Suzanne Turns 8!

This blog is on a weird timeline. Here we are in February, and I'm finally writing about Suzanne's eighth birthday, which occurred more than three months ago. There are reasons both human (I lack discipline/have other priorities) and technological (pictures take time to migrate from my phone or my camera to my laptop, from which they populate Elizabethtown) for the weird timeline, but it's something we'll all have to learn to live with.

Anyways, Suzanne had a great birthday party!

One of Suzanne's best traits is her generosity. If she gets a roll of Smarties from her teacher (her teacher uses candy to reward good behavior), she volunteers to share them with Elizabeth, and even will give the extra candy (Smarties are packaged in an odd-number) to her big sister. On her birthday, she received a packet of cards that are rainbow colored but covered in black wax. You get a wooden stylus and scrape off the wax to reveal the color beneath. In this way you can draw pictures or write words or whatever. After Suzanne unwrapped this gift, and all of her friends oohed and ahhed over the awesomeness, she just started handing them out and ended up giving away much of the gift she'd just received -- happily so. She's just that kind of person.

Suzanne frosts her cake as Barb supervises. This was the first time we home-made a round, multi-layer cake.

Suzanne about to blow out her candles, with typical facial hyperbole.

The pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game went horribly awry. The first child to go did not have their vision obstructed enough (my fault), and thus nailed the tail. Every kid thereafter learned to braille the donkey until they found the first, accurate tail, to which they would affix their own.

Suzanne loves her gift!

Suzanne has a lot of friends.

The kids made Christmas ornaments at the party. These are some of the finished products, waiting for the paint to dry.

The Wheeler-Kay-Cohens came by after the party and helped make Christmas cards.

Suzanne wanted a rubber chicken. Suzanne got a rubber chicken. Suzanne loves her rubber chicken.

Snow Trip

I guess I had promised the girls a trip to the snow some years ago. Elizabeth and Suzanne started applying pressure on this issue 12 or 18 months ago and finally won the day. Barb planned a weekend trip that included driving up to a snow park on Mt. Hood, after which we would drive down the other side of the mountain to Hood River, where a hotel room awaited us.

Despite some conflict over our lack of snowsuits, we had a great time in the sunny, warm weather on the 48 inches of accumulation on the mountain. The girls, who have always been reluctant to actually sled down a slope, embraced sledding. It was great!

Elizabeth making a snowball. Weapon? Or Snowman part?

Suzanne enjoying a respite after a successful run on her sled.

Mount Hood.

Nice to see the girls working together.

That's me.

Barb and Suzanne.

Glam Suzanne.

Nice view.

Do you wanna build a snowman?

After we got our fill of snow, we drove to Hood River and got a hotel room at a Best Western. But this Best Western was amazing! It had an outdoor pool that was so well heated that you could comfortably swim in it despite the frigid air temperatures. Besides that, there was a huge hot tub that was delightful to step into after climbing out of the warm pool into the cold wind screaming off the river.