Brandon
Charlotte
Philip
Emma
Jason
Dad
And thanks for the patience and understanding if I did not get birthday greetings out to you! December and January have been a whirlwind of events, and primarily sickness, in the Ford household. I figure we are due for at least six months of health around here.
So much has happened since I last blogged, so here are a few updates.
Charlotte asked if I would take her to the Plaza in NYC for her birthday. Not exactly feasible (for many reasons!), but we could have a pampered day. We started her birthday with a pedicure and manicure, pink sparkles for the fingers and blue sparkles for the toes.
Any respectable nail polishing must be shown off, so we followed that up with lunch at The Umstead Hotel. It's Raleigh's only "luxury" hotel, and as we were about the only ones there on a Monday at 11 am, we got the star treatment!
Can you believe that little diva is only 5? We had such a lovely, grown-up day. Love you, Charlotte!
Our next adventure was more age-appropriate. We had dinner at Mellow Mushroom, a pizza joint, with Emma and Anson. Russell had to work so we had celebrated with him the day before. Again, the restaurant just loves a cute little face on someone's birthday, and surprised us with this cinnamon pretzel made especially for Charlotte.
Next I trekked to the lake house with the kids and their friends. I was still quite under the weather, and ended up realizing later that I probably already had the flu at that point. Despite that, I had a wonderful time.
Winter is beautiful at the lake. I woke up to this view and a light dusting of snow. Something about the light at this time of year is amazing.
Sally and Philip helped one night to get some jobs done, and I was on my own the next day. I had promised to take the kids out on the boat, but when it started to snow again (as it had the night before), I thought for sure I had an out. But no such luck!
So we bundled ourselves up, and set out on the water with the temperature in the 20s F. Anson's friend Lee (who looks like he might actually be prepared for the Arctic) was the only one who had fun. The rest of the crew ended up flat on the bottom of the boat to escape from the wind, and was sure I was crazy for taking them out. All I could think of was that I had turned into my father-in-law. :)
But the real fun started the next morning, when the kids realized the lake was frozen. A morning of throwing sticks on the ice and trying to punch holes in it was worth all the cold weather.
Let's see, what else happened? Oh yes, the school spelling bee. I've not been to anything that nerve-wracking in a long time. It was a true Scripps National Spelling Bee. Anson and all the kids sat up on stage and spoke into a microphone. There were twenty kids total, representing the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades. Anson missed the word "infinity" by spelling it "infinite." He was a bit bummed at first, but I think within a few minutes you could see the relief wash over his face as he watched the other children continue. Seriously, can you imagine a person with a very North Carolina accent trying to pronounce and then spell "ululate"? (Do any of you even know what that means?) For some reason, that is the only word I remember, but there were many I had never heard of and that were more than 3-4 syllables.
We are so proud of Anson for winning his class bee and getting up on stage as the youngest person there!
Now this is more like it. Anson the Caniac with his rally cap and strange monkey he got in the hockey gift shop.
Lastly, Charlotte and I watched the Golden Globes pre-show red carpet walk, and she decided she had to get in on the act. Witness the Charlotte look (she's showing off her jewelry and updo that are difficult to see in this picture and wearing my cocktail dress, pinned in the back, and my shoes).
Well, that caps off the month of January. Coming up next...an update on Barbie!
