Sophia's 12th Birthday
14 April 2017
Yesterday, this young lady turned 12 years old! [Mom whine: I can't believe my "baby-est baby is twelve! :*( ] I asked her when I last grocery shopped if she wanted brownies or cake, and she decided on brownies. If you look closely at this brownie "cake," you'll see it's a mega-mess from Sophia turning over the pan to dump out her "cake" before they were done. Haha, eager much?? But no matter; they turned out to be a bit of deliciousness and made a young girl quite happy.
Jack bet Sophie that she wouldn't be able to blow out all the candles on her cake, and when she did so easily, there was a bit of braggadocio on her part. I knew she could do it. Foofers, as we call her, can do damn near anything she puts her mind to doing. ;)
Our tight budget right now indicates that presents are small and few, so Sophia was looking at me as if to ask, "What did you do?" when I presented her with this tiny, gift-wrapped parcel. Chloë and I had had to do some coupon shenaniganizing at Walgreens when we went to pick up a few prescriptions before brownie cake time, and this was the result:
...Gum and a little bit of Mango candy to share with her siblings. And yes, I have been finding little tiny Trident wrappers all over the house ever since. But this tiny thing, I think, made our Foofers happy... and there was plenty of interest in the mango candy to cause squeals and discussion about how they looked like miniature butter blocks with the coloring of an opened egg. Turns out, they were quite yummy little candies, too!
Since it was a bit rainy yesterday, and Sophia wanted to go to the park, there was begging on all three kids' parts to go to the park despite the latent moisture on the ground. Pleeeease, Mama, pleeeaase can we go to the park? How could I resist these three faces? It seemed dry enough by after-Brownie Cake time to say yes, and what better way to make Foofers happy on the cheap than to head to the nearest park? And so, I said all riiiight. Let's go.
We initially went to Julia Davis Park here in Boise, Idaho, where we now live. but we couldn't find a playground there that satisfied Sophia. She was disappointed by the JD park, as it's under construction right now and not the most visually appealing site. Instead, after a little Googling From JD park, I found a new park right down the road from where we live: Terry Day Park. Sophia jumped right in and started climbing while the other two kiddos ran off in opposite directions.
These little specimens of physics accomplishment were spinny-thingies that kept going util dizziness won out. And then they spun in the opposite direction, until inertia gave way to gravity and the thingy-thing stopped. Result? You sat there with your eyes spinning off in 70 different directions, while a little bit of nausea topped off the experience! Fun!
And THEN. And then. We found this awesome zipline ride that we all fought over, time and time again, until we each had gone approximately 59 times apiece. I love this shot of Rob running after Jack, who was careening toward a waiting Chloë at the ending platform. [Look, Rob can run again! Achievement: Unlocked.]
Sophie, our 12-year-old birthday child, and Jack, had the most fun on the zipline. Back and forth, back and forth, they sped past the camerawomen [ahem: moi], until Chloë stomped off in frustration after her expected turn never seemed to come. Gah. Come baaaaack, Curls!
Sophia sprawled out in glorious repose, post-zipline. We're going back soon to this thing. Maybe even today. If the kids ever finish their math! :P
"Look Ma, no hands!" Jack shouted from across the way. Only, does anyone see the problem with this statement? Yeah. Me too.
All three kids finally got together to try and accomplish the task of a dual ride between Jack and Sophia, but it wasn't meant to be. We just couldn't get Jack brave enough to sit on Sophie's lap and, truth be told, I'm kind of glad about that. I foresaw another broken skull if that had happened! [He fractured his melon at two years old.]
Aw, Paquito and his sister-pup came along for the fun, too! Here he comes, looking for some patty-pets from his mama! <3
And here's sister-pup, our foster fail from That Black Dog Rescue, Inc. of Miami, Florida: Tapioca Puddin' Pop! <3 <3 <3 She was on the move constantly during this park adventure, so approximately one-third of the 125 shots I took yesterday were of me trying to get Tapi staying still and looking photogenic.
Just a Chiweenie and a Chihuahua out for a stroll in the park... don't mind us.
At last, Chloë had her turn on the zipline. After that, she was all smiles. Ever pleased to mug for the camera, this time was no different. And why not? The lens loves her!
Meanwhile, across the other side of the park, Sophia was hollering from up in this tree, "MOM, LOOK AT ME!!" I said my adieus to Chloë and ran over to take a few shots. Actually, then I tried to climb the tree myself, because it has been a decade or three since I attempted such a fun thing and... fail. To be fair, I was wearing Crocs flipper-floppers, which were not the proper foot attire for gaining a purchase on this slippery árbol. Oh well, c'est la vie.
Coming full circle toward the end of our visit, I shot a dozen or so pictures of Rob in the spinny-thingy before landing on this specimen of my handsome fella with a big grin on his face. Why, I do declare, I think this man was having fun as well!
I decided to hand my camera over to Rob before we headed out for the day - poor Paco was shivering endlessly, and we needed to get him back to the warmth of home - and take a spin on the thing he was just in. Holy cow! Inertia times torque times vertigo equals this oddly dizzified face of mine! Ha! I look like a goof.
All in all, it was a very inexpensive but fun way to spend Foof's birthday, and I hope she enjoyed turning 12.
HAPPY 12th BIRTHDAY, SOPHIA LORELEI! WE LOVE YOU!!!
Fin.