Since it is difficult to coordinate everybody getting together for Evie’s birthday, this year we decided to split it up. So we celebrated Evie’s birthday on Saturday with Sara’s family.

I have to say, the day was about perfect. I don’t know if Evie would agree, but I think she got exactly the right amount (and right type) of presents! Just a handful of homemade and re-used gifts, and yet, probably some of the best gifts she’s ever gotten.

I hadn’t gotten wind of the fact that Anna was making anything for Evie, so I was quite surprised when she showed up with the most amazing doll I’ve ever seen. It’s perfect! You would never guess it is homemade, but you would definitely know it was handmade, by the quality if nothing else. It is a mermaid, which is perfect, because Evie has a long obsession with the Little Mermaid (the doll was named Ariel immediately) and yet she doesn’t have any other mermaid stuff. Also, Anna customized it with eyes to match Evie’s. It’s so nice that I’m kind of worried about her playing with it. On one hand, what’s the point if she doesn’t get to play with it, on the other hand, it’s the kind of thing you keep and give to your children, and I don’t want it destroyed. So Anna, I think you really hit a home run with that one, so I’ll thank you more thoroughly than an almost-four-year-old can!

And that wasn’t even the only homemade gift. Barb made clothes for both Evie and Oliver, with matching owl pattern. Evie’s dress is cute, but in my opinion, Oliver’s shirt stole the show. It was reminiscent of the tie shirt, except in the shape of an owl, with button eyes. It is adorable. Both Evie and Oliver really liked the clothes, and we couldn’t get them to take them off (not even Oliver, who was wearing a long-sleeve, black shirt in 90 degree weather).

And while I’m on the topic, Barb, I never really got to thank you properly for Oliver’s handmade lion, the way I did for the mermaid above. So hopefully the fact that he sleeps with it every night will demonstrate the proper appreciation! We are very lucky to have crafty family on both sides, and I’d like to think that our recent “gift mandates” have really inspired people to new artistic heights. I can’t even tell you how much we’d rather have one high-quality, homemade doll, then 1,000 factory made, licensed characters.

For our part, we wanted to get her a “big girl” bike, with actual peddles. She was doing so well with the balance bike, that we thought she would be able to ride a regular bike, with no training wheels, no problem. We had planned to buy a new bike, but then we saw and advertisement for a bike that someone was giving away for free. The bike was very used (the lady had gotten it used from someone else, even before her two daughters had used it) and my consumer-culture background made me feel bad for a second about that. However, we definitely made the right decision: Evie couldn’t have cared less, and even insists that the places where the paint has rubbed off were intentionally painted to look like that.

So we got the bike for free, but it needed a little work. In particular, both tires were flat. We bought two new intertubes, and I changed them myself. It was a lot harder than I was anticipating. Don’t you hate when you spend a really long time working on something, only to have it blow up in your face? Literally, in this case, and it took me a few hours to get the hearing back in my right ear. Somehow, when I was inflating it, the tube ruptured with enough force to blow a hole through the thin tires (and it was only inflated to just over half of the recommended psi).

So we ended up taking the bike to a repair shop and getting new tires, and another intertube. All told, we spent about $50 for our “free” bike. At first I felt silly for spending that much on a pretty used and abused bike, when I could have gotten a new one for not a whole lot more. But on the other hand, we did save *some* money, and more importantly, there’s one less bike in the world, and one less piece of junk to end up in a landfill.

As documented, it took Evie about an hour to become a peddle-bike pro.

Evie had very specific requests for her birthday lunch. She wanted, “fruit salad with mangoes, strawberries, and blueberries”, “the apple muffins like Grandma Kathy makes”, “kale chips”, and “chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting and red sprinkles”. This seemed pretty reasonable, so we obliged her. With all the goings on, we didn’t have much time to prepare supper, but both she and Oliver enjoyed our impromptu picnic in the winter garden on the Midway.

All in all, a good birthday weekend for the little miss. She worked it to her full advantage. She got us to sing Happy Birthday to her multiple times, convinced Aunt Anna to take her to the park at 6:10 a.m., and showed off her bike riding skills to everybody she could find. At one point she interrupted a bike-tour-guide’s speech by riding through the middle of the tour singing, “Look at me! Look at me!” She’s all moxie, that one.