Saturday

In the tradition of our family's milestone celebrations, we are continuing today with Snowdrop's 8th birthday party. The girl indeed has a full weekend -- her first sleepover at a friend's house, followed immediately by a party with her closest chums. I am not urgently needed for that event, but I promised I'd stop by for some photos and with good wishes.

But that comes later. First, the usual morning at the farmette...

And because it is Saturday, I then drive out to pick up produce from our Farmer's Unite drop off point (spinach, beauty heart radishes, winter sweet carrots), and hey! As long as I am pointing the car in that direction, isn't this a fine time to also drive over to the bakery??

For croissants and cinnamon viennoiseries for breakfast!

The sun is out and Ed and I push ourselves for a walk in the local park. Yay us!

And we are rewarded! Winters in Wisconsin usually have exactly these kinds of stretches of sunshine. It is what makes them sweeter than winters in, say, Warsaw, where weeks can roll by and the sun remains hidden. And there's that other difference to take note of as well: the sun here sets a whole hour later than in Warsaw today: 4:39 here, 3:41 Warsaw. But of course, ultimately they will catch up with us and exceed our midsummer daylight hours. The magic day for Warsaw is April 27th, when their sunset is at 7:54 and ours doesn't quite get there, staying at 7:53. Thereafter, we slog to the highpoint of June 25th when the sun will set at 8:41, while Warsaw speeds along and has a sunset on June 21st at 9:01. Don't get too cocky, Warsaw people, or I'll start throwing around times for Helsinki or Oslo. Okay, fine -- Helsinki sunset on June 22nd: 10:50! Gotta love that day up north!

And now I'm off to the Nail Place where the Snowdrop party begins. 

(It's for her friends, but it includes Sparrow who is at first apprehensive, but within a few secs, he is very on board with the whole nail painting project!)

She is too, of course.

After everyone's hands look plenty colorful, we go back to my daughter's house for gifts, for pizza, for a movie. I stay for just a moment. I admire their hands...

I say hi to a bewildered Sandpiper...

And I take a group photo, part of which you can see here, in this fragment:

Yes, a happy day for the little girl. Excuse me -- for the big girl. At her age I very much considered myself to be a self sufficient big kid! 

I return home, cook up some fish for supper and exhale. A birthday week well spent. Always a relief, always a feeling of grandparental contentment when it's over.  The kids are just fine, we are all so lucky...

with love...