Three months of parties

You wanna know why I haven't been blogging lately? It's not laziness or hecticness or utter depression. No. It's because I've been hauling Lexi all over town to birthday parties for the past three months.


The most exciting, naturally, was her own. And who wouldn't be excited with a gem of a cake like that?


Lexi's birthday was on March 5, but the celebration went on for weeks. Above is a shot from her party at our house, at which she received Bendaroos and a whole stable of My Little Ponies.



The most recent party was Saturday at Lauryn's and included rosy cupcakes, little sammiches, dress-up and general girliness.



The previous party was the previous Saturday at McDonald's in honor of Lexi's B.F.F., Emma. It included cheeseburgers, sock feet and more Bendaroos.



Back in January, it was Kyle's birthday, which included a dog shape caked, dog bone shaped sammiches and a rockin' game of hot potato with a dog bone.



Brian's party had bowling. 'Nuff said.



And way back at the beginning of January was a party for Coop, who turned 4 first and with the greatest style. Cha cha cha.

The party tour is over now. I think. Time to get back to blogging.

Gindi grub

We took Lexi along with us on Sunday to review Gindi Thai & Japanese diner, a new place at 7010 W. 21st St., where Backyard Burger used to be. (It was delicious -- look for details in Friday's paper.)


I'm always a little hesitant to take Lexi to an Asian place because well, ya know, there aren't usually cheeseburgers on the menu. But she'd recently discovered a book about a little kitten who loved sushi and was pretty excited about going to a "sushi place."



She ended up burying her sushi deep in a bed of chicken fried rice (do you see it there, sorta in the middle??) But she could not scarf down the rice and Pad Thai fast enough. She loved it so much, in fact, that double-fisted eating became necessary.

Kid bowling

Lexi fell a little bit in love on Saturday night when we attended Brian Buselt's 31st bowling birthday.


Lexi had never bowled before, but Brian sacrificed his score to show her how it's done (even though I didn't see a whole lot of evidence that he knows exactly how it's done.)



Nevermind that. When the ball started rolling, Lexi was so excited she caught a little air.



This is the joy that can be felt only by two kids who managed to knock down one pin with a ball that was barely moving.

Grateful, grateful girl

This Christmas was the first one where Lexi seemed fully aware of what the proceedings meant. Santa brought her presents because she was good (mostly) and because she'd had the forethought to tell him exactly what she wanted. Or get her mom to, anyway.


One of the main items on her list was a "big-girl' kitchen. She was beyond thrilled. "How did Santa know EVERYTHING I wanted???" Um, because I told him for you when we saw him at the Eagle open house and you were too shy to speak REMEMBER???


Parent tip of the week: Don't let your kids' watch commercials. If you do, they'll decide that they simply can't go on living with out the Swimming Water Baby™.


She said her most favorite gift, however, was this easel complete with dry erase board. It was a cast-off from the Tobias family storage unit, emptied just before the big move. We cleaned it up a little and made it good as new. I predict hours of fun -- and dry erase marker clothing stains -- are in our future.

Bad mommy

It's one thing to lie, gently, about Santa to help promote and preserve the magic of childhood.


But it's another thing entirely to fabricate photographic "proof" of that lie, just because you have a friend with Mad Photoshop Skillz. Many thanks to Jaime for the assist.

I do not rule

I do not blame the four readers I may or may not have left if they do not believe what I'm about to say.

My plan for 2009 is to rediscover my blog mojo. I could list a gazillion excuses for why I've been so derelict lately, but we all know that the real reason is Twitter. DAMN TWITTER!!

So I'm gonna finish out 2009 with one more roundup of all the stuff I shoulda coulda woulda been blogging about if Twitter were not such a time suck.

When I last bothered to get my camera out of my purse, it was Open House night at the Eagle -- a little event my team and I organized that included cookies, music, good will and a Santa with a very forgiving lap.


Joe was, ahem, persuaded to provide some of the music. What a guy won't do for a free round of bowling.



Last weekend, Maddy and Harrison joined us for some cookie decorating while their mom went for a run in the freezing temps.



Lexi's artistry was fully realized on this Mickey Mouse palette.



Sadly, more frosting went in the mouths than on the cookies. And more food coloring went on the floor than in the frosting.



Last weekend also was the long-awaited trip to "The Nutcracker," during which Lexi loudly asked such probing questions as "Why did that big mouse do that?" and "Is that all? Is that all?"

Next installment: Christmas.

Coming soon.

Been busy

I'm feeling bad for being such a delinquent blogger, but I've been busy folks. This weekend, it was getting the &%*# Christmas decorations up.


Usually, getting the house ready for the holidays feels like a burden -- a chore that has to be done. But this year, Lexi is seriously in to decorating. She probably decorated, undecorated and re-decorated my mom's tree 12 times over Thanksgiving.



Here's the finished product in the front room -- the artificial, pre-lighted tree that didn't stay pre-lighted for more than one season -- that's visible from the street.


We also put one up in the back room, where we do most of our hanging out. It's a real tree that I decorate with the far-superior colored lights.


As for my excuses for why I have not been blogging... Well, for a few weeks I was recovering from my stint with the nephews.


Then there was my birthday (and Mike's)...


Then Gingerbread Village with Grandma Wendy, the Lovings and the Welches...


Then Thanksgiving dinner...


Then my cousin's butt-kicking ninth place finish in the Galena half-marathon...


And then the Pad Thai cookoff: Carrie v. Nick. Fortunately for the loser, I'll stop here -- but promise to be a better blogger from now on.