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Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Zari is 5!

Zari turned 5 on Halloween and we were too busy doing Halloween-y things to write about it. Like carving birthing pumpkins and dressing up as Zorro (Eric), a "fancy lady from a long time ago" (me), a jellyfish (Zari), a dragon (Dio), and a "mini me" (Inga in a black cape that matched Eric's).

We also didn't take any pictures of her. Oops!

But I did take several pictures of her cake. Zari requested an "earth cake." Can do. Using the same recipe from Inga's Blessingway cake, I dyed the batter blue and green to match the frosting. 

North America turned out pretty well.

Europe, Africa, and Asia were a bit iffy.

After I did those continents, I realized that I left no room for Antarctica and the Arctic. Blame it on global warming.

We had lots of batter left over, so we made a few dozen cupcakes decorated with Swedish Fish. Why Swedish Fish? I don't know...it seemed appropriate.

We also had a volcano-shaped piece of cake trimming. I dyed applesauce red to make lava. Only the final effect was meatloaf with ketchup, not a volcano spewing molten lava. It's still sitting in the fridge.

We had family visiting over the weekend: my mom, my two younger sisters and their kids. 6 adults + 8 children in one house = 1,352,759 decibels. I needed to decompress from the noise and commotion.

I've been telling Zari, "I am happy that you are 5 years old but sad that you're growing up so fast." This usually leads to a conversation about how she will some day be grown up and become a mama with her own children, and then I will be the grandma. I mentioned once that I would be sad because she wouldn't be living with me any more when she is grown up.

She replied, "But I don't want to live in a different house. I want to live in your house when I am a mama!"

I can't argue with that.

Five years is a huge milestone. Zari is learning to read, just mastered riding a "real" bike, speaks fluently in French as well as English (thanks to Eric speaking only French to her starting a bit over a year ago), and has a vivid imagination and a very good memory. She's old enough to have lifelong memories now. Wonderful and kind of scary, from a parent's perspective.

In lieu of birthday pictures, here's a snapshot from a few nights ago:

5 comments:

  1. Ooh, a jellyfish? Awesome! Lovely cake too.

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  2. So exciting! She looks so grown up, I can't believe it's been 5 years! Awesome cake job!! :)

    Also wanted to come see if you had any advice or good articles on a nursing strike. My cousin is having one with her 9 mo old, pretty much refusing to nurse (or oddly enough, take a bottle either) for the past several days. She really wants to continue bfing. Thanks in advance!!

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  3. the last picture is sooo perfect. I first saw Inga's sweet and kind of perplexed look, but it's such a cute picture of all 3. and yes, zari is a big girl now!

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  4. Happy Belated birthday Zari! Love the pics, how plump Inga is!! Would love to see pics of the costumes. And the pumpkin giving birth was TOOO FUNNY! I almost split in two! Love the chillaxed face in the "birth pool"!
    My own Lizzie just turned 1! They do grow up too fast ;(

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  5. Hi Rixa,
    Great job on the world cake! Back when we met, we were being trained to see the "The World [as] Our Campus." I'm glad to see that it still is. My friend is a big follower of your blog, and when she said Rixa, I was sure it would be you. How delightful to see what you've been up to in the past decade. Scott and I have three natural born wonders ourselves. Would love to catch up sometime.
    -Lorena Perry
    My email is(my name above run together)@gmail.com

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