Today, my extraordinary wife, Janelle, celebrated her 50th birthday. At the suggestion of a friend, I presented Janelle this morning with a tiara that had the number 50 on top. She was hesitant about wearing it, but Katrina encouraged her to do so. Hearing that encouragement, Irene asked to see grandma's crown. When Janelle asked Irene if she should wear the tiara all day, Irene told that she should because it was pretty.
As I am pretty bad about getting gifts, and Janelle usually picks up what she wants, I only had one gift (which she already knows about) coming in the mail for her. I ordered it back in November, but I foolishly did so from one of those Facebook ad companies, and the gift is taking the LONG way from Belgium (seriously? Belgium?). Still, I wanted her to have something from me today, so I decided to pick up fifty roses for her.
I also decided to select a different color for each of our children--ten of each color ... except they come in bouquets of a dozen, so we instead have 60 flowers. I compromised by putting 50 flowers into two large mason jars as the main gift and a separate group of 10 in a smaller vase as an "extra" present. While I have nowhere near the floral skill of my sister Katie, I'm still pretty happy with the result. Meanwhile, Rowen mixed, baked, and decorated Janelle's cake (with Janelle's supervision), and Connor made street tacos for dinner.
On a different front, Julian (my newest grandson) came home last night. Thus, Irene and Alistair had their first chance to interact with their new brother. Alistair, especially, seems to need some time to adjust to no longer being the baby in the family. However, he shows some signs of being a helpful brother as Katrina and Peter sent us pictures of Alistair giving Julian back a pacifier that he had spit out.
I think that the gift that Janelle is most looking forward to "opening" is getting down to Michigan next week so that she can finally hold Julian (and everyone else) herself.
As I am pretty bad about getting gifts, and Janelle usually picks up what she wants, I only had one gift (which she already knows about) coming in the mail for her. I ordered it back in November, but I foolishly did so from one of those Facebook ad companies, and the gift is taking the LONG way from Belgium (seriously? Belgium?). Still, I wanted her to have something from me today, so I decided to pick up fifty roses for her.
I also decided to select a different color for each of our children--ten of each color ... except they come in bouquets of a dozen, so we instead have 60 flowers. I compromised by putting 50 flowers into two large mason jars as the main gift and a separate group of 10 in a smaller vase as an "extra" present. While I have nowhere near the floral skill of my sister Katie, I'm still pretty happy with the result. Meanwhile, Rowen mixed, baked, and decorated Janelle's cake (with Janelle's supervision), and Connor made street tacos for dinner.
On a different front, Julian (my newest grandson) came home last night. Thus, Irene and Alistair had their first chance to interact with their new brother. Alistair, especially, seems to need some time to adjust to no longer being the baby in the family. However, he shows some signs of being a helpful brother as Katrina and Peter sent us pictures of Alistair giving Julian back a pacifier that he had spit out.
I think that the gift that Janelle is most looking forward to "opening" is getting down to Michigan next week so that she can finally hold Julian (and everyone else) herself.
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