Kissing Would Be Nice, Yes?

Gracie's 5th birthday party, a purple and green and blue delight in Crawford Bayou. Packing nowhere near the drama of last year's extravaganza, we are, nevertheless, Princess and the Frog-ged out. Who would have ever guessed that 8 little girls would not take more than 5 minutes to glitter up their goody bags? I demand to know who! 'Cause they could've tipped me off. Last year the crowns took about 40 minutes. The ever-popular Freeze Dance as special guest Desi played the piano...

there's just something magical about that 5th year: everyone understands the concept of "party" and "enjoy." Very few guests are puzzled by the concept of leaving their mother's side in order to be one of a mass of giggly girls. And, truthfully, we could have spent the entire 2 hours Freeze Dancing because, baby, the best things in life ARE free.

As ever, the cake was the highlight...such good manners, these little ones. And, score! After everyone had daintily picked at their portions, the piglets who live on Candleglow Street had more than half of the cake to devour their own selves. Tee-hee.

Next to pictures of kids shoving pieces of unnaturally-colored cake into their mouths, my favorite party pix are always of pinata time. The sun never quite broke out behind the clouds, the tykes were all a-shiver, but busting open a paper-mache frog is always a major draw. They'll endure anything for a chance of beating it into a pulp.

The free-for-all!

And so ends what may very well be the last at-home birthday party the Crawfords ever throw: are we just getting old? Inordiately busy? 'Cause even the most basic of celebrations seems to be all that we can handle, and more. Remember the old days of 20+ kids running around our tiny California backyard for Eve, Ty, and Shane? We thank our lucky stars for our Gracie, but she's gonna get that short end of the stick, no fault of her own.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

'Tis the season for pinewood blocks, wheels, weights, graphite and the best engineering known to mankind...Derby, baby! This year's edition featured 3 generations of Crawford testerone determined to smoke that track...

Shane raced with Pack 780 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds facility, and suffered the gravest injustice: killer car, the fastest car in the trials, which he managed to drop in line to be weighed in. You just can't doctor a car with scientific precision in primitive circumstances. That's our story, we're stickin' to it.
Primed to take all comers. And he kinda did. Second in every heat. When you're racing against 70+ cars, it just didn't stack up. Gosh fetch.
After the Tigers had raced, and the legion of other cars were taking their sweet time, some nameless fellas were reduced to entertaining themselves with duct tape. Probably the highlight of the day. And no complaints.

Ty raced with the church pack in yet another Crawford-engineered marvel...the very picture of heat, ain't it?

The future stewards of the vineyard, folks. Pray vigilantly.

The best action shot we could offer. And as far as you know, Ty's car is first.

Shane's compensation: out of the two entrants in the sibling category, Shane's was the clear winner, which is more telling than you know: see little Abby there next to him? That girl ROCKS, and won the same competition the year before, handily. I didn't ask her how it felt to be nudged out by a 7-year-old. It could've gotten ugly.

All certified and ribboned, my Derby boys. You can't read that fine print? Oh, no need to squint. First place. First place. Coolest car design. Best looking participants. You know the drill.

Baby, Slow Down

Just when you've caught one-half of a breath following the flurry of a Crawford Christmas, the 27th brings around the anniversary of Grace Caroline's birth...five years ago our last angel (of destruction?) descended and rounded out our happy crew, so why not gather with the extended fam to have a belated Christmas dinner, gift exchange and a My Pretty Pony birthday cake while watching the Broncs let another one slip through those orange fingers? Why not, indeed!
Grandma K knows a way to a girl's heart...Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Cafe! We can only thank the public library for supplying us with what seems to be an unending variety of the little red-headed girl's videos ("Straw-buh-buh-buh-berry, so extraordinary!") and a previously undiscovered outlet for Grace's already-teeming imagination.
She also received the Snow White DVD, Snow White and her Seven Dwarves dolls, (are you with me on this? It's not 'dwarves'. It's 'dorfs.' Right?) and, drum roll please:

The beloved new bike, received by all Crawfords upon their 5th birthdays! This one is princessed-out: a plastic holder for, I guess, holding things, and a water bottle! This spring, Gracie rocks Candleglow Street! Lock up your small children and animals!

How can you describe Gracie? She's such a girly-girl: all ribbons and bows and pink fluff. A pure cuddle-cake, with a belly laugh/snort laugh like Gloria's on Madagascar 2: irresistible.

She's I Corinthians 13: 4-5: as the caboose, she suffereth long through many practices, games, meets, concerts, recitals, and there's nothing trivial about it: Grace is kind. She envieth not, but is usually content with her own little corner of the universe, and would love it if everyone would join her and just be happy.

Grace doesn't behave herself unseemly (usually!), seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. She strongly dislikes being the butt of a joke, receiving undue attention, and dealing with people who don't share.

Grace came to me after a playdate and informed me, incredulously, that her friend "didn't even know what a 'diva' is." And though the obvious joke is to say that after meeting her, he surely has a firm grasp on the term's meaning, it's not even true. On her worst day, Grace is welcoming and friendly, sugar 'n spice and everything nice, but if you equip her with pom-poms and a nice house sountrack, nothin' but fierce!

With apologies to Andy Williams, Whitney Houston, et. al.

In a Crawford Christmas, not a lot of night wind, little lambs, shepherd boys, mighty kings or even people everywhere...but the question still stands: Do you hear what I hear?

"A child, a child, donning a red nose. She is waiting for the curtain to close."

Gracie was a reluctant Rudolph for the Adventure Club Pre-K holiday program, but on the precious scale, this kid and her peers went to 11 (for all my Spinal Tap-types).

Do you see what I see?

"A child, a child. Assaulting a kid named Cole. Guessing how many M&M's were in the jar was his only goal."

Met it, too. A mere 200+ M&M's off, but did the bragging and wonderment and pride cease, even to this day? Nay, indeed. You'd think he'd won the Nobel Prize. Apparently, it's just this easy. Ahem.

Do you know what I know?

"A child. A child, with his huge blue eyes. Slapped some google-eyes on his Snowman just after he won the prize."

Necessity is the mother of invention: the huge eyes wouldn't stick to the chenille stem wrapped around the candy cane to make a reindeer, so...

No more verses. But, as always, more children and pictures to caption than any number of stanzas allow.

Evie, with Cooper and Aubrey, busily constructing their sugar-cube igloo with chopsticks. Cooper turned into a major liability, and was banned from the table due to his constant knocking and collapsing of said igloo. What a punk.
Belly and her powdered-sugar-donut-hole-with-peppermint-patty-and-Hershey's-kiss-hat-held-together-with-green-icing-sporting-mini-chocolate-chips-for-a-face-and/or-buttons-edible-snowman-craft-project. That took positively forever to type.

Shaney, Carter, Taj and Gerardo, preppin' to "read." Obviously.

Nothin' like those Crawford eyes, I'll tell ya what...

Shaney Ro's holiday party consisted of a ridiculously bountiful breakfast (cookies! yee-haw!) and opportunity to present the parents the contents of the construction-paper suitcase housing their passports and projects representing several countries and their respective holiday traditions. He especially enjoyed the cut-and-paste project from Australia: a kangaroo and a surfer. Nothing says Christmas like...a kangaroo...and...a surfer. Is what I always say.

The good stuff: Ty's Bear den creation for the holidays that he keeps not for himself, or his buddies, or his mom (best mom in the world," thank you very much), but his other main girl.

Belly-Boo, holiday concert, violin. Again with the praises for Clear Sky Elementary, Douglas County School District, and the administrators who fight for these programs in the face of severe budget cuts. It takes courage to hold that belief that school should enrich and teach the whole child and to do more than pay lip service to the concept that the arts are for all kids, not just the advantaged that can afford private lessons. May I paraphrase Dumbledore? We live in perilous times, Harry. It's tempting to do the easy thing. We need more people who do the right thing.

Welcome Christmas, come this way!

Shane 'n Dane, watching Polar Express 3-D at our little annual Young Women's Santa's Workshop babysitting service, first Tuesday in December.

That's good stuff, right there. Jealous much?
Clear Sky Choir's blondest and most beautiful soloist. Can't say it enough: what a blessing to live in a community where our kids are treated to the arts as part of their curriculum, and that within that curriculum are offered music of both sacred and secular traditions. They also belted out "Dealing with the Reindeer", a rap in which it was painfully obvious that for all its strengths, Douglas County ain't a hotbed of diversity. Hearing those kids say 'Yo!' was nothing shy of painful.

Grandma K's great holiday treat is to take her grandkids to Disney's ice shows, one of my own favorite memories from when I was at least Grace's age. Pre-show they had a Princess gown display, and my ladies got a nice sneak-preview of Tiana and all the Princess and the Frog madness that undoubtedly will hit our house in the coming weeks.

Ariel and Eric. Awwwww...

Mick and Min. Awwww...

Cousin Colette, Grandma K, Eve and Grace at the outdoor mall Northfield @ Stapleton, where they offer an amazing outdoor light display of moving lights set to the music of Trans-Siberian Orchestra arrangements. Even more amazing to me: all this Christmas merriment at a place where for most of my life only existed landing strips for the airport. Nothin' changes but the changes, baby.

Gracie's newest ornament: only took a moment before she broke one of Cinderelly's arms.

Only one other thing could be more perfect: competitive swimming Barbie. Maybe next year.

The fellas, Qui-Gon, Darth Maul and Obi Wan. Holy Star Wars!

Just a Plain Good Time

If you're gonna study Native American cultures, eastern Colorado's your place. Clear Sky's 3rd graders descended upon the Plains Conservation Center in Aurora (mama's old stomping grounds, boo-yah!) to study all manner of culture on a ridiculously cold and snowy day.
Game face. He takes the Cheyenne tribe and all its accoutrements VERY seriously.
A replica of what home would have been for these folks...when I really want to scare myself and the kids on a cold day, I utter the magic three words: "Crossing the plains." If that thought wasn't sobering enough, imagine these folks, who aren't 'going' anywhere. This is where they were back in the day. By choice. Until they were driven off. Wow.

Bob the tour guide, who was informative and entertaining and noteworthy in every way. So impressed with the kids that they could properly identify the animal pictured behind him as a bison, then was crestfallen to learn it wasn't the product of good education, just brainwashing: Clear Sky's students are all Bison, and not a little proud of it.

Building a tee-pee. Tysie does this multiple times a year with scouts, I'm thinking his fellow teammates don't enjoy that advantage. Gratifying to see my boy take the helm in every group and activity, I think I've got a born leader on my hands. Must be daddy's genes.