Author's Night

Recently, Micah had a prayer answered.   He raced off the bus to tell me:

"Mommy!  Ask me the question?"
"How was school?"
"No, not that one.  The other question you ask everyday."
"Did you have recess?"
"Noooo.  Not that one."
"Ohhh! [light comes on!] Ohhh....Did you get picked for Author's night?"
"Yes!"  [Punching arms in the air and jumps up and down excitedly!!!]

 

Weeks ago, Micah said that he prayed to God in his classroom that his name would be drawn out of the hat to read at Author's Night.  I knew he could call upon God for things like "help Tristan feel better" but this was the first time he asked God for something he knew he couldn't get on his own. 

It was exciting.  Micah did indeed get selected out of that hat to read at Author's Night and nothing could have made him more happy.  He loves writing stories, and he loves to draw.  He could spend hours downstairs creating his own books he writes, illlustrates, and then binds up himself with a stapler.

The story was called That was a Hat...by Micah Ring.  Here's the first page:

To view the whole storybook, you can view this link: Click HERE

There were a handful of kids from four kindergarten classes who were to read their published books:

Micah and MacKenzie (our neighbor) waited patiently for their turns.

When Micah came up to read, he sat in his chair and just like that---he read.  There were about 80 or so parents in the audience, including my mom.  He didn't seem nervous at all.  He did great!  He read his very own storybook with beautiful illustrations.  Patrick and I just looked at each and we are just so proud of him.

Maybe this post will be featured at his first book signing in the future.  A mother can only hope!!! 

**** Forty and Fabulous ****

Patrick:  What do you want to do for your big 4-0 this year?
Soryda: I don't know.  Let's go away on a trip.
Patrick: Don't you want a big party?
Soryda:  I'm old.  40 is old.  Why would I want everyone to know this?  Let's go away.  No one will know.
Patrick:  Okay, but I think you're going to want a big party....

You know what?  My husband was right.  As I thought about the day after my 40th birthday, I would have wanted to exit my 30's with a bang and to have a big celebration.  Yes!  So, the dreaming began.

There were words that came to mind as I dreamt up the ultimate party.  I envisioned my milestone party to be....let's see...different.....elegant.....fun and......yummy.  With this as my guide....

DIFFERENT

I've never been to a Black & White Party.  Everyone wear black and white, informal or formal...that's pretty different!  Of course, to epitomize the word---well, I had to stand out :)

 Then, I thought I wanted something of an ELEGANT affair.  First thought was CHAMPAGNE bar!

  

And nothing is more elegant than black and white desserts!  I had a friend make a raspberry & almond cake, another friend make chocolate cake pops, and another friend ordered some to-die-for lemon and dark chocolate cupcakes for me as a gift.

 

And now the FUN part.  My definition of fun is either karaoke or salsa.  Patrick hired me a salsa instructor for the evening!  And dance we did....

But the highlight of the dancing was definitely this moment!

Boys, you should know how much I love this man.  Everyone thinks I did everything for this party, but Patrick came up with a lot of good stuff on his own (he is really good with ideas!) including a beautiful speech with a surprise video from friends abroad and boys, you are in it, too!   I'll keep the video on file for you so you can see how cute you were.  My friend Natalie got me this dance floor for free.  So amazing!

and....now...the YUMMY!

Just some of the foods we enjoyed at the party.  Of course, I didn't try anything, including any of the wine pairing because I was just toooo excited!   My mom made about 1/3 of the dishes and everyone else contributed to the deliciousness.
 

I dreamt it up and it happened!   The party planning was a lot of fun, and I had so much help from the set up to the clean up.  It was truly a dream party come true and it went by so quickly.  To be totally honest, I felt somewhat of a depression the next few days after.  It was such a high that when it was over and everyone went home and there was nothing left to look forward to, I was like THIS SUCKS. I will say that the day after 40 does feel really freeing.  I'm getting really excited to start this decade.  I think it will actually be my best yet.

Okay boys,  remember your mom in this picture as FORTY and FABULOUS!!!!

Tristan's Impromptu Birthday Celebration

Since my big 4-0 was a week away (and well, let's face it--it's all about me....) Tristan sort of got the shaft for his 2nd birthday.   Not really.  He thought it was great, and that's all that matters. 

The original plan was going to the local park with a few of the neighborhood kids and we had a pinata and homemade cupcakes and that was it.  But as the trend would have it, it always rains on my kid's birthdays!  So, we moved our neighborhood celebration in and told the grandparents at the last minute that if they didn't have anything better to do, to please come to the indoor party!

 

After the make-a-banner for Tristan project, it was TRAIN pinata-time!

  

One of the neatest moments was when the kids spontaneously initiated chanting of the name of the kid who was up to bat....it was so unexpected yet so familiar because these kids all knew one each other very well and they were like a big family.  It was really a touching moment!

 

 

Happy 2nd birthday my darling little man.  Your family adores you.  I'm going to do another post later about the little man you've become at two years of age.   Stay tuned!