Today, Chris’s parents came up from Arlington to celebrate his mom’s birthday and so Chris could work with his dad in the garage.  The guys re-built a big work table that needed some serious attention-  I’ll post some before and after pictures later, but it turned out awesome.  I’m glad he has that- though it is huge, it will stay with us forever.  Even when we design and build our McMansion someday.  ;)

While Ashe took a nap, Sarah rested and I took Amai to see Wall-E, the new Pixar movie.  First of all, she did so great in the theater.  She only got out of her seat once to tell me she had to fix a wedgie and stretch a little.  That was awesome, and then she sat with me the rest of the time- I was so proud of her.  The movie was really cute too.  The depth of meaning was lost on most of the young audience I’m sure, but it was entertaining for everyone- I really liked it.

Then I came home and we played with the kids here until it was dinner time.  After dinner we sang happy birthday to Sarah and had pound cake with candles on top (of course.)  Chris and his dad were still working on the work table so I gave the kids a bath and put them in bed.  Then I got to sit and chat with Sarah for a while before the guys finished.  All in all it was a great visit, and I was really happy to get to celebrate Sarah’s birthday.  Hopefully it was special for her too.

While Chris and I were cleaning up the garage after his parents left, I finally decided to part with the tree I made for Amai’s room when she was born.  It is sad to see it go, but I think it is time to say goodbye.  She liked it for a while, but started having nightmares about it when she was about three, and several times tried to pull it off the wall during the night because she was scared of the way her nightlight was casting shadows on it.  The nightlight wasn’t going to go, and it wasn’t worth forcing the issue when it was so easy to remove.  The hard part is letting go of that part of her little life.

I made this thing from scratch.  I was literally weeks away from having her and decided I wanted to make a cherry blossom tree for her room.  So I did.  It started out as a big bundle of fake twigs, ribbon on spools and fabric from the clearance rack at Hobby Lobby.  It took forever to make.  I burned fingers with the glue gun, rigged pieces of styrofoam together for attaching the branches, and spent countless hours tying all that ribbon into perfect little bows.  And it was beautiful.  To me, it was something she could focus her wandering infant eyes on, and later became a place to sit under and play.  Now it has just been gathering dust in the garage.  Before I throw the rest of it away, I’m going to make something out of some of the branches to put in a shadow box.  That way I’ll always have a little bit of it.  Who knew I would be so sentimental about this tree?

Now I’ll have to think of something super cool for her room.  I’ll post pictures when we make it to decorating the bedrooms.  As you may have noticed, we’re still not past the cabinets in the kitchen.  Yes, we really are that busy.