Lemon Grove Lane: A Double Birthday Party

May 24-25
Since we assume that Lydia and I will be in Ghana by the time of her birthday on June 17th, we decided to go ahead and have her party early. We also made it double as my VERY belated 40th birthday party – almost two months late. One funny gift was a faux-hair clip-on ponytail. It was a bit too light in color for her, so we gave it to Elena and got Lydia another shade darker (they aren’t returnable.)

She also got Speed Stackers, and has been practicing them for hours on end. For those of you not familiar with Speed Stacking, it is now considered (by some) to be an actual sport, with tournaments and everything. It involves stacking and collapsing structures of plastic cups, in a very specific pattern, and as quickly as possible. It is supposed to be excellent for fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination. It sounds boring, doesn’t it? Well, you just have to see it in action to appreciate it. Click HERE to see an amazing video clip!

Lydia also got a new (used, actually, but new to her), iPod. She already had one, so why did she need a new one??? Well, her goofball mother took it away one day in January or February due to failure to turn it off when instructed to do so, put it in a “safe place,” and then forgot where the safe place was. I have pretty much turned the whole house upside down looking for it, to no avail. I really felt it would help her so much to pass the time on our transatlantic flight, and it didn’t seem fair that didn’t have it anymore, since her mommy was the one who lost it. Fortunately, you can get the previous models on eBay for VERY little. I wrapped it in a HUGE box, and pretended it was SOOOOO heavy, I could barely lift it. She was really surprised! ☺