Birthday Month

Our September has had unexpected events, but we also needed to fit some birthday fun into this month. the two little girls have birthdays two days apart. My husband's stay in the hospital forced us to cancel the first party on the calendar, but we have since made up for it.  During the Actual Birthday Weekend my parents cooked dinner and lit up a bonfire Friday night for both girls, and their aunt, great-aunt, and others joined us for that.

The next day my in-laws had dinner and birthday pie. This year Ruby knew just what to do with those candles. As for presents, my mom gave them all canvas bags, and Ruby has taken to carrying her large collection of special washcloths in it, as well as her baby pillow pet gift from Grammy and Poppop. She now requires it to sleep.

While I was in Germany I met a couple celebrating the husband's "birthday month," and I realized we do that too, just without the official title (They had flown from North Carolina to Munich just to see a Rod Stewart concert, so their 'birthday month' luxuries are a bit more extreme than ours).  Our birthday bliss included visiting the York Fair to dawdle at the 4-H petting zoo and see the large farm animals. Pearl did not want to give up this kitten.

Two days later I took the bigger girls to a tea party with Sapphire's good friend Miss Darlene. We tried out the nearby Red Brick Bakery for lunch and scones.  The girls loved picking out their own tea cups. Lunch was very good, and I thought the scones were perfect.  We did have to explain to Sapphire that princesses do not use straws to drink from tea cups.

We also enjoyed birthday fun with our friend Jett and his family, and Nana will be taking the big girls to see Noah at Sight and Sound at the end of the month. 

Pearl works on her piano theory and Sapphire looks on

A final event of the week, which was not billed as a birthday treat, was a visit to a nearby powwow.  We went several years ago, and I felt like it would be the perfect thing to do on a not-too-hot late summer day.  We grabbed a friend and headed across the river.

The drums are mesmerizing, but Sapphire was hooked on the dancers. They have all different outfits and gear. Some just throw a shawl over their shoulders and hop into the circle to step dance around the fire. Sapphire's favorite was a man who had the turkey feather tail, the feathered headdress (but not like the ones in the 1950s movies), and a twirling stick that left her very jealous. The kids stomped around the fire during the Candy Dance, and Sapphire tried her own moves outside the circle, entertaining all the retired folks in our section of the lawn. It was a warm, family-oriented experience.You aren't really supposed to take pictures, so I didn't.


For school, we've been focusing on types of rocks with Pearl, and this has led to several experiments cluttering up the counter, I mean adding to her education. She liked growing salt crystals best.

Sapphire likes to join in when she can, so this week we did an experiment just for her. She oversaw the creation of our own line of liquid hand soap.We made half a gallon of hand soap according to a very easy recipe. Sapphire was thrilled with all the stirring while we melted shaved bar soap in water.

This Thursday we'll be heading back to Philadelphia for consultations with the infectious disease doctor and the brain surgeon. I very much want to know what our October will look like as far as Daniel's recovery, and we'll know more Thursday evening. I'll try to post that when I can.