Fab 4 Day

It's another birthday today! Little Bear is quite pleased to be turning four and "not a baby anymore".

We began our celebration last night as he helped get the cupcakes ready for his preschool party this morning. After some discussion about the girls in his class perhaps not liking spiders on his cupcakes, we compromised on gummy bears and sprinkles.

Bear's favorite present was his "Daniel Boone Gun". As you can see. He is ready to fight the bad guys, his favorite play these days. Dan'l Boone is also the theme of his Halloween costume. Not too bad, this two-fer.

Four already. Time needs a tail so I can grab it to slow things down, just a little.

How My Day Began

It is hard to feel positive about a day started by the spilling of canned beets all over the white tile floor....

I guess it can only get better from here!

More Party Photos

Yes, Mommy looks as if she has had one margarita too many....

First Fiesta Pics

The highlight of the 'Four Fiesta' was certainly the pinata. As the weather got pretty chilly, and the sky dark faster than we had anticipated, the stuffed star was hung in the garage. I would not ordinarily show anyone the interior of my garage, as it is a continual source of embarrassment, but necessity won out in the end.

Bear got to go first, and needed a bit of explaination to clearly understand that it was okay to hit the star with the baseball bat. Our friend T., who happens to be a former baseball star and now coaches his sons, manned the pinata and gave Bear some tips on whacking the thing.

You can see that there were a bunch of kids at this shindig; nothing makes me happier than to have a house full to the rafters with people having fun. And we were. Yukon's mexican menu wowed folks, his margaritas even more so (berry), as did his musical creation of '80's Special Songs'. This was made even more special due to the fact he knows little of hot songs listened to by high schoolers in the 80's.

More pictures will be coming soon; my friends took most of them while we socialized. God bless them, for there should be some good ones. A big thank you to everybody who attended, helped, and shared this special day with us.

Yukon and I took advantage of our leftovers last night to sit at our bistro table downstairs (brought inside for the party), sharing a huge pile of nachos made with his left over shredded beef, avocados, tomatoes, and black beans. I knew I liked him!

40 Day

Yeah, so, this is the day when I turn that number. Yes, that one. 40. I guess I don't feel as old as my mother does, when another of her children hits the magic
4-0.

One cannot turn 40 without having at least some moment of reflection on the last four decades, so at the risk of boring the pants off my readers, here they are.
(However, for those of you attending the bash tomorrow night, you might want to take notes; the following info could prove valuable, according to Yukon)

- If I had to do it all again, I would have fought harder against the red/black/gray plaid skirts the good nuns of St. Louise School made us wear. It is impossible to play football at recess in a stupid skirt. I much prefered my lime-green, bell-bottom courdoroy pants and Fonzie shirt.

- There is nothing like growing up in a small town where kids can walk barefoot down to the Ben Franklin store and buy everything from gerbils to Chick-O-Sticks, alone and unaccompanied by any adult type person. I am sure my parents were glad to get rid of us from dawn to dark every summer day. I know Dorothy's were.

- Prom is never what it is cracked up to be, especially when you attend only once, and your little sister attends all four years. I have recovered from the emotional scars, however. I think.

- Bless my parents for encouraging me to be who I am/was, even going so far as allowing me to wear my Lone Ranger outfit every day of our Montana vacations to the grandparent's ranch.

- Soccer is a good sport, until one gets to college and finds it to be like work. Who wants to work at anything in college, unless it has to do with drinking?

- Horses are a good way to forget about boys in High School. I believe this is why my parents did not protest louder against this particular activity.

I am the last of my group of friends to turn 40. Christine lives in Istanbul, Turkey, living the good life of an ex-pat. Lucky her. Dorothy lives in Minneapolis with her beautiful family. We grew up down the street from each other. Lucky all three of us. We have been friends since pre-school years. 40 more, ladies? Of course.

Update From the Wolf Den

It's a Conspiracy.

After a very enlightening conversation with the director of the Program at CHYC, getting to know the "rest of the story" to Wolf's antics lately, she and I agreed on the Conspiracy.

It has been easy for staff to allow Wolf some slack with regard to his behavior these last few months; after all, he can be quite charming and agreeable when things are to his liking. But as Wolf's residence stretches into the six-month mark and little progress up the ladder of Levels is accomplished, it was time for Plan B.

The Conspiracy to Help Wolf consists of little wiggle room for behavior that does not accept personal responsibility, the greatest of his challenges. Freely admitting to us last week that he "likes things my way", Wolf's success lies in his desire to accept and act upon the fact that society doesn't exactly see it that way. So far, there has not been much progress in that respect, but Director B sees potential. As she told me over the phone, "I can see his wheels turning".

Director B.'s special project is to guide and nurture through firm, consistent boundaries means Wolf will be mad much of the time, for quite some time as he struggles through the dark side (that will make him happy to have me use Star Wars analogies) and hopefully ends up at the "good".

Again, Yukon and I are bound by our sense of utter trust in these staff who obviously care deeply for our son and are also affected by behaviors they know he can overcome. Director B.'s Conspiracy could be the best thing to occur in his tumultous young life. But like many tough experiences, he just doesn't know it yet.

Let it Snow

This was what we woke up to this morning. Around 3 inches of fluffy white stuff, which looked quite lovely against the starry sky. We also have been waking up to dark that will only get darker.

Yes, those are Christmas lights. Alaskans install their holiday displays early, sometimes in an effort to brighten up dark winter days, but mostly because trying to get your holiday lights, etc. on the house in ice and snow is near impossible. The staple gun freezes up.

The lights are also up in preparation for a big Fiesta (Yukon's specialty) in celebration of a Year of 4's. I am 40 (no, no, no!) and Bear is 4. And, as my neighbor also added, 4 and 4 is 8 (meaning 2008). Ohhhh, the Chinese would have a lot of fun with this one. I am sure there will be much documentation of this shindig, which goes down Saturday night.

At any rate, the day turned out to be a beautiful one with blue skies and temperatures hovering around 30. We took the dog to the park and all boys enjoyed running around in the snow before trooping home for some hot choco.