Blackouts and Blowouts

Life isn't easy when you are the only man in a house bursting at the seams with girls, girly stuff, squeals, dolls, and pink. Somehow Sean does it. Perhaps its the fact that Elizabeth loves superheroes. Maybe its Anna's pictures of John Deere tractors. Maybe its that Jane loves her daddy and smiles and coos at him. Perhaps its just those moments like the one below that make him smile.

Katy: I almost blacked out when I was blowing up your birthday balloons today.

Sean: I'm glad you weren't holding a hot iron. (Did I mention I had an iron incident last week?)

Katy: very funny. Haven't you ever started to black out when you were blowing up balloons?

Sean: No. Never.

Elizabeth: Daddy, I know that you have blowouts when you blow up balloons.

**silence**

**peals of laughter**

Poor Sean. What a good sport. Poor me. Have you ever blown up ten balloons while you were nursing?

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my Dad's 51st birthday, so I thought I'd post a little message from Sean and I and the kids.

Dad- I love you! Have a wonderful birthday. We wanted to get you something special from here, but we figured that possum wouldn't travel too well. So there is a gift certificate waiting for you at Juliano's so you can enjoy lunch with Mom. I hope you have a great day, seminary convention aside. :)

Here is a little message from the girls.

Love,
Katy, Sean, Anna, and Elizabeth.

Whose Birthday is it?

We celebrated Elizabeth's birthday this morning with a fabulous birthday breakfast. I dissuaded her from her chosen breakfast of chicken nuggets, cake, and candy, and we settled on donuts, fruit, and juice.

Elizabeth was spoiled rotten, something that Anna actually loved. She got a dress and apple outfit from Grandma Kirkpatrick, an outfit and memory game from Grandma Naef, and playdough from both Grandma's (Sean was thrilled :) ). She is wearing one of her new outfits today and feeling quite jaunty.

Elizabeth's divergent interests were definitely represented in the gifts from us. We bought her the Polly Pocket Cruise Liner, but her favorite gift of all was Anna's present of Justice League figurines. In fact, when she opened the huge boat filled with Polly Pockets, she gave us a look that said, "Really? You know that Green Lantern could lift this whole boat with his ring. Polly wouldn't stand a chance against Superman. You know my new villains could destroy this cruise ship in seconds. What chance does waterslide Polly stand? Come on, guys."

The funniest part of the whole morning, though, was Anna's response to the Polly cruise liner. Whose birthday is it? She just knows that after today, it becomes shared property. She's just biding her time, and perhaps not very patiently.

Oh, by the way - we were all dressed and ready in time to get Anna to school - without a tardy!!! We are so good.