Tonight I had the esteemed honor of being hosted by the Anderson family in celebration of my birthday… Birthday celebration week continues and the imminent make-up session with Campbell due to her being under the weather, celebrating my birthday is turning out to be sort of like the Energizer Bunny. It keeps going and going and going.
In a remarkable display of restraint, I didn’t shed my clothes and get naked until about 1 hour into the evening. For the record, this behavior is not the norm… It’s just that A.J. has the BEST princess dresses and a girl has GOT to get into shizz like that when the opportunity presents itself.
It’s always super great to catch up with Jeff, Jessica, Brenna and A.J. Getting my first Webkinz in the form of a “Floppy Pig” that I creatively dubbed Piggy was a true treat. She’s registered and I’m ready to join the Webkinz nation!
Today a few of my princess friends joined me for a birthday session celebrating yours truly. The butterfly theme was executed to a “T” by Mommy and her crack staff consisting of one… Daddy. We eschewed the traditional cake in favor of some Baskin & Robbin’s ice cream clown cones after a lunch of salami and cheese with strawberry-lemonade.
The parents were quite impressed with how we all played together. The only bummer is that Campbell was unable to attend due to suddenly coming down with a fever this morning. Alas, the Smith’s stopped by for a second to say hello and drop of a gift. Poor Campbell’s eye’s were glazed over in the car and she could barely stay awake. Daddy whipped up a solution to keep her at the party in spirit…
Shortly before the party began a box of 100 homemade Vietnamese egg rolls showed up at our door made by Lai, owner of Pro Nails in Queen Anne. Mommy and I are frequent customers of hers and she made these for me as a gesture of good luck. Incredible thoughtful and incredibly yummy. But 100?! What the heck were we going to do with 100 egg rolls?? Daddy jumped on the Bajaj and fulfilled his longtime dream of being a scooter delivery man by dropping off a load for the Smiths and some for the Burgess-Moriarty clan. Doug had just arrived home from Brazil and Joe Mo could definitely use a couple while watching college football with the guys. Mission accomplished!
After all the excitement of cake, singing, opening presents and such, I thanked my friends with some hugs. This was a small affair and really fun while I’m already looking forward to my make-up date with Campbell when she’s feeling better.
Tonight we got scooped by the studly Joe Moriarty and family into his mighty Suburban and whisked to the 5 Spot atop Queen Anne Hill for a birthday dinner without princesses, pink stuff, butterflies, etc. We had a great time, some yummy food and a little bit of present opening. It’s always a blast to hang with Lynnie, Joey, J.P. and Owie!
Today started off fun with Mommy and Daddy entering my bedroom with a bouquet of butterfly (the theme of my birthday) balloons and singing happy birthday. From there it was a hearty breakfast of pancakes and bacon after opening up a gift from my cousins Vanda and Galina and Auntie Nichole.
Afterwards Daddy and I had a date at our beloved Honore for some hot chocolate and a delicious pinwheel cookie. Franz and Ashley definitely know what time it is when it comes to providing an excellent cafe and baked goods experience.
I shared the “E” cookies with my classmates at ELDC before skipping out early with Nana for a birthday surprise she had up her sleeve… Build-A-Bear in Bellevue! We had so much fun and my bear’s name is Theresa. For reals and she’s sooooo cute. Thanks Nana!!
We scooped Papa from his crib and headed to our house for an expedited Family Pizza Night (odd on a Thursday) and a reading of Fancy Nancy.
Later on the agenda was and a rousing session of Guitar Hero on the wii. This was the maiden voyage for both Nana and Papa. It was fun to see them rocking out. You shoulda seen the sweat on Papa’s brow… He was REALLY getting into it!
Damn Stan! You can’t see the sweat in this picture, but it’s there. Take my word for it.
Where does a newly christened four year old go from here? Well, tonight I have a date at the Hi-Life in Ballard with my beau Owen Moriarty. Drop by if you’re in the hood. Smooches!
Today was my first full-fledged day as a Wombat at my school. When I started at ELDC, it was simply Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3 and Unit 4. Somewhere in the middle of Unit 2 they decided to switch it to names originating in Australia to reflect the roots of the schools founder. Unit 1 became the Koalas, Unit 2 is the Kangaroos, I’ve been a Kookaburra in Unit 3 over the past year and am now a Wombat in what was Unit 4.
This is sort of the last stop on the journey at ELDC as the move from here is to a pre-school or some kind of pre-K or ultimately kindergarten if I can get an early admittance exception. I’ve been visiting the class for weeks and weeks now, so today was no biggie. My new teacher is Marge and I’m sure gonna miss Alan and Nicolie.
The tastiest part of the day though was making birthday cookies with Daddy to share with my classmates later this week. I have a cookie cutout in the shape of the letter “E” and will be decorating them with Mommy later this week. FUNS!
The end to this trip to the Bay Area finally was coming to a close with a return visit to Auntie Rosy and some lunch at the Fog City Diner. The fog was lingering on the horizon, but it was a beautiful day. And after our lunch, we headed to Crissy Field and saw the most amazing kites at the Family Day Kite Festival. I can’t believe all the stunts.
At the Fog City Diner
With Auntie Rosy
It was another great trip and I can’t wait to go back in March to visit Auntie Rosy for her 90th birthday!!
Happy Birthday to Grandma J!!! Daddy and Gramps headed out early for a round of golf at Bennett Valley while us girls took a trip to Petaluma, CA for a cup of coffee and a visit to a pumpkin patch/farm. Once I had my fill of scarecrows and farm fresh produce we jumped back into the Hyundai and headed to Tomales, CA for a little spot of lunch. And naturally, I had to have some ice cream once devouring several pieces of salami and some cheddar cheese; raspberry and bubble gum flavors (the most spectacular i-c-e c-r-e-a-m ever!!!)
When finally back at Chez Herzog, Betty Crocker reared her familiar head as Gramma J and each donned aprons to make her chocolate birthday cake. The frosting would have to come later as I needed to chill out after a wrist-busting session of stirring, stirring, stirring.
Mommy and Daddy offered to cook Grandma J the dinner of her dreams, but she opted for a Mexican food dinner at the local strip-mall joint. Jim and Suz joined us and we had un tiempo bueno. Much to my surprise, neither Mommy or Daddy had margaritas. I felt a chill in the air as hell hath froze over.
Back at Chez Herzog we had some chocolate cake and opened presents. Well, at least I opened presents as both Jim and Suz and Gramps and Grandma J showered me with early birthday presents. Awesome. Then it was several rounds of mean card playing amongst the adults while I did my best to count cards and place bets!
Jim even read one of the books to me before this tired look girl conked out after a big, big day.
After a family breakfast, Mommy and Daddy headed out for a day in wine country while I set my sights on going to the Cow Park (Howarth Park) and spending some quality time with Gramma J and Gramps.
I know that Mommy and Daddy spent time at the Souverain tasting room in Healdsburg after munching on tacos from El Sombrero. Afterwards they headed up to Cellar #8 in Asti and then down to Sbragia at the base of Lake Sonoma. They claim that the drive through the valleys at dusk was lovely as were there pre-func cocktails at the 2 Michelin star winning Cyrus back in Healdsburg. Daddy was introduced to a new vodka called Dolgoruki that might be the new de facto standard. They then had a dinner at the Michelin star winning Farmhouse Restaurant in Forestville. And they had frog legs…. Ewwww.
During the time that they were gallivanting around Sonoma, I had a great time at the Cow Park before hooking up with Jim and Suz just in time to head to Mary’s Pizza Shack for some dinner. Oh how I love pizza. After that it was a bunch of playtime with Jim where he and I made a killer fort followed by lotsa giggles.
We all had a good night sleep in our comfy Argonaut digs and started the day off right with some cartoons and New York Times in bed. Mommy put the rubber to the road and ran the Embarcadero down to the Ferry Terminal Plaza and back. Upon her return (with Starbucks goodies in hand) Daddy headed down to the fitness center and peeled off an intense 30 minute bike ride.
Everyone cleaned up real nice for a ride on the cable car originating at Hyde Street and ending up at Market Street. The ride was fun and made me giggle a couple of times. The views going up and over Russian Hill were awesome. And a gaggle of Japanese girls thought I was the cutest thing ever and wanted some pictures with me… Too funny and lotsa laughs.
Once downtown we hunted down a toy store called Jeffery’s and I picked up some winged Bryer horses named Scarlett and Ruby to keep me company. We then hopped a streetcar and headed to the Ferry Terminal Plaza to pick up some gifts, lunch, cheese and a baguette for dinner at Gramma J and Gramps’ later.
We settled on sandwiches from Lulu Petite and were not disappointed as we were rocked by their homemade potato chips sprinkled with rosemary salt. Mommy picked up some ginger snaps at Miette for Nana and haunted the cheese counter at Cowgirl Creamery to pick up some cheeses she saw featured in Wine Spectator on the flight down. This place is so cool and seems to have a tractor beam on Mommy and Daddy each time they visit the city.
A cable car took us back to Ghiradelli Square for a tasting session at Cellar 360. The parentals are members there and get to taste for free along with great discounts on some of their favorite wines. There were a lot of “mmmmm’s” and “oooohh’” coming from them after each taste and they did wind up getting a bunch of stuff. I think I might need to give up my bedroom soon to make way for all of their vino booty. Also while at Ghiradelli Mommy picked up some absolutely yummy looking cupcakes from Kara’s Cupcakes… Can’t wait to sink my teeth into one of those.
Before too long were were back up the hill at Rosy’s and having a nice time of chatting. She has done and seen so much in her life and is such a great storyteller that it puts Mommy and Daddy in a trance for hours. Unfortunately we didn’t have hours and it was time to get ourselves across the Golden Gate before the commute got too mad.
We did get out of the city in time and had a beautiful and remarkably smooth drive up 101 to Santa Rosa. Gramma J and Gramps were almost as excited to see me as I was to see them. The adults snacked and chatted while I proceeded to go on rock patrol in their backyard and fill up Gramps’ fountain again. Apparently he had spent considerable time removing all the rocks I threw in there from my previous visit. After dinner and a bath Gramps helped me arrange all the cushions from the living room couch into a fort that I slept under between the two twin beds in my room. Lights out after a big day.
Oh… Mommy and Daddy ate the cupcakes from Kara’s while I slumbered. Not nice.
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