Maggie Mermaid Turns Five

Maggie celebrated her fifth birthday this month in underwater style. She has been really into mermaids lately, so her birthday had an aquatic theme this year. She got a mermaid sandbox playset from Mom & Dad. It's a small box full of blue sand with rocks, seashells, a mermaid, fish, and other fun stuff for digging about. She and Gunnar both really enjoyed playing with it before the afternoon birthday party.

We had a fun after-(elementary)-school party with some very well-behaved, quiet young ladies--excepting our own Adah and Maggie who were bouncing off the walls in excitement. (Seriously, some of these guests hardly said a word!) The girls--and Gunnar--began the party by making seashell and jewel crowns.

Next they had a treasure hunt through the house, looking for marine items such as swim goggles, seashells, a toy whale, and flip-flops. The final prize was a treasure chest full of bubble bath, candy, pens, and other prizes buried under pasta shells.

After that, the real excitement began as each party-goer was equipped with their own mermaid tail. We had them step into garbage bags which we cinched and duct taped around their waists. Another, not-so-tight, strip of duct tape went around their knees. Then the kids had races across the family room to retrieve their crowns. It was so fun to watch them hop, squirm, and flip their way back-and-forth, giggling and bumping into each other. After the races, some of the girls were ready to be set free, but others--Gunnar included--kept their tails on for the duration of the party. Gunnar even requested another "mermay tay" later in the evening when the party was over, coming up to me with a new trash bag and the tape.

After opening gifts, we returned to the kitchen table for mermaid cake!

I am proud of this latest birthday cake creation, although I can't take creative credit for it. It was courtesy of Family Fun magazine. We did exercise some artistic license to cover the mermaid's top with Necco wafers, instead of strictly using them as tail scales. (For me, the frosting was a real hit. I get bored with plain old buttercream, but can't use yummy chocolate when colors are required. This frosting was a basic buttercream with cinnamon added. On top of chocolate cake: yummo! And it resulted in a nice skin tone for our mermaid, along with being easily dyed for the tail.) There is one warning that comes with this cake: it is HUGE!! It took me 2 trips to the shed to find a piece of wood large enough for laying out the entire cake.

It was all worth it, though. As you can see, Maggie Mermaid had a great time at her party:

95% Chance of Baby Girl

100% chance of baby

I think that most of my readers (3 or 4 of you?) already know about baby number four's expected arrival at the end of May. Perhaps you have not yet heard that now we're expecting a girl!

I had an ultrasound on January 6 that gave us the good news that baby is alone in there, growing at just the right rate, and has all the correct body parts looking as they should. Damon and the kids joined us in the tiny (and warm) room, but after pestering the doctor too much, they (the kids) had to be removed. Adah was very interested in knowing what every little image was, while Maggie was just confused. (Aren't we all, when we look at those things?)

The doctor tried for a long time to get a good shot of the baby's face to print for me. The circle at the top right is the head, with the two little circles below (and to the side) being the hands. That was the best he could do. I told him not to worry about it too much. I don't have ultrasound images of any of the other kids, so I knew I wouldn't feel a great sense of loss if I didn't have one of this baby either. With Adah, they forgot to print any for us. Maggie's got left at the hospital in Bedford when I went in with false labor (and never returned, since she was born at home). I had an image of Gunnar, but it was only of his private parts confirming he was a boy, and I figured we didn't really need to preserve that in the baby book. (I don't know why that's the only image the doctor printed for me.)

After looking for a long time, the doctor gave us a 95% confident prediction that the baby will be a girl. Of course, that 5% has left me a little anxious about totally throwing out the blue in favor of pink at our house, but we think the odds are in her favor, so that's what we're planning for.