It's Papa's Birthday: Part II

We celebrated Papa's birthday the Saturday prior with dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant. Japanese is definitely Sylvie's favorite food. We are always amazed at the amount she eats. Sylvie really loves a good sushi dinner (and so do the rest of us), and while Nora doesn't get to eat the same variety yet, she still seems to share Sylvie's opinion.

On Papa's actual birthday I wanted to stop by his house and surprise him with a box of balloons. Both Sylvie and Nora love balloons so I thought this would be fun for everyone. The idea was to put the (weighted) balloons in a big box, leave them on Papa's doorstep, ring the doorbell, hide in the bushes and then watch as Papa opened the box, balloons came popping up out of the box and we yelled surprise.

The early steps in executing our plans went well, with Sylvie making a sign for the box that said "OPEN PAPA" and Nora hanging around thinking everything is fantastic, as Nora usually does.

After that, our plan ran into a few hitches. Specifically: we bought 6 balloons but 2 popped. Exactly how, I'm not sure because it happened on Sylvie's watch. The 2 popped balloons were momentarily devastating but turned out not to matter much. We didn't have any particularly large boxes so we used 2 diaper boxes taped together. We made hypotheses about how many balloons would fit in the box. Sylvie's hypothesis was 4 and mine was 3. The answer was ONE. Or, well, we could fit 3, but they would be so squished that it wouldn't have the popping into the air affect we were looking for, so one it was.

After Sylvie's yoga class we went over to Papa's house and put the plan into action. Sylvie's "OPEN PAPA" sign worked perfectly and he knew just what to do. TA DA. Success.

 We ended the night with a bath time tribute to Papa.

It's Papa's Birthday: Part I

We love you so very much!

Maximus (and Wood Freddy)

Every year, Sylvie's Papa builds her an extra-special Hanukkah present. Remember these?


2007's Bear Push Cart (Sylvie still brings this with her to the farmers market)


2008's Table and Chairs


2009's Menorah and Refrigerator


But Papa (and his helpers, Grandma and Uncle Rich) really out-did himself in 2010. He took two of Sylvie's most favorite things, swings and dinosaurs, and built her A T.REX SWING!

Sylvie has not stopped talking about how awesome this guy is. She named him Max (perhaps you have noticed she names everything Max?).  To make him a little more ferocious, we decided on Maximus. This will also help distinguish Maximus from the many other Maxes in Sylvie's life.


Nora did not get left out on her very first Hanukkah, of course. It's a full swing set with a baby swing for Norsie.

What a Hanukkah gift! But this is actually not Papa's first time making a ride-on swing.

This is the wood swing my dad made for me back in 1980 (age 2). I used to ride a real-life pony named Freddy, so this guy was named Wood Freddy.  

Thank you Dad/Papa for many years of happy swinging!

Sushi Dinner for Papa's Birthday

Friday night we celebrated Papa's birthday with a fantastic sushi dinner at one of our family's favorite restaurants, Kitayama in Newport Beach. Grandma called and reserved one of the traditional private rooms where you take off your shoes and sit on the floor. So much fun and so perfect for toddler guests! It looks like the setting was a little off on the camera on this one, but I love these twinsies.Sylvie is clearly in the midst of a growth spurt because lately she's been eating like a teenage boy. Still, nothing could prepare us for the utter amazement of how much Sylvie put away at Papa's sushi dinner. Sylvie ate: an entire appetizer order of steamed clams, edamame and miso soup, shrimp sushi, unagi and cucumber roll, and shrimp and pumpkin tempura. It was truly amazing.
Fortunately, in a nice private room, when you eat THAT much you can just do this:
Believe it or not, even after she was "down for the count," Sylvie still rose up twice more to finish off that pumpkin tempura on her plate.
And then she went back to Grandma and Papa's, put on some PJs, and had some birthday cake and a big cup of milk. Happy Birthday, Papa! What a fantastic dinner!

Papa's Birthday

Saturday night we celebrated Papa's birthday. Yes, just an hour or so after Amanda's birthday party, we were off to another celebration. Fortunately, Sylvie, Daddy and Okapi did get in a brief snooze. I failed to take any pictures of the birthday dinner, but I did get a picture of this photo clock that we made for Papa. Papa is a tough guy to shop for, so sentimental gifts are usually the way to go. This was a fun, easy project.

Happy Birthday Papa!