Though nearly a week later, it still covers her legs and now Max looks like he's got it, so we're guessing it is Fifth's disease, a suggestion by the school nurse who noted she's seen a lot of it at school lately.



Either way, I have felt strong reassurance that the right thing for my children, is to space out their vaccinations. Ava is now up to date, not too far behind her peers, and I feel very peaceful and strong about the way we got here.

And then it was Thursday night, Dan's flight home was cancelled because the hail had damaged 60 American planes. He switched his flight and got home at 1:00 am, the morning of his birthday.

He worked that Friday as scheduled. Which brought us to Saturday; two of my love's birthdays past, but none celebrated.

Ava had gone back and forth between wanting a friend party or just a family party. We settled on a family party and then inviting the neighbor girls down for cake and ice cream.

My parents joined us in Ft. Worth at the Stockyards for a wild west show.




Max was the only one who loved it. His body shook with excitement and he clapped, clapped, clapped. The rest of us were either bored or underwhelmed. For Ava especially, the fun didn't start until my parents gave her their present of a pony ride.

She was in heaven.





Luke tried his best not to smile, resulting in a lot of pictures with his tongue out.




We finished off the evening with Pin the Tail on the Horse,

Grandma trying to cheat

the requested Lasagna dinner, presents,

Ava's favorite present, a horse quilt from Grandma Linda

and friends and cake.

Ava's first guess when she saw the cake-a mitten? You can tell it's a horse, right?

We decided to celebrate Dan's birthday on Monday. He is the best guy I know, and that is the straight up truth. I have never met anyone better, which makes the fact that the day turned out less than fantastic, stink. Also, when you put up a birthday post with slightly embarrassing pictures of someone, you better be ready to make up for it in other areas (it's not too late to enter for a calendar!). I tried to take him to a Ranger's game on Friday night but he was just too tired after all of his traveling, so we took the kids to babysitting night, got take out, and came home to watch some of our recorded shows we'd missed.

Monday we went to the lake and had a breakfast picnic, we tried to swim at the pool but I made the kids get out when both Max and Ava's skin was crazy looking from the rash and I worried it might be contagious. The kids were wild and grouchy. I was grouchy. Dan was grouchy.

We made his requested dinner of grilled hamburgers and all the works. I made the cake. At least dinner was delicious.


By that night we were all exhausted and fell into bed. It wasn't his best birthday, I'm sure. But that's the good thing about birthdays, they keep coming so we can always try again next year.