Six year old Rose

This happy little cutie turned six years old on Tuesday. 

I think Rose had more teeth as a one-year-old than she does as a six-year-old! But she still has that delicate little chin, those sparkling ice blue eyes, and that mischievous grin.

Rose was very excited for her birthday. Over her lifetime, we have developed our family birthday traditions, and Rose looked forward to and relished each and every one. It all boils down to six major traditions: We have the birthday photo and the birthday interview. We have the early morning birthday present opening. We have the photo-op pre-birthday singing and candle-blowing. We bring a treat to school. And of course there's the renowned birthday dinner and family cake time! I also usually try to do something unexpected to surprise the birthday kid in the morning. In the past I've hung streamers or blown up balloons. This time I blew up six balloons and put them in her bed. Rose reveled in every tradition, enjoying every moment of attention and special-ness.

Events #1 and 2: photo shoot and birthday interview 

Our dramatic, energetic social butterfly LOVES attention, so her birthday is always a big day full of big joys. Rose feels every emotion with her whole entire SELF, so when I say big joys, I mean it! The afternoon before her birthday, I took the traditional birthday head shot and we filled out the traditional birthday interview together. Rose had all of her responses ready--this strong-willed girl knows just what she likes. Apparently her favorite places are Pizza Hut, Goodwill, and school. She listed them in that order too, although I'm quite certain that Rose has only ever been inside our local Pizza Hut two, maybe three times in her entire life, and not anytime during the last year! Haha. 

We don't have a scale, so her weight is TBD at her yearly doctor checkup. Other highlights from Rose's birthday interview: 

• What is scary?---Spiders, cobras, and zombie Jay. [She screams SO INCREDIBLY LOUDLY when Jay acts like a zombie and staggers towards her, and now Amber has picked up on this game. So much screaming.]
• Favorite thing about myself---"that I'm always happy"
• What do you love? ---"my bunny and Jesus." 
• Favorite song---Let it Go (from Frozen, of course) and Rondo Alla Turka (Mozart). Amber's toy laptop has a music mode, and a few weeks ago, Rose played Rondo Alla Turka over and over and over, saying "I like this song. It's beautiful." So I did a Google search to figure out what it was called--it was so familiar but the title was a mystery--and we actually have the music to it in our 100 Classic Piano Songs book. Rose sat and watched me with intense interest while I stumbled through the first couple of lines for her. Then I found the song on Amazon Prime music streaming and added it to our Mozart playlist that we listen to as one of the requirements for piano lessons. That was a long story, but a six year old choosing Rondo Alla Turka as one of her top two favorite songs required an explanation.
• All of Rose's favorite activities revolve around coloring, drawing, dancing, reading, and Minecraft. The one other game she mentioned is called "vrooke". Jay and Rose invented this game and play it in the playroom for hours together. From what I can tell, it involves a giant castle constructed of old boxes, the Barbies, and all of the Legos (preferably dumped and spread out far and wide). Jay and Rose take turns being the one who "decides" in the game. They say to each other "want to play Vrooke where I decide?" and even have long discussions/arguments over who gets to decide what happens. It's all very complicated. Jay's decisions nearly always involve bad guys, attacks, and battles. Rose's tend to include more magic and queens. I think the name Vrooke is a mutation of Veruca, aka Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They named their game Vrooke soon after we first read the book and watched the movie almost 2 years ago, and I think it has to do with the person who decides has all power to boss the game around, just like Veruca Salt. I'm not sure that Jay and Rose even remember that their game stems from Veruca Salt, but I believe that's the origin.

Amber wanted in on the birthday photo shoot. 

I was trying not to mourn the lack of good lighting too much when I took Rose's picture, but I mourned it nonetheless. Rose was cute as always, but the limited winter light really made the pictures challenging. And grainy. The sun was rising and shining in on half of Rose's head. The other half was in shadow. If I moved her into the full sunbeam, she would squint. If I moved her out of it completely, she would be even grainier and darker. If I waited till after school, it would be too dark to do any better. My amateur photography skills only flourish in full daylight--none of this cloudy morning sunshine half light that was going on during these pictures. 

That face is the definition of Rose: always appreciative of a good joke (as long as she's not the brunt of it), mischievous, clever, quick-witted, intelligent, loud, lovable, beautiful, social, stubborn, demanding, and darling.

The night before Rose's birthday, Amber joined her in the top bunk. Six balloons seemed like a whole lot more while I was blowing them up right before I went to bed, but the number seemed kind of small once I put them in the bed. These girls woke up at 4:30am on Rose's birthday, screaming and squabbling over Rose's pillow, which they had been sharing all night. I staggered in, pulled the pillow over a little so they both had space on it again, and they instantly fell back to sleep. I did not, but I tried anyways. Rose was up and pacing excitedly an hour later anyways.

Event #3: early morning birthday presents

Rose made sure we were all somewhat awake by 6am for present opening (our kids often sleep in their clothes and hairdos, so that explains yesterday's dress and ponytail). I nearly forgot to wrap the presents the night before, so right before I climbed into bed I tossed them all into gift bags: a new Barbie, four Goodwill Barbies with homemade clothes, color changing markers, two books, a hopper ball, and foam curlers for her hair. I'm pretty sure I nailed it with the gifts, not that I'm trying to brag or anything, but it is so satisfying to find gifts that both please and surprise the recipient. I have already vacuumed up the new Barbie's bracelet though...

She thought the curlers were markers, but when I told her what they were, she made this great excited face.

Blowing up the hopper ball. Now all three of these kids hop everywhere. These hoppers are the BEST for diffusing indoor winter energy!

Admiring my handiwork. Amber helped pick out the Barbies at Goodwill--we found some Skipper dolls which are harder to find brand new for some reason, probably because they are younger and less...developed than the adult Barbies. I like their lack of curves, even if one of them had a pink streak in her hair. Sewing Barbie clothes is so hard! Thankfully I had some knit fabric on hand so there was less hemming involved, but these crooked outfits still took four hours of my life. 

Attempt #1--the dresses went from ok to really crooked. That yellow dress inspired me to make an extra dress option...

The finished products. I did not sew the pants--I scavenged those out of Rose's clothes box. And Flynn Rider's shirt is unhemmed and completely open in the back underneath the vest (the shirt flaps didn't overlap enough for velcro and my patience was waning by that point). The layered black and white dresses came from convenient bits of stretch layered fabric I forgot I had. And pony tail girl's dress is a no-sew classic poncho and sash style.

Event #4: cake candle-blowing for the photo (before 7am)

Her face while we sang to her.

Can you SEE her enjoyment? She relished every second!

Six candles for the six year old.

Blowing...

...blowing...

...gone! [we didn't eat the cake for breakfast (this time); we just did the candle-blowing photo]

Every birthday has a cake story behind it--at least when I'm baking. This one was no different. With careful planning and several concessions, I managed to overcome my past cake baking debacles, trials, and agony at long last baked and frosted my very first really GOOD, accident-free cake. Rose requested a chocolate cake with chocolate chips in it and chocolate frosting on top. I got a cake mix with pudding in it, then counseled with my sister Em on how to make it taste a little better. I added milk and sour cream to the eggs and oil, plus a ton of mini chocolate chips, and frosted it with a tub of store bought chocolate frosting. I finally let myself take the easy frosting route, and it was 100% worthwhile. No stress, no frantic mixing, no mysterious stiffening, no cake-tearing laborious spread-a-thon, no endless back-and-forth between adding powdered sugar and milk. I baked and cooled the cake in a rectangular pan, then spread the soft frosting on top, added a few butterfly sprinkles, and poof! The easiest, moistest, chocolaty-est cake I've ever eaten or baked! Everyone LOVED it! I began to see the joy others feel when they bake delicious desserts. 

Trying out her color changing markers. Draw with one, then use the clear marker on top of it and the ink changes colors--Rose didn't know markers could get that cool. 

Event #5: birthday girl at school 

School class pictures were on Rose's birthday, so she carefully chose her "picture day outfit"--the same one she wore on picture day back in November. I'm not sure she's worn it at all since that day, but for some reason she has decided definitively that this dress and this sparkly pink sweater are her most photo-worthy attire. Incidentally, it's the dress she wore for her Hermione costume on Halloween. For her Birthday Hairdo (the careful, almost reverent way she talked about it made this particular hair style seem like a proper noun), Rose requested a side ponytail, so I tamed her thin fine hair into the prettiest side ponytail I could manage, using a French braid to keep the wisps to a minimum. She was pleased.

This was Rose's first-ever birthday at school! She was ecstatic about going to school on her special day, and as far as I can tell, school on her birthday lived up to her highest expectations. She got to do special jobs and had Happy Birthday sung to her by her class and her beloved teachers told her happy birthday lots of times, plus other kids always revere the birthday kid with a mixture of admiration and envy. At lunchtime, Amber and I brought ice cream sandwiches to share with Rose's class as a birthday treat. Rose passed them out and I shared the last one with Amber, crouched in a tiny kindergarten chair next to Rose's table.

The birthday girl at her table, with an ice cream mustached smile. I asked Rose if she was sure she wanted ice cream sandwiches since it was so cold outside, but she was sure. It actually snowed for most of the day on her birthday, which pleased Rose to no end.

The kids in the class kept saying "your baby is cute!" Amber was happy to see Rose at school, and made herself right at home in the classroom, trying to rearrange the bookshelf and use the scissors she found stored in a cup. I had to keep unfolding myself from the miniature kindergarten chair to bring Amber back to sit at Rose's table. There's nothing like an elementary school classroom to make me feel like a giantess--one of the kids even said in an awed voice, "Rose, your mom is TALL!"

Event #6: the birthday feast and cousin party 
Rose chose mac and cheese for her birthday dinner, as usual. Normally we have the local extended family over for birthday cake, but social Rose wanted everyone over for dinner AND cake. So hoping that a dinner of mac and cheese wasn't too...carbo-dense/plain/disappointing, we invited everyone over and I brewed up my biggest cauldron of mac to date: three pounds of noodles and a veritable vat of cheese sauce. There were leftovers. Whenever we have people over for dinner, I freeze up over the side dishes. I had no clue what to make for a side dish of macaroni and cheese, which most people consider a side dish itself! So I cut up some lettuce and made some fresh warm white bread (a real birthday treat because normally I make it wheat). I also opened a jar of homemade applesauce. It was a birthday feast fit for a Rose!

CAKE! Cousins! 

One of my goals is to take a cousin picture at every birthday gathering. They don't love that plan too much, but too bad, kids--you're growing fast! All of the kids were full of cake by the time we corralled them into a picture, and it was a bit of a circus. I love this series of pictures though.

Left to right: Grayce (age 1), Layne (age 4), Rose (age 6), Amber (age 2), Tate (age 3), and Jay (age 7.5). This is all of the cousins on the White side of our family...until sometime this spring, when the Gibbons will add a fourth baby to their crew.

Grampa Dan stepped in behind me to get the kids looking the same direction and smiling. He had them cracking UP--everyone, that is, except little Grayce, who seemed a tad concerned at the levels of noise and hilarity around her.

Birthday picture with the mother: another tradition I aspire to each year. Happy birthday to this sweet six year old!

I will always love my Rose.

A little bit of sunshine

When I sat down to write this evening, Rose was beating on a homemade drum set on the kitchen table behind me. She used two Tinker Toys for drumsticks and a cardboard box, a toy schoolbus, the wooden table, a big ball, and a beanbag as her drums. Amber kept chiming in, and every time she got too close, Rose objected at full volume. So much noise.

Right now I am full of Jeff's finest crepes--he made them for dinner tonight. We got two new crepe pans when we were in France, and I like crepes again! Jeff's 15 year old crepe pan gave the crepes a subtle but disgusting PAN flavor that nobody but bloodhound tongued-Shaina could taste. It was the taste of 15 years of Pam cooking spray and crumbling first-generation Teflon coating. I had a crepe from that aged pan back when I was nauseous and pregnant between Rose and Amber, and that old pan flavor has grossed me out for the five years since then. I didn't even know it was the actual pan that was making the crepes taste weird until I had a bite of Jeff's crepe in Paris and I actually LIKED it. That made me realize that old nonstick pans are grosser than I thought.

It is not possible to find a quality flat, low-rimmed crepe pan in the USA for less than a small fortune, if at all--I have looked. So while we were in Paris, we went to Carrefour (European big box store comparable to Walmart, but better because France somehow makes even a Walmart-ish store seem classy--must be the enormous fancy cheese section and fresh baguettes). At Carrefour we picked up two affordable Tefal crepe pans--one medium sized, one large. They are amazing.

Well, we chucked the old pan in the bin at long last the minute we got home from Paris, and I like crepes again!!! So Jeff has started making them on Sundays. YUM--everyone likes them, they are filling, Jeff enjoys making them,, and I don't have to cook! I call that a quadruple win.

Thursday was our first sunny day in WEEKS and it was beautiful, shining off of the bright snow. The forecast called for another winter storm advisory starting Thursday night. We haven't seen the grass in over a month--it has been freezing and covered in snow and ice all year! It has been a new experience for this Tennessee-raised girl living with this much snow and winter weather.

On Thursday in the car Amber and I listened to The Piano Guys' latest album while we drove through the frozen, bright white landscape to Julia's house [I teach her weekly homeschool reading and writing lesson]. The snow coated the hills and every snowy lump had an edge of white-gold sunlight on one side and a bluish shadow on the other. The snow transformed the familiar scenery into something completely new--glittering, and exciting. I haven't driven out into the country on a sunny day since the first snow fell, so the view of the sun-on-snow and the whiteness of the usually drab brown hills was breathtaking. Beautiful music plus sparkling scenery lifted my spirits and made my heart happy. It was an uplifting drive, and I found myself feeling glad to have that 40 minutes round trip to listen to beautiful music and drink in the visual beauty. I felt calm and centered when it was over.

While I was making lunch on Thursday, Amber said "payer, Mommy, payer!" So we folded our arms and I said a prayer for the food. One of the things I said in the prayer was "thank thee for this sunny day before the next storm." When I said those words aloud, the symbolism in them hit me. All in about five seconds as I paused before finishing my prayer, I had three shades of thoughts flood my mind simultaneously: I realized how very blessed I am right now. Then with a pang, I thought "I wonder what the next life storm will be." And right on the heels of that pang, I thought how important it is to appreciate the sun while it shines, so to speak. Not only how important it is, but how possible it is to appreciate the sun while it shines, or the goodness happening in the moment.

Regardless of upcoming storms, past problems, or current issues, it really is possible to feel happy and find goodness in the middle of it all. Goal: enjoy the sun while it shines!

Now, for the January catch-up pictures--full of sunshine (the symbolic kind):

Rose lost her last middle top tooth and she lisps in the cutest way now. 

Sometimes you just can't wait for clothes. 

We passed around a low-key exhausting cold for the last two weeks of January. That means lots of movies, snuggling, and sleep. When Jay was home sick, he facilitated Amber's first viewing of Star Wars episode IV.

Sick Amby was sad but I loved holding her limp sleepy squishy self.

The icicles got pretty big.

Rose adores having fluffy curly hair the day after braids. She was a halo of happy radiance on Monday when we did her hair after her Sunday braided hairdo. She told me that the kids in her class at school said "nice hair!" 

Jay and Rose had their first-ever piano recital on January 28th. It was an ensemble piano recital, with four pianos set up and two kids per piano. It was a lot of fun, and Jay and Rose did great!

Amber wants to be like her big sibs so badly. One day she took the timer down to the piano, plinked and pounded around for a while, then brought it back and promptly started unloading the silverware from the dishwasher. She watches Jay and Rose practice piano and do chores every day, then copies them.

THOSE FACES! 

Right before Grama Meri went home after watching the kids while Jeff and I were in France last month.

Rose drew this picture at church last Sunday, and I loved it so much. 

Got the cart stuck in the snow for the millionth time this winter... 

Amber practically skinned me alive when she suddenly developed an interest in brushing my hair--in the same spot, over and over and over. My scalp was rawand my ears were on fire for two entire days after my junior beautician was finished with me.