Spring Celebrations

 April is a joyful month around here. Not only are the spring bulbs bursting into color and the flowering trees showering the ground with pale petals and filling the air with sweet fragrances, but our table is laden with good things to eat as we celebrate Easter and birthdays, and our days are full of happy conversations and sunny walks ... or starry at night ...or gray and rainy, as is also often the case!

After our celebration of Easter with the family, so much closer now that visiting isn't an "Event" but a get-together, we celebrated my daughter's and my husband's birthdays with the neighbors who have 2 April birthdays in their house, too.  They like to joke that April is the best birthday month, and it is true that many people I love are born in April. But I also love my February, March, May, June, July, and September birthday havers. And those born in October, November and December.  I believe the month of January and August are also awesome months for birthdays, because I know a couple wonderful people born in those months, also.

This year our birthday celebrations were understated since they fell so close to Easter.  The week after Easter was also Spring Break. My daughter decided against having a party since so many friends were going to be on vacation. We stayed an extra day at my parents' farm to spend time with the cousins and niece/grandbaby. Tuesday  we both got our hair cut at the salon, which was a treat, but Wednesday, her actual birthday, was pretty quiet and dull. We took a long walk, and her brother came over for dinner and to eat eclair dessert, a family favorite made with Cool Whip and pudding mix, graham crackers, and a chocolate frosting. It's best made a day ahead, and fortunately we had time to let the pudding mix soften the graham crackers. But she was little glum on her birthday - getting sweet notes and cards from her friends in Texas may have amplified her sadness rather than alleviated it because she was reminded of how much she missed them.  She has made some friends at her new school, but friendship that is kinship takes more time. 

Although Wednesday was a dull day, we made up for it on Thursday. I had hemmed and hawed about what to do for this 12th birthday, since she didn't want a party. A trip to Chicago for museums and shopping had been on my mind as an activity for spring break, but I ended up committing to adding a special event to make the trip even more special - last minute tickets to Hamilton. So the birthday celebration was a triple treat: We took the train to and from Chicago to visit, by her request, the Shedd Aquarium, to shop at the American Girl store, and to take in Hamilton.  

The trip and the show were phenomenal! We already loved the story and music from having watched the PBS version.  But the live performance, even without the original Broadway cast, was transporting. l could hardly tell a difference! Of course, I'm no expert, and there is a part of me that thinks perhaps there SHOULD be a difference.  To be fair, all the actors were incredibly talented, and the actors who portrayed George Washington and Angelica Skylar especially stood out because they had their own sound. The actor who played Hamilton injected some different energy and didn't sound exactly like Lin-Manuel Miranda, but it is a bit uncanny how similar Elizabeth Skylar and King George and Lafayette were to the original cast.  Regardless, the production is genius.  The lyrics blow me away every time, and even though I feel a catch in my throat hearing "Quiet Uptown" on the radio, hearing it in person brought on the tears. 

That was the highlight of spring break, for sure.  Since our return train didn't pull into the South Bend station until 2:30 am, Friday was a lazy sleep-in + errands day.  LK had horse back riding lessons and a play date on Saturday, and then we celebrated April birthdays with the neighbors on Sunday, which was a lot of fun.  Their son just turned 4, so our contribution to the dinner was a dump truck cake - a frosted cake shaped like a truck dumping fruit out of the back.  Then Monday was my husband's birthday, which we celebrated again with more treats - cheesecake this time - and a tenderloin dinner with our son. A part of me wished I had planned a little better for our time off, but we ended up making some lifetime memories. 

Train travel is my favorite! Love watching the landscape from the window.

Chicago!

At the Shedd Aquarium

Starfish touch tank. Visiting the aquarium brought back so many memories of our life in Guam.

The belugas are the highlight of the Shedd

Mother and baby beluga

Along the lakeshore - not quite warm enough yet for the trees to burst into bloom, but warm enough for short sleeves!

Another portrait in the Bean at Millennium park

Which doll do you like best?

Walking by Italian Village, scene of one of our early fancy dinner dates.

Show time!

Fancy ice cream after the show

Behind the dinosaur museum is a prairie conservation nature preserve, complete with a herd of bison.

The nature preserve is along the continental divide. South Bend doesn't have much elevation - this is one of the highest spots.

At the dinosaur museum

A tall 12 year old!