Not an April Fool,..,...

Birthdays around our house are not so much a cause for elaborate celebration as an opening to some of the pranksters in the house to release the inner trickster upon the unfortunate birthday-ee. Poor Thing 1, so closely aligned with the day of April Fool's, generally gets an extra dose of mayhem. She very nearly was an April Fool's baby and my DR. laughed out loud when I explained that there was just no way I was going to do that to a daughter of mine. I literally stayed in bed an extra day just to make sure I didn't progress in my labor to prevent her living with such a stigma, on account of the fact that I had an uncle who was an April Fool and, boy oh boy did I watch him get relentlessly harassed about it. Well, sometimes I watched and I sometimes joined in - LOL.

So, when thing 2 came to me while I was wrapping presents this morning with an empty potato strings can and asked that I wrap that up and make it special from him - I completely burst his bubble when I thanked him profusely for offering me the most perfect vessel for her gift. I'd meant to make her a box to store her delicate present but, in a pinch and with some nice stuffing padded in the sides and covered in fabric, this little canister makes a perfect spindle box. All I needed now, I said, was to find that blasted roll of wrapping paper......

We live in a craft house and because of that, there are always tools, papers, yarns that are deemed safe to use for ANYTHING. As that is the case, wrapping paper is a valued commodity in our house - and it is used to just about anything other than wrapping presents. I was then reminded by Thing 3 that I used the last of the wrapping paper for making the pattern pieces for our veils last week...Doh! So, I went stash diving in my fabric hoarding storage and found some red kimono fabric with dragons on it - just up her alley. I wrapped that around the canister with some handspun yarn and packed this little spindle of love for my sweet 16 into it and some Gold Dust Woman silk roving - which I know she lurves. She also got a set of Roses in the Snow batts (her requested birthday batt) some handspun socks which, while taking pics of them on her, I realized that I forgot to tuck in my cast on ends so, guess what I'll be doing while humming along to 'happy birthday' tonight, and tickets to see Ani Defranco later this month....we'll have so much fun. Oh, and I wouldn't be a knitter if I didn't give her an IOU - which I did because I am starting to lose hope that I will finish her Rogue before she's a legal adult :O

Unfortunately, that's not all she got for her birthday. The goofy police surrounded my gifts with other gifts like: a half eaten/stale bag of tortilla chips, some dog vitamins, a bottle of goldfish medicine, a blender, an empty bottle of rum (whut? where did that come from?), an empty salve jar, and some old holey socks. Fortunately, we will leave their silly selves behind this evening and go to dance class and then hit the book store where she'll pick out a book (this is kind of a ritual birthday thing for her because she is a book geek just like her mom) and have a bite to eat sans the parade of empty chip bags, bottles, and pet medications. We'll probably have forgiven them for invading presents hour with their goofiness and invite them to come along, with a raised eyebrow warning NOT to embarrass us in public because, you know, when your'e 16 - pretty much anything your younger brothers do equates to embarrassment in public.

All that done, it still seems to pale in the ways I wanted to make this a very special day. A day to mark how truly blessed I believe I am to be the mother of such a smart, beautiful, and kind-hearted woman as you are, Emma Jane! Happy 16th Birthday, kiddo - I love you!