Happy Birthday, Welcome Home

Birthday girl and
the luckiest man

Last Monday was my beautiful bride's birthday.  She is celebrating 29 again (not sure why that year in particular).

One of the reasons I didn't post this sooner was because she keeps asking the impossible for her birthday present.  At first she asked for world peace, and then she changed it to clean the basement.  I asked her to reconsider world peace.

Anyway I've been working like crazy to get the basement clean, plus our eldest is home from Boston (got home last night) so we've both been cleaning the house and getting it ready for an additional mess maker (just kidding Teeny).  Actually we wanted to clean out that spare bedroom so she would think we wanted her home.

Happy Birthday!

Not on safari, near my lab
in Morogoro

I want to thank my Mom for making it possible for me to be with you here today.

Happy birthday also to my "Birthday Buddy" Charlotte.

What did I get for my birthday?  Well, I'm considering the safari I went on while in Tanzania as my present for this and many years to come.

Enjoy our day!

Birthdays!

We missed my birthday (5 November) on this blog. That's unfortunate because I have a birtday buddy, Carnation.

Today is Gardenia's birthday so I hope to hear the phone ringing off the hook.

12 December is Sweetpea's birthday and we are done for the year.

Name Day, Independence and a Birthday

March 25th was Tulip's seventh birthday! Hooray.

It was also Greek Independence day. We don't really celibrate that at our house, but it is easy to remember because of Tulip's birthday and because it is the name day of my mother-in-law, Yarrow and my daughter Orchid.

I usually try to fly my Greek flag on Greek Independence Day and Oxi Day (28 Oct), but shame on me, I forgot until late in the day so I'll just "fly" it here.

For all the reasons stated, OPA!

Two Weekends and Happy Birthday

Last weekend our whole garden (the five of us) all went camping. "Camping?" you say, "Camping in that weather?" Well, it was in a cabin, but our BSA Troop used to do the same thing so I feel justified.

The theme of the camping trip was Mystery. The Cadets hosted the thing and they did a skit in which the components of the S'mores were stolen. All off Saturday were events to help solve the mystery. They had a reveal on Saturday night. All three of Star, Orchid and Tulip were in the skit. Tulip was an adopted scout since her Brownie troop didn't go.

This weekend Star and Orchid went with Begonia and Pansy to see Les Miserables. They enjoyed it very much. I, Daisy, went to a meeting of our FRG (Family Readiness Group) while Gardenia and Tulip stayed home and watched movies.

Tomorrow is Peony's birthday so we are here at Peony's and Yarrow's house in Oak Lawn. Happy Birthday Peony.

Speaking of Peony and Yarrow, Greek Lent starts on 10 March this year and Greek Easter is 27 April, more than a month after "regular" Easter (23 March).

BTW the FRG is the group supporting the families of the 108th Sustainment Brigade HQ that just got deplyed to Iraq. The 108th is my old unit that I just retired from last May. I am the FRG Leader. There was some discussion about that since I'm not actually a Military spouse, but when I tried to step down I was outvoted.

Happy Birthday and Congratulations!

This last Friday our little Orchard turned 12 years old! Shame on me for not posting that day and if you forgot to call, you are welcome to leave a happy birthday comment here.

This weekend we are going camping with the Girl Scouts. We'll be in a cabin and the theme of this "Camporee" is Mystery! We've written a mystery skit and the girls will be spending the weekend trying to find the thief and where she stashed the "loot."

We call it a Camporee because it is as many of the troops from our school as want to go. I think we have three troops.

Also, this Sunday we are going to meet with the Daughters of the American Revolution because Star won an essay contest they had. She gets to go and read her essay.

The theme of the essay was writing a letter as if you were a girl of the Revolutionary period. With all the historical fiction, Star reads she had no trouble coming up with material.

Hopefully she will let us post her composition here on Flowers of Mundelein.

Christmas Stuff and Basketball Less Taken

On Monday we went caroling at the Greek American Rehabilitation Center in Wheeling. It was very nice. All five of us went with the JOY (Junior Orthodox Youth) and GOYA (Greek Orthodox Youth of America) from our church (Ascension of Our Lord Greek Orthodox Church). We walked up and down the halls singing and Star made a couple of new friends. We even sang one Greek song (well, I didn’t sing it as I don’t know the words or tune).

Tuesday everything was Ice Stormed out. No school, no band concert and no Greek school.

I used our brand new Cannon ZR800. Tulip’s Christmas concert was Wednesday morning and I got the whole thing on tape. She was very cute and really got into the movements for the songs. First graders can be so funny; they don’t have all the inhibitions in place yet.

Star’s basketball season is on hold until after the new year because of some scheduling conflicts. Wednesday night they didn’t do too well, losing 29 to 8. Star played pretty well and I managed to video tape some of the game. I ran out of battery at about half time because I hadn’t recharged it after Tulip’s concert.

Wednesday was Uncle Sweet Pea’s 40th birthday. Happy birthday Uncle Sweet Pea, and congratulations again to Granny Begonia (I always say that the mother does all the work and deserves all the credit for a birthday, since the baby is just along for the ride).

On Friday we had Girl Scouts and we made pretzels.

Happy Birthday Gardenia!

Today, Sunday, November 25 was Gardenia's birthday.

We went out to dinner at Bob Chin's Crab House Saturday night. The younguns and I got her a digital frame that shows photos from a memory stick. We figured that she can use it for her new office.

Unfortunately no one called her except her mother and father (Yarrow and Poeny).

AND I just realized that we did not do her a cake! I'm going to have to really make it up to her.