Construction and Aziza's Birthday

The ever-active Greear Family, had a relatively mellow couple of days. Vince has been working on the next phase of our house building project, by creating himself a shed. Soon he will have his own space to keep his stuff and he will never be able to accuse anyone of moving the item he was searching for again. I suppose this will only be true if he puts a padlock on his shed, because just like chickens in a new flowerbed, the kids will be constantly getting into the shed for no reason other than it is a new place to go.

Falcom and Marina were invited to the annual Aziza Bali Shemet-Pitcher birthday-fest. This tradition is special in my heart because I have known these friends since we returned from Saipan. I've been hanging with their moms since the post 9-11 days of our Radical Mommy Playgroup. We moms have mellowed with age (OK, let me hedge that by adding 'most weeks'...) and have all gone through many things that would qualify under one of Buddhisms '4 Noble Truths'. It is fabulous to watching the years pass, our friendships deepening, with this delightful event as a marker.

Aziza's name strikes me solidly on two counts. One, the reference to Bali. (I know, like Duh.) Also the four names in a row remind me of an island name, like, Maru Joseph Villagomez Castro Manalisay.

Our family arrived in time to help fill water balloons. Karen was busy getting things ready for the majority of guests to arrive. Don was getting salmon on the grill and setting up the slip-n-slide. Mindy and I decided to make ourselves a cup Vietnamese coffee from the instant packs I carry in my purse for emergencies. Eric put to words thoughts that I have always had but have never been able to verbalize. He said, "I love Asian junk food. If I could read what was in this pack in English I would never drink it, but because it comes from Asia, it is like suddenly perfectly great and I love it!" Then the three of us took a moment to breath in the smell of morning in Vietnam. I am ashamed to say that that is as far as I got with helping Karen with her party.

Usually, Ziza orders up bright sunshine for her birthday. Sadly, today was the one year out of 7 where it rained.

The Shemet-Pitcher family had been up late the night before processing crab that they'd gotten from their crab pot. Where else in the world does a girl have fresh crab and salmon at her birthday? We adults jumped into the crab the minute Karen put it out. I said, "do you think we should wait for the kids?" Mindy said, "I think this situation is similar to that of oxygen masks on airplanes; 'secure yourself first.'" It tasted great.

Eric was in charge of bringing the cake for Karen and Don. The theme was the Harry Potter sorting hat. Look at this killer cake!Inside the cake Eric had put the sword of Griffendor. It was a cake whose memory will carry on. He has really set the bar with this masterpiece. Cake making tips: This type of cake requires a homemade cake, not a box mix, but an old style dense cake. He refrigerated this cake before carving.

This is Ziza laughing at her sorting hat.