xtcian

hoppin' down th' bunny trail

4/23/09

And here we go with another entry for our far-flung relatives, so we can give them a smattering of images from Lucy's Easter birthday celebration (and to perhaps bore you to waking drool, our casual blog reader).

First off, the obligatory post-National Championship couch celebration:

 
 
 
After the game, we drove upstate to Columbia County to get ready for Lucy's birthday and six toddlers over Easter. My present to the Lulubeans was a battery-operated car she could drive around the farm, but I was worried I'd turned into "that parent what gives their kid crazy shit":

 
 
 
Tessa and Laura made sandwiches cut into duck and kitty shapes. I, of course, scissored up some prunes for eyeballs:

 
 
 
Tessa also found these rad cake pans that made egg-shaped cakes. Since Lucy's birthday basically fell on Easter, it was perfect:

 
 
 
All the kids showed up - Polly, Esme, Ben, Hank and Barnaby - and the first task was to dye all the eggs without dyeing our entire barn, which was not easy:

 
 
 
Then a jaunt up the hill, where New York screwed us by being UNSPEAKABLY FRICKIN' COLD:

 
 
 
With all the egg cakes, we had all the kids blow out all kinds of candles:

 
 
 
With an embarrassed disclaimer, I rolled out the Peg Perego rider, and expected everyone to be horrified. Instead, the most bizarre thing happened: the boys were scared of the car, and the girls piled in:

 
 
 
We started shouting "Fort Lauderdale Spring Break 2025!" 24 volts and 2 mph, baby!

 
 
 
As night fell, the kids got into pajamas, and we put on "Happy Feet" to much enthrallment:

 
 
 
As you might know, there are scary bits to "Happy Feet", and Lucy and Hank sought solace in each others' arms:

 
 
 
That night, I took Tessa's Easter baskets and put pictures and some treats inside - kept it low-key, 'cuz you never know which toddlers are allowed high fructose corn syrup:

 
 
 
Hiding the eggs was treacherous for yours truly. It was goddamn 27 degrees, and my hands were falling off. Finally, I just tossed them around the yard, but you know, kids don't care about the weather:

 
 
 
We fired up the wood stove, and all Lucy's friends piled in the barn, where I put cardboard on the walls, and strung up a room-length strip of paper for them to paint. They did three 17-foot murals, and they're kinda awesome:

 
 
 
The weather threatened to get better, and the cows came out onto the hills, which always makes for nice backdrops (I like this one of Barnaby and Uncle Sean):

 
 
 
I tried to take pics of Lily, but she found the cows very unnerving:

 
 
 
The next day, all the kids bade farewell, and the temperature shot up thirty degrees. So Laura and Lucy went a-bubblin':

 
 
 
I like kid events, especially with exactly six - the perfect measure of both calm and chaos. These have been Lucy's best friends since the first days of her life, and I hope she keeps them for a long, long time... but you know how odd that path can be. For now, they are a fantastic little crew.

photos by Ian, Tessa and Laurie Williams Gilmore

Posted by Ian Williams at April 23, 2009 11:23 PM