The bee turned four recently. Before she woke up in the morning, I decorated the living room with streamers and a few balloons. I think she really enjoyed seeing them, unexpectedly, when she woke up and came out. Later, we went to the Swedish American Museum and played there all afternoon. She was dressed in her tiger costume all day. Some friendly people who were there gathered around and sang “Happy Birthday” to her when I mentioned it. I was going to have a late lunch with her at Anne Sather next door but I forgot they close at 2 or 3 pm. So instead we went to the pancake house near our house and Fiona had a mouse pancake with chocolate chips and a couple of slices of bacon.
Because baking powder has corn starch in it (and the bee has a sensitivity to corn) I have been trying to make my own out of baking soda. I tried to make some yellow cup cakes but they did not really rise and were quite bitter. Fortunately, I had a Namaste chocolate cake mix in the pantry and made that for her after dinner. We sang Happy Birthday and gave her her presents: a pond boat, roller skates, a Ben 10 figure of Humungousaur, and a small-sized laundry clothes drying rack. (She had been playing laundry with a pathetic pretend one I made out of some yarn strung between two chairs and I thought a sturdy toy one would be more fun.)
I have been experimenting with making things that I haven’t been able to find and I made a batch of homemade marshmallows, tinted pink. She liked them okay and they weren’t too hard to make. I also recently bought a coffee and spice grinder which I have been using to make powdered sugar (which also has corn starch in it) out of granulated sugar. That meant I could make frosting for her cake.
The next day, she tried out her roller skates up and down the sidewalk out in front of the house. Then Papa broke out the hair dye and dyed her hair pink. It really stands out because her hair is so light and we get lots of comments everywhere we go. Papa dyed his hair pink, too, but it’s so dark you can’t even tell. Oh, well. We went down to Grandma’s house and Fiona and Papa swam in the pool, pulling along the pond boat which was host to a pair of Barbie dolls.
A few days later, we had her pink birthday party. Fiona and I had been talking about it for weeks and she wanted a pink party. The streamers and balloons were pink and I found pink plates, cups and utensils. Friends came over and we played and had some lunch. Johnny grilled a batch of tiny hamburgers and some octodogs. I had made some tiny hamburger buns the night before. We also had pink watermelon lolipops, the pink marshmallows, strawberries and cream cheese sandwiches (not as popular as the octodogs I’m afraid), pink sparkling lemonade, and pink iced tea. I made another cake from scratch and this one came out very nice. Of course, it had pink frosting. I think everyone except Papa wore pink, too. It was sort of a stormy day but I ran the bubble machine out on the front porch. We had filled up two galvanized tubs of water and tried to make bubble solution. It worked okay but I think I used too much water. We gave everyone a goody bag with bubble solution and little various bubble wands. Everyone sat on the porch and blew bubbles.
Fiona received some very nice presents, too: a blue tutu, book about Picasso and a fancy bracelet from Zibby and family; a Ladybug game (which the bee is crazy for) and a Winnie the Pooh puzzle from Eli and family; oil pastels, a wand and a wonderful hand-written note from Trap and family; fairy stickers and three books–The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant, I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato (a Charlie and Lola book) by Lauren Child, and The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman–from Ruby and family.
It seemed like Fiona’s first real birthday party, with her friends and her plans, and it was really nice.









