groundhog(s) day!

Fun! Phil definitely would have seen his shadow here today. It was a lovely 55-60 degrees and the sun came out to take a walk in the park with us. Of course it is truly so mild here that I know we won't really have 6 more weeks of winter. That holiday and its lore is really more about another part of the country entirely. In fact I am wondering when I will start going out to Sauvie Island to hear the frogs sing. No sign of crocuses in my yard yet but I know they are stretching down there.

The other thing I love about Groundhog(s) day, aside from the fact that it is all about celebrating little fuzzy guys (that some people actually try and harm the rest of the year....) is that it shares its day with Imbolc, the pagan holiday right smack dab between Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. I love how so many holidays have some correlation somewhere with the Earth and her time spent turning round.

After I told the kids it was Groundhog(s) Day Eva said that was great because Chicky and the bunnies were going to sing songs. She set up a lovely stage and so many animals came to watch...



Samuel's opening act and audience; Chicky and the bunny singing. See how fancy the stage is with shells and Christmas garland? Chicky and the bunny put on their best clothes just for the occasion.

We went to a bakery after spending such a nice afternoon at the park with friends and I had an amazing stuffed Florentine. Eva had a cupcake and reminded me again that she wants cake decorating supplies. Maybe for her birthday cake? There is a cake decorating place near us that I really need to take us to so that we can check out the supplies. Is there some cake decorating gene that is expressing itself now from her great-grandpa Floyd (on my mom's side- he was a baker after all...I often think I get my love of bread baking from this gene...)?

Samuel has a hard time at this bakery because he isn't a chocolate fan and he doesn't like cream cheese frosting. We decided next time he could probably get a chocolate chip cookie and be happy with that. It is funny there because for some reason the people working at this bakery really take offense at Samuel scowling over the cream cheese frosting and white chocolate coated cookies and give him nasty looks and watch him as he walks around turning up his nose at all of the cookies and cupcakes. He is totally oblivious to these looks but they irritate me. I am his mother after all. This time I told the woman who helped us that it is a real challenge for him to choose something because he doesn't like chocolate or cream cheese and all of a sudden she felt so sorry for him and loaded him up with a bag of chocolate chip and sugar cookie samples and called him "poor little dear". When we were leaving I saw her telling the other people there and they all looked after him sadly, clucking their tongues and shaking their heads. Samuel was quite pleased with how it all turned out.