my 38th birthday started off a little bit earlier than i might have preferred, but it was for a good reason. i needed to feed my 32 tanks full of larval herring their breakfast, which is a 2-hour process each morning, and i am the sunday fish feeder… and instead of doing that work from 8-10, i decided to do it from 6:30 to 8:30 and go pick up my boy.
rich got up with me at 5:30 (yes, it is true love), and we ate granola and strawberries and drank coffee together, and then i made myself a quart jar full of fresh mint tea (first mint harvest of the spring season from my farm that i brought home the day before) and off i went to work.
the place i work is really quite lovely. i noticed there are these delicate lilies growing along the walk between the lab where i keep my fish and the other labs where i grow their food. lately i’ve been walking in excess of 10,000 steps, just during my work day. it’s keeping me in shape, and the fresh air and flowers are nice.
as soon as i was finished, i drove south to the boat ramp to pick quinn up from his dad. we used to meet at the boat ramp all the time, before we moved from dragon house 1.0. this time i knew we would be heading even farther south and since his dad was doing me a favor by letting me have some of his hours, i had offered to make the drive.
quinn and i had some time to ourselves before rich’s son’s alumni basketball game started (yes that’s right, first pancake visit in a year! lucky birthday girl!). quinn and i made a pit stop for a mexican mocha, a soy milk, and two homemade maple bars, then headed to one of our favorite beaches to enjoy our treats.
quinn gave me “a yard of fluffy purple fabric. i didn’t know what to get you and dada told me to think of things you like and put them together. i thought of sewing, whales, dolphins and purple. when i put them together, i thought of purple fabric! they had one that was not fluffy, and one that was fluffy, so i picked the fluffy one.” i may have to make a fluffy stuffie dolphin or whale out of my yard of purple flannel!
the beach offered up some birthday treasures.
the basketball games were fun to watch, and rich’s son’s team won the alumni tournament again, as they often seem to do. quinn and the pancakes got to eat cheet-ohs and cheer for the red team and play on the playground together in between games.
i consider this rocketship with red violet curtains to be part of my birthday present from b pancake.
when we got home, i got to work making my chocolate mousse, a dessert i used to watch my friend effortlessly make in a blender. it took me some effort, and i was concerned it would not set, but it turned out just fine in the end! it was a very d-i-y birthday in some ways, but this year i just faced that challenge head on and came up with some good ideas, like mousse.
the second good idea was given to me by my housemate, who mentioned a roll-your-own spring roll party she had once attended, which sounded brilliant to me, especially for an early spring-born girl’s birthday. and now that i’ve done this, i think it shall become birthday tradition, because they were soooo tasty!
these were my ingredients:
rice wraps
rice noodles
mushrooms
carrots
radishes
salad turnips
purple broccoli
wasabi arugula (new variety! inspiring lots of creative sushi/veggie wrap ideas)
basil
mint
cilantro
green onions
sprouts (been on a sprouting spree the past few weeks! it’s a spring thing.)
shrimp
peanut sauce: pb, coconut milk, sweet chili, garlic, ginger, lime juice, soy sauce
speaking of sprouts, quinn objects to eating sprouts (or even trying them) on the basis of “i feel like i’m interfering with nature.” he gave me the example of eating the peas from the plant but not the plant itself, before he articulated his nature-interference postulate.
he apparently has no objection to eating chicken. (far be it from me to point out the irony to a growing boy who needs the protein!)
birthday flowers from pancakes!
i got a few other fun presents….
dolphins, post-its, and music, so very me. how wonderful to feel known and loved.
bart patiently awaiting his turn in the bag
after my afternoon fish feed (which only took me a half hour), i passed a pair of deer coming home. there were so many little treasures strewn throughout the day like this, though none of them were out of the ordinary, all combined they made for an extraordinary day.
i had a nice evening with family, watching the pancakes play with gears, and having them request that i take another picture of them each time they made an improvement to their designs. i think i was unconscious before my head even touched the pillow that night, and off to a peaceful, albeit exhausted, sleep.
I am super jealous of your purple broccoli :o) but I am going to steal your spring roll party idea, so maybe we’re even 😉
For his part, Felipe is jealous of the beaches and tidepools. And still yearns to meet Quinn. Someday…
PS happy birthday mama!!
thank you mama! 🙂 awww, i do sincerely hope these two get to meet someday. just to get two such kindred spirits in the same room…. gives me goosebumps to think about it. love you!!!
a wonderful happy birthday for a most marvelous sister!!!I look forward to our upcoming visit and birthday game night!!
a wonderful happy birthday for a most marvelous sister!!!I look forward to our upcoming visit and birthday game night!!
what a wonderfully full day! i was so interested reading about your job. very cool. and the spring roll idea was fantastic. my absolute favorite part of this post was quinn’s gift and his reasoning behind it… SO SWEET!!! what a darling, thoughtful boy you have there. oh, and happy birthday!
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