Another birthday adventure

Apparently I can't resist a birthday quest and this time it was Jane who was lucky enough to turn another year older and launch her new year with a poetic adventure. I think this quelled her disappointment with her lame mother who didn't host a birthday bash for her this year but instead invited her Grandmum to come and visit and celebrate with us. And I think she was pretty happy that she got to bake her own birthday cake....well, at least she did the lion's share of the mixing.

So we started the day with a very sick mother who completely forgot baseball and softball games but did not forget that Jane had changed her mind at least a dozen times about what kind of cake she wanted but by the time her birthday arrived she finally settled on an orange chocolate cake....and I must say that it was delicious! So we made her cake and prepared for lunch with her dad. It was at lunch that we presented Jane with the first clue in her quest:

Dearest Jane, never fret
Your special day will be fabulous yet!
So put a happy smile on
And leap on your way to check out the side lawn.

On the lawn she received her first present which Luke was so excited to give her that he couldn't keep the secret and I think, all in all, she's quite happy with her "Shamu" Barbie. I think she was particularly happy the boys didn't get her something "Star Wars" which they kept teasing her was on the menu. But not only did she get her first present, but she also received her next clue:

What a special girl you are
Your brother got you a girlie thing and not a boyish car
But let’s see what’s next, you might be surprised
When you search amongst the building things you need to have keen eyes

I think the lego box seems to be the hiding place of choice for Mitchell because when I asked him where he wanted to hide his present for Jane he was fairly adamant that the lego box was the only decent place to hide anything. So in the lego box she found a big package of Pick-a-boos, or whatever they're called. I didn't really know such a thing existed but Mitchell forced us to go to two stores to find them because he knew this was creme de la creme of girls toys and we were, after all, trying to find a very girly, not boyish, item for Jane. I should mention that this teasing about getting Jane boys toys was getting a little out of hand towards her actual birthday. The boys thought it was so funny that Jane was getting visibly upset because she was worried they might not be joking about having actually found a pink light saber for her. But instead they were very focused on girly things. And of course, in the lego box, she found this:

Somewhere in this house
As quiet as a little mouse
Sit some things you’ll want to read
Look closely where the dust tends to breed

It took her a while to figure out that this was in a book shelf and even longer to figure out which bookshelf. But she finally found it and found the books from Grandmum and of course she had the books read within a couple of days. But before she could read books she was off to continue the quest with this as her clue:

Swishing, swinging
Happiness this is bringing
Check out of doors
Above a place you do your chores

Jane has been dying to start tennis lessons, unfortunately she hasn't started yet because of conflicts with her softball schedule but we'll get there this summer especially since she now has a lovely new racket. And she had a new clue:

Listen to this, listen to that
Rat-ta-tat, rat-ta-tat
Think of where you might hear sounds
When you you’re up instead of down

Ah, an iPod. Jane thought she was in heaven. I think her actual words were "this is the BEST present EVER!" which made me a little worried about her next gift because there was still one to come but made me feel good again that maybe she was forgetting her foul mood of several days because of the lack of a party. So on to the last hurrah:

I wonder where this all leads to
From 0 to 9 you just grew, grew, grew
And now we’re off on a Grand Excursion
So seek out the thing that takes us on this happy diversion

And what, you might ask, was this great excursion?

A trip to the Playmill theater in West Yellowstone to see

So we headed off in the afternoon, Jane, Grandmum and me, to see the show and what a great adventure we had......even Jane thought so. And I should hope so since she loves the music to "The Secret Garden" and has every song memorized. My favorite part of the show was every time Jane leaned over and whispered that "this is my favorite song!" And the music hasn't stopped since we got home.