Love Thursday

My birthday mood surfaced by the end of the day yesterday thanks to my dear friend H and my family.

When I dropped H's son off after pre-school, she handed me a big bag and wished me a happy birthday. Inside I found a "Dinner for Two" from Central Market, a big slice of coconut cake from a local bakery, a trashy magazine, and a bottle of prenatal vitamins (she found them in the back of her cupboard, still unopened).

I fed the kids their dinner while B heated up the fancy meal for us, and the girls decided they wanted to play restaurant for us. They closed the kitchen blinds and turned on the chandelier and set the table. Then they escorted us to the table and served us our meals. After they served us, they stood by the table and stared, giggling wildly. Campbell was sitting at the table laughing, too, thrilled as punch to be sitting in a big chair. We explained to the girls that at nice restaurants, the wait staff disappears until they are needed, they don't stand by the table and stare.

The girls vanished for a few minutes before returning with their CD player to provide us with music. When we declined, Ella protested, "But it's the 'Nutcracker!'" For her, the "Nutcracker" is the end-all, be-all of classical music. We compromised by letting them turn the music on in the living room.

After we finished, the girls cleared the table and lobbied for a special dessert since it was my birthday, so B made himself and the girls root beer floats, and I had my coconut cake.

Since the girls were in such a helpful mood, we decided to see how we much we could take advantage of them. Amazingly, they worked together to empty the dishwasher and put away all the clean dishes and then load all the dirty ones in without a single disagreement. They thought it was great fun, but I doubt they'll still feel that way once it becomes one of their regular chores.

It really was such a nice end to a gloomy day. I'm lucky to have such good friends and such a wonderful family.

Happy Love Thursday.