On the town

On the town we went a few days ago. That's right! Mom and I went on a mother daughter date to On the town, an extremely fun Broadway musical at 5th Ave. in Seattle. It made me really jealous of all those people getting season tickets. They are so expensive. We got these tickets at an auction that my native aunt hosted to help her native program and it was great because we had really good seats. Every time we go to something fun we don't buy the very good tickets because of the price.
The theater is really old and beautiful inside. I loved the music and the decor. Now I really want to go back; it's addictive.
I guess I'm on a little fun high. So nice to be able to get out of the routine even on a regular weekday.

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Easter 2010, a post that came let's say a little late...

Easter came and went so fast this year. We had a lovely time celebrating with my parents. My mom always makes the best of food and it was so nice since I didn't have much time for baking that my mom did all the traditional Romanian foods (cozonac, pasca-yummy pastries, lamb and other stuff). We of course did the egg cracking where one person first cracks the egg against another person's egg saying "Christ has risen" and the other person responds "Truly, He has risen." Lavinia insisted on taking two eggs herself and cracking them against each other. She did this with many eggs. Dacian also loves this tradition and cracked eggs with everyone. Thank you mom and dad for all you do for us and for a lovely dinner. 

Here's Dacian dyeing his golden tinted eggs. This time the instructions were to paint the eggs instead of dipping them. Every time I dye eggs they look scratched and faded and I am frustrated with that to no end but today I found a link to someone's blog that gave the recipe for making really dark deep reds and other colors so I am excited to try that out next year. 

Here are the kids on Easter morning going out to find the eggs. Thankfully the weather was warmer and it was sunny so I quickly went out to hide the eggs in the morning. I am glad we didn't do it inside. 

Here are the pastries I was talking about. There is no real Easter or Christmas for me without them. They have a lot of nuts and goodness inside. They do take forever to make. Romanians are always in the kitchen for days before a big Holiday. Every Easter I do miss Romania, it's just not the same. I especially liked going to mass at midnight to go get the "light". Everyone goes out to their neighborhood Orthodox Church and the priest prays and then lights up someone's candle and then from person to person we all get our candles lit. We go home carefully making sure to not extinguish our candles. And then we eat and we eat after a pretty much vegan fast that we keep weeks before. We didn't fast much as kids but my mom always cooked vegan type stuff the one or two weeks before. Let me tell you eggs and meat never taste better than after not having them for a while. 

Of course the Easter bunny had to come to my parent's house as well. Again, thank you for the lovely gifts. 

We hope you all had a great Easter and that you also felt the special feeling of knowing that Christ has truly risen. What a wonderful sacrifice He has made for us.

Tulip Festival

These pictures say it all. We had the best time at the Tulip Festival. I think I'm going to go every year. I couldn't stop taking pictures. I LOVE flowers so I was in heaven. My kids got bored after a while. They were tired and I guess they could only see so many flowers but I would've been there the whole day. It was warm and sunny and I took the opportunity to go on the one sunny day in the whole spring break. It was so much fun! At the end of our day we stopped by Deception Pass. Another beautiful place I will return this summer hopefully for some camping. I love that we are so close to the ocean and that we have beauty all around us. I do love where we live, rain and all. I guess that's why it's so pretty. 

NAICAD

About a week and a half ago this is what I found on the walls by our bedroom. I was a little shocked to say the least. First he's never written anything on the walls and now his name in marker on my walls from right to left. Hmmm... I asked at my school and all the teachers assured me this is normal and also said it's a good thing he was able to write his letters the right way. They assured me that in Kindergarten kids write their names more with their letters backwards enough that if you place a mirror in front it of it looks just right.

I was told that marker can come off the walls with magic eraser. Dacian heard me talking about this magic eraser and is now begging me to not buy anything magic to erase his precious name. I know he is proud of himself. If only he'd done it on paper.... Love my cute boy.

April Fools=Dacian's birthday, 4 years old

I never cared for this day until I had Dacian. I was upset I was going to have him that day. I mean I was induced late on the 31st and I knew I wouldn't have him that day since we went to the hospital at 9pm. On the 27th on March I was told they would induce that day and then I was called back and told the "inn" was full of laboring women and that I can't come. The next day the same, and the next day the same and I was going nuts. I being due on the 19th of March never imagined I would have an April baby. All this time I was still working and I was just mad I was taking sick days out of my maternity leave just waiting around to get the call to go to the hospital. Of course magically on the 31st the said "inn" had room and they called me to come in or wait until the morning. Now that was a crucial call on my part. Do I go in now late at night and basically start this induced labor which I knew would not be the ideal and end up with a Fools baby or do I tell them that I will wait one more day because I didn't want an April Fools baby? Well, maybe I was embarrassed to say that to the nurse, maybe I really liked my baby being born on the first day of the month and maybe I just NEEDED to have him and be done being pregnant. Whatever the reason I am glad I went in, I wouldn't trade that day for anything. It's his special day and I think it's kind of even cute now to say that's when his b-day is. I found myself wishing that my new nephew who could be born any day now got his own birthday and not be born today of all days. (which I know his parents also don't want probably for the same reasons I was thinking and because it's more fun I think for each cousin to have their own day.) Am I selfish or what? I mean I didn't want to share my birthday with Lavinia and thankfully she came 2 days later.

Anyway Dacian is not at an age to get jokes so well especially anything that would make him look like a fool so we skipped joking. I asked him to play a joke on dad and he came up with some silly made up word. Okay, I thought, we'll give this another go next year.

Today was a really fun day. We went to McDonalds this morning and got breakfast and played on the cool playground. I was going to just go through the drive thru but when I got to the one by our house I saw a big sign "Cash only" so of course never having cash around with me I went to another one in Redmond. That was great because it has a huge playground indoors unlike the one by our house so I took the kids out there and played for a good hour. Lavinia had a great time too. My parents came there at my request later since I wanted to go shopping with them and have them help with the kids. I wanted to buy Dacian a bike but I couldn't find one anywhere for a good price or even a used one. I tried Craig's list but no one emailed me back so I guess I'll keep on looking.
We bought the food and cake and I went home to get the little party ready for my son. We only invited two little boys this year and I really liked it so much more this way. With my parents, my aunt and the kids' parents it made for a really full house. Last year it was hectic exactly because we had more kids and more parents and I like that but my living room is not that big and I couldn't afford to rent a place.
Anyway, the kids started playing with Dacian's toys to the point where they didn't even care for food or any activities I had planned. So instead of four things that I had planned we only did two. We made pizzas together and they really liked that and even ate their pizzas and also I boiled some eggs and had them put an egg on a spoon at take it across the room without it falling. It was hilarious for the adults watching these kids first going so carefully and then when they saw the eggs were not stable on the spoon they went right on holding the egg with the other hand and made it there safely. I wanted to do it again with them but back to the cars they went.
 It reminds me of when I was little and we always had a birthday party. In Romania (at least my family and friends) however birthdays are not so fancy as they are here. There the parents get together and chat in one room and eat great food while the kids have food and play whatever they want in another room. Here it's a lot about games and here I was prepared with games and the kids could care less. I guess that's how it is with a first born, live and learn. Lavinia will be a different story. :)

We had cake (sadly I ran out of time for making my own but I got an excellent ice cream cake) and everyone's mouths, tongues and teeth turned blue or red from the frosting. Kind of weird to think I put that junk in my tummy but the cake was really tasty food coloring aside. Of course finally came the much awaited present opening. Dacian was in heaven to receive more cars and a cool iron man from his good friend Taylor, games, clothes, and other stuff. Just so spoiled.

He had a really good time playing with his friends and just being celebrated. He was really good all day long, happy and sweet. Thankfully he slept for 13 hours last night after a rough day the day before on not so much sleep. I am so glad he caught up with his sleep before this party or it could've been a disaster.
We love you with all our hearts sweet boy. You always make us laugh. We are so proud of you. Stop getting so big so fast.