Today I had a nice, relaxing day.

I spent the most of the day in bed, sleeping on and off after being really sick last night – the kids came up to see me, but I didn’t go downstairs until the mid afternoon.  While I was in bed, dd16 was preparing the birthday party for ds5.  (His birthday was before Pesach and though we had a couple of very minor family ‘celebrations’, dd wanted to do something special for him.)

Personally, I had no interest in having an official party for him – parties aren’t something that I especially enjoy, and I’ve had so much going on that I had absolutely no head space for this.  Actually, I didn’t even have head space for dd to do it and told her so.  But she wanted to do it – she told me that it’s his last (actually, his only) party in America and it should be special – and I reluctantly agreed.

She did a great job on the baseball themed party – from the invitations, which had a photo of ds5 in his baseball uniform, which she added a digital word bubble to inviting friends to his party along with a cute baseball themed poem inside, to the party games, pinata, and two birthday cakes she baked (baseballs, of course!).  Ds12 and his best friend led the games, and the eight boys along with ds5 (and our kids) had a great time.  Ds5 was loving it!

She really thought of every detail, down to matching themed signs and paper goods, and food!  She’ll make a great party planner.  She did a great job and I think it’s really special that ds5 has a sister and brother who care enough to plan and execute such a nice party for him.

After the party was over, I took dd16 with her friend to the pool of a friend for a short swim. From there, they walked directly to her evening appointment at her chiro (her last one, since she’s returning to Israel tomorrow), and I headed to the lake to sit and relax while I waited until it was time to pick her up.  When I approached my car to leave, someone who was at my talk at the conference was there, and on seeing that I was by myself, asked if I was bird watching! (During my workshop on burnout, I mentioned that I was planning this week to take some time for myself to go birdwatching one day either early in the morning or at dusk with an experienced friend.)  I don’t consider myself an especially public person, but it’s interesting how often situations like this happen; as someone at the conference who reads my blog said, she feels like she knows all our family!

Avivah