A weeklong celebration of me coming out of my tweens has just ended. On Monday, Mama came home from a church board meeting and told me: "There's been a change of plan! You need to be on the bus downtown in 10 minutes! And take this bag!"
That's just the kind of dramatic event I like. When I got downtown, a gaggle of choirmates awaited me with a secret destination that turned out to be laser tag! I've never been before, but I've always wanted to go.
The first ten minutes, I spent getting shot (some friendly fire, too, I might add), but I soon got the hang of it. In the final points, well, let's just say I didn't finish last.
Despite work taking most of my days, we tried do something a little special every day. On the very day, I had a long day at work, but Mama got up at 5am to make a special breakfast.
That day, I took my whole family with me to work.
They decorated my blackboard (and walls, floor, door and everything else they could reach. Thank God it was just chalk!)
BB organized my desk while I taught the class (I didn't think it could get any messier. It could.)
Mama and the kids went home at LS's naptime, and the rest of my birthday was spent doing plain old work and attending a meeting after school. And when I came home...
...well, then we were so tired, we pretty much went to bed as soon as the kids did. It felt a little sad, since I'd been thinking about my 30th birthday for a long time.
Friday went along in pretty much the same thing, but on Saturday, Timo was coming for dinner, which is always nice.
He wasn't dressed up like this at the time. Instead, he came over and we started watching the children while Mama started dinner. It was like any other time. Then, LS had a stinky. Since Mama was busy I changed her and, since I'd seen that we only had two diapers left that morning, asked Mama if she had remembered to pick up diapers. She hadn't, she said.
Since it was going to take a while for the pulled pork bbq to get finished (one of my favorite dishes), Timo and I took the kids with us to the store to get diapers. Since we weren't in a hurry, we decided to walk.
When we came back... the house was full of pilgrims and Indians!
It was my first ever surprise party! And it might be my last, because Mama tells me it was a huge ordeal to set it up!
One Indian turned pilgrim!
The kids' table.
I felt compelled to quote, with some modification, my favorite book!
"First of all, I am immensely fond of you all! 30 years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable... er... Indians and pilgrims. I don't know half of you as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve!"
Thank you all for a wonderful surprise party, and to all who weren't there, for equally wonderful birthday wishes and presents!
-Pappa
And below you can see a piece of art by BB, which he named "Pappa's Juice". (The top part's the straw and the bottom, the juice box)
They decorated my blackboard (and walls, floor, door and everything else they could reach. Thank God it was just chalk!)
BB organized my desk while I taught the class (I didn't think it could get any messier. It could.)
He wasn't dressed up like this at the time. Instead, he came over and we started watching the children while Mama started dinner. It was like any other time. Then, LS had a stinky. Since Mama was busy I changed her and, since I'd seen that we only had two diapers left that morning, asked Mama if she had remembered to pick up diapers. She hadn't, she said.
It was my first ever surprise party! And it might be my last, because Mama tells me it was a huge ordeal to set it up!
One Indian turned pilgrim!
The kids' table.
I felt compelled to quote, with some modification, my favorite book!
