What can I say? It is, after all, the week before the 4th of July, and I feel it is certainly appropriate to celebrate by opting for the free(dom) blog. Especially since I don't post daily - and sometimes, even weekly posts are too challenging. It seems a fair bit of a waste of a few shekels if I'm not posting frequently enough to justify the admittedly minimal cost of the other blog. So, here I am. [Again.]
By the way, you may note that I'm using pseudonyms for the kids (see About Me for more info). Lately, I have felt that perhaps there's a bit too much of our information available online, which is why I'm trying to recreate some anonymity. I realize that there may be little chance that I'll achieve that, but you can't blame me for trying.
Really Big and Special Day Today
Today was Little Star's Third Birthday! It really helps to have older siblings fan the flames of birthday excitement, because she has been overjoyed with the prospect of having a Dora Birthday. What she means, of course, is a Dora the Explorer-themed birthday cake, for which I paid handsomely at the local grocery store. I could have made her cake again, as I did last year, but the store-bought cakes are so glitzy, and every time we go to that store, she always points out the Dora cakes, so it seemed an unobjectionable expense to get one for her. And all that is not to say, by the way, that the older sibs were encouraging her to ask for a Dora birthday cake; in fact, they seem to have a very keen disregard for all things Dora. Now, I realize that an 8-year old boy isn't going to like the show, but seriously, do you have to be hatin' on her like that? I tell him if I hear him talk like that again, I'll decorate his room in all things Noggin and Nick Jr.
So anyway, I picked up one of those Flip camcorders at Costco the other day; it's a decent-ish little item in terms of video quality - nothing extraordinary but I love the ease of use it offers. Here is Little Star as we all sang Happy Birthday to her; I sincerely do not know where she got the Stevie Wonder action, but hey, whatever works, right?
And please allow me to include these pictures also:
Little Star as Little Stevie
Right before I took this picture, she yelled "Cowabunga!" and dove, face first, into the cake. Seriously, where do they get these things?
Frosting tastes even better when it is surreptitiously taken from your brother's plate.
This was the first present she opened. She should be excited, though; she's the one who picked out that book.
Very happily playing with her Duplo blocks; I expected that they'd be the hit of the party, and I was right.
This was the third picture ever taken of her; the first two, she was still composing herself.
I love this picture, though not because it's anything spectacular. It's just that, gosh, they were so little then, you know? 
