Maya’s birthday slumber party spills over into day two, according to plan. Maya made a poster-sized schedule of events and party rules, which we followed to the letter.

Some of my favorite shots from the evening.

Nicolai was extremely helpful throughout the evening and is seen here coordinating the Capture the Flag game after dinner. When darkness ended the competition the girls returned to the house, opened presents and settled into the basement for their movie and slumber party. Jeanine stayed up to supervise and was to be found asleep on the living room couch the next morning.

A macaroni and cheese and hotdog dinner was served, followed by ice cream and cupcakes decorated as dogs (see an earlier posting for a close up). Vegetables and fruits were also served but seemed to provide little more than decoration for the table, given the level of interest in the less healthy parts of the meal.

Next was a massive indoor/outdoor scavenger hunt which culminated with a race to the bird house in our field where the rubber chicken prize was roosting.

During the first activity my workshop was requisitioned for use as an art studio in which the girls decorated pillow cases.

Even before officially starting, the first party event appeared to be horse riding of the birthday girl.

As of today, our little girl requires two digits to write down her age. We are celebrating this auspicious milestone with a sleep-over birthday that has entirely dispossessed me of any notion that girls are less rambunctious than boys. What boys exhibit in shear physicality the girls more than make up for with cacophony of sound and kinetic energy.

Despite a very long day in the office, I took time this evening, at his request, to cut Nicolai’s hair. After the first pass he accused me of intentional barbarism (pun intended) declaring that I had butchered his hair. I subsequently did a little more work addressing his bowl cut concerns and am actually very pleased with the outcome. This photo (taken the day after) as he raced for the school bus is being offered in defense of my hair cutting skills. Click on it for a closer inspection.

 
Early this morning Jeanine and I attended school with Maya where she and members of her class presented their Magazine Projects. Each child published a spiral bound color magazine on the subject of their choice. Little surprise that Maya chose a magazine entitled Dog-On-It featuring nothing but canines. The magazines contained feature articles, advertisements, poetry, fun pages, subscription cards, letters from readers, photo essays and just about everything else you would expect to find in a real magazine, all created by the student. With all the parents present each child gave a brief barker style presentation extolling the virtues of their publication. I was sold but Maya refused to sell me her only copy for the newstand price of $3.89.

 
After Nico’s doctors appointment Jeanine dropped me off at the office and drove my car back to Concord. After work I made the 45 minute walk from Sonos to Porter Square (with a very pleasant traversal of the Harvard campus) where I boarded the commuter rail to Concord. Taking the T would have saved time but it was a beautiful evening and I enjoyed the exercise.

Nicolai, after months of waiting, was able to see a specialist this morning to look at his knee. As you might imagine, hopping on one leg tends to put excess strain on one’s knee and Nico is having some pain in his. Playing soccer, volleyball, basketball, and wrestling probably don’t help the situation either. After reviewing new x-rays the doctor found nothing inconsistent with normal growth plate development, suggested some PT and agreed with the parents that basketball was probably something that needs to be done in much greater moderation since it puts the most strain on the knee.

Jeanine’s garden is now filled with vegetables which find their way to our dinner table every night. This is one of three beds and I am informed that I will need to build more next season. So far the deer have not been eating our crops and for this we credit Nala who patrols the yard constantly.

Adding photos of the dedication of Hakim’s tree taken by Ruth Glidden.