Not a bad way to spend a weekend.

My little pumpkin had her third dance recital. Cuteness abounded.

Everything was a blurry mess until I fired off a frantic text to Kris all, "Kristen! Quick! How did you show me to shoot action in low light?" Then everything was fine.

This one might be my favorite.

Nope, this one is my favorite.

The tap number required some swagger.

Curtain call with cousin Jordan.

Sleepover Cupcake Decorating Party

So, this weekend Julia had a sleepover with her friend Lexus. Since I was visiting, I decided to put my cake decorating stuff to good use and organize a cupcake decorating party for them. A good (and sugary) time was had by all. The girls started off by sampling the cupcake batter and went full-on into shoveling in the frosting. Check it out.

The first rule of a good decorating party is lots of pretty frosting colors. The girls chose these five.

Then they decided which decorating tip should go with which color.

When were were mixing up the batter, I let them crack the eggs. Julia picked up an egg in each hand, slammed them down simultaneously on the table, and cracked them into the bowl. Then she declared, "I learned that from Nicole."

The decorating begins. 

Note the crazy makeup from their beauty salon party, immediately preceding the cupcake decorating party.

Julia shows excellent technique by squeezing the piping bag at the top.

She's delighted with her work.

Decorating quickly turned to eating...

Lexus dives right in...

...as you can see.

Jules does the same.

Completely crazed on a sugar high.

Some of the finished cupcakes. The girls are true artists.

The aftermath...

Merry Christmas

From all of us.

To quote Miss Clairee, "You were brought up right."

So, I was in PA last weekend, which means spending lots of time cuddled up with Julia while she watches the Lord of the Rings movies on my iPad.

This never happened.

We get to the infuriating part where Faramir tries to take the ring from Frodo, and the following conversation occurs:


Ali: It's important that you understand something about this.

Julia: I know, I know. Mommy told me. This part doesn't happen in the book.


Well done, Jen. Well done.

Julsie is 5.

Today my favorite little girl turned five. Five! She had a lovely party with a roast chicken feast and lots of presents. Happy Birthday, Julia. I love you to the blue, blue sky.

Presents! Ballet costumes from Grandma and Pappy and a gumball machine from Mommy.

Aunt Missy and Uncle Brian got her a Merida dress and I got her the bow and arrow set (which she wanted so she could be like Legolas.)

The first arrow whizzed past Aunt Missy's ear. She's a natural!

I also got her a Merida wig. It is clearly fabulous and does NOT, as Melissa puts it, make her look like a "deranged Bette Midler."

Getting shooting lessons from Pap.

Grandma and Pappy also surprised her with a big girl bike.

Soon she won't need those training wheels.

Double kisses.

That's weird.

So, Julia is obsessed with the Lord of the Rings movies, and aside from being convinced that Legolas is a girl, she is all about the evil characters. She loves the orcs, the uruk hai, the cave troll, and especially the Balrog. She thinks the Nazgul are cool, too, especially when they're riding on the fell beasts.

She watches Fellowship and keeps rewinding to the orcs in Moria and the Balrog at the Bridge of Khazad Dum. She can't get enough of it. I keep trying to show her the Shire scenes and Merry and Pippin stealing fireworks from Gandalf's cart and ending up washing dishes, and she thinks it's funny for a second and then she wants to fast forward to an orc scene. She's four years old and she loves orcs.

This is the face my angelic little niece wants to see before she goes to bed.

She also had this to say, upon encountering the Ents: "Merry and Pippin ran away and the orc chased them and they ran up in a tree and guess what! The tree talks! The tree talks. That's weird."

There's weirdness to spare, my little pumpkin. Weirdness to spare.

Julia in Virginia

Last weekend, I had the cutest little house guest. Jen brought Jules down for a visit. We went swimming (for about 45 minutes until Julia declared she had had enough) and watched the Olympics on the fold-out couch bed in the living room (which delighted her to no end. A bed! In the living room!)

She also...

...took a bath in the big tub with lots of bubbles...

...then made herself a bubble beard, declared "I look like Gnomeo," and looked at her  reflection in the faucet while saying in a deep, Scottish voice, "Hello there, Juliet."

Then she found a vintage camera on my bookshelf and begged to have it mounted on my tripod. 

Then she walked around the apartment snapping fake photos and asking us to pose and smile. 

And when she wanted to take a photo of something higher up, she just lifted the camera, and the tripod along with it.

Then she gave me a manicure.

Tres chic, eh?

You're invited back anytime, Jules.

“In my day, television was called books.”

A few nights ago Julia begged me to tell her a bedtime story. Too tired to make one up on the spot, I improvised. She curled up in bed and I told her the story of Anne Shirley and a boy named Gilbert who pulled Anne’s hair and called her “Carrots.” Jules loved this story, especially the part where Anne cracks her slate over Gilbert's head, and a few nights later she begged to hear it again, so I told it again and added Diana Barry into the mix. (Next time: Josie Pye.) When she asked for another story, I told her about a girl named Buttercup and how she fell in love with a farm boy who only ever said, “As you wish” to her.

Right now she thinks I’m the best storyteller ever, until she discovers the books or the movies and then the jig is up. Next I think I’ll tell her the story of Beatrice and Benedick and how they fought and fought and fought until they were tricked into falling in love.

Thank you William and William and Lucy Maud.

Happy Birthday, Pops.

Today is my Dad's birthday. I hope he will not mind if I tell people he's sixty. Sixty! I will add here that my parents still seem so young and lively, which is probably why I have never feared getting older.

I didn't have work today, so I tagged along with Jen, Jules, and Jack for a surprise birthday visit to Dad at the post office. We stopped at Mid's to pick up some treats to take him.

Getting ready to yell, "Happy Birthday, Pap!"

Pappy lets Jules play with the stamps.

She stamped me with a "First Class" (my request in lieu of "Perishable" ) and a Revloc postmark.

Then she stamped Jack. Sorry, Laura.

It was lots of happy birthday fun.