Top O' The Morning

So it was once again St. Paddy's Day, and, well, there's really no one else we like to celebrate St. Paddy's Day with other than Nana as it's her all time favorite holiday.

So after a day-long celebration at school Nana came down for dinner (mom made unbelievable corn beef and cabbage) and we partied hard.

Even threw on some music o' the homeland and did some Irish dancing.

Though, in all honesty, I'm not sure what you'd call what Pax was getting into.

Dads. Daughters. Dance.

So we had the second annual Dad-Daughter Dance at St. Helen last Saturday night and let me just say, we got down with it.

A few pre-party pics at the house.

Then we got to the dance and had ourselves a hoot and a holler.

Getting footloose with friends.

Adrianna is in the house!!

Hanging with Dad.

Yes, those are my Jordans on my feet, and Mae has her gymmies on too. When the dogs start aching you gotta substitute the stuffy dress shoes out, so we did.

And here's me hanging with my homegirls. This is one of my bestie - Olive.

And this should be a familiar face to all of you who have been following this blog of mine for the past four years. This is my bestie Nadia. They call us Ebony and Ivory. I'm not sure what that means, and who's Ebony and who's Ivory, but whatever, all the grownups seem to like it.

Birthday Week... Interrupted

Well, you're probably wondering what happened to Birthday Week, it was going so well.

Leading into it everyone was having such a blast.

I was getting treated like it was my birthday week...

So the night of my actual birthday mom gets summoned out of town for work, but alas I still really wanted to go to Rosebud so Dad took me, Mae, Pax and my bestie Shea.

What is Mae wearing in that photo, you ask? I have no clue. Before she left she asked Dad to take a picture of her and we all thought when she came downstairs she was Olivia Newton John.

Anyway, I started not feeling well at Rosebud, so much so that I didn't even eat my spaghetti, so you knew something was wrong with me. We came home and did some cake and I tried to tough through it. Oh, and at this point Olivia is hating life and making a solid effort to sabotage my birthday with her version of nastiness.  (it's working)

Then we opened gifts. As you can see, Olivia recovered briefly and was stoked at the Shopkins Season 4 present I got from mom and dad...

And then there was a serious huddle around them.

And then, just like that, it all went to pieces. First I got sick, then Mae decided to come along with me the next day and we spent the next 8 days sicker than dogs. In the meantime, Mom came down with it as well and then this happened...

Pax goes into the ER for croupe (or however the hell you spell it. Yes, I said hell, it was a frustrating week). Dad manages to tread water and actually is secretly wishing the whole time that he got it so he could just climb into bed for three days... instead he's the ringleader of this whole circus.

So here we are, almost 13 days later. Some of us are still coughing (Mom, Mae), some of us are finally better (me) and some of us need a room with a straightjacket and rubber walls (Dad).

So that was the Birthday Week... interrupted.

Oh, and then we found an awesome app on Juliana's phone and this happened.

Mae turns 6

Yesterday was a big day. Mae turned six!! It started out with donuts day in the basement of the school where we ran around with our friends and had a bunch of fun.

Then after work we picked up Mae's bestie - Adrianna and Ana - and headed for Roots, Mae's pick of choice for her birthday dinner. Ana thought it was funny to disappear from the picture... Mae thought it was funny, too.

Then we came back to the house where Juliana had decorated so nicely for Mae's birthday and she and Paxton even made Mae a Shopkins cake.

We sang Happy Birthday with the crew and Mae had a couple presents to open up... one of them being... SHOPKINS SEASON 4!!! We were pretty stoked and for some reason Pax was taking a bite out of my leg (he's so weird).

We often caught Pax just standing and staring at the cake waiting for a bite. Oh, and that's only the second time in his entire life he's had something on other than sweatpants. I think Mom and Dad even relented on Christmas when he rolled around all day in track pants and a t-shirt.

Mabel, oh Mabel, the one and only. Happy Birthday medium cat. That's what we call her in the house - I'm the Big Dog, Mae is the Medium Cat and Pax is the Little Duck.

Birthday Week

So with Mae's birthday this Wednesday and mine the next, we kicked off Birthday Week with our second annual combined birthday family party with Eli, whose birthday was January 30. So last Saturday, we headed out to Nana's and got down with it.

That's our hockey themed table cloth. Eli and I decided on a hockey theme and Mae went with dogs so we had little dessert plates and napkins with dogs on them. And when it came to presents, well, we got ourselves a doozy. Mom and Dad got us Pie Face, which we immediately opened up and got into. I went first - I rolled a three, turned the cranks three times and, alas, nothing happened.

Things heated up quickly, though, as Papa took himself a turn.

And then Pax was talked into it after a little bit of reluctance.

So after all the fun and games, we moved on to the cakes. This year Mae requested a dog cake from Nana (every year Nana makes and decorates our cakes to whatever we request). Mae wanted a chocolate lab, and I'd say she got one.

I decided on a music themed cake with a piano and guitar, which Eli and I shared. As you can see, Nana could start quite the cake decorating racket if she needs any side cash.

Good times, good party. Birthday Week kickoff was a big success.

Goings-On

I know, I know, it's been a looooooooooong time since I last posted. So let me show you a few things we've been up to in the past several weeks.

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit last month and we had ourselves a really good time.

Learned how to self pony braid my hair.

Tons and tons of ice skating this winter. Lessons at Johnny's Ice House (where our beloved Blackhawks practice) has us skating all over the city....

... And the suburbs with my old buddy Jake.

And check out how good Mae is getting at spinning, after just a few weeks of lessons. Go on with your bad self, Mabel!

We've got some naked blow-drying going on.

And one more thing I'm doing these days... getting older.