Fathers, Mothers, and Princesses

First, thank you all so much for your good wishes for my Dad.  He is out of ICU, in a normal hospital room, but has a long road ahead.  The doctors tell us that he will need intensive rehab for a long time to be able to regain some of his mobility.  The good news is that he is completely alert mentally and torturing his nurses, as we would fully expect.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

My mom just left this morning after a week-long visit.  Instead of seeing the sights of New York City, this time she shadowed me on my typical week.  A peek into my everyday, if you will.

Walking to and from school with me: two miles total each day!

Sewing doll clothes for Ella's birthday.

Here are two outfits I made:

 She helped with Garden Club at school.

 Ella and I demonstrated to the Club how to make pesto from basil they harvested from their garden.

She played games with the kids, 

and got to watch them play games.

She spied on chorus try-outs,

and did some babysitting.

I even let her rest every once in a while.

But most importantly, she was here to celebrate Ella's 8th birthday with her.  And what a celebration we had.  Given the choice of having a birthday party somewhere or just choosing one friend and having a "Princess for a Day" day, she chose the latter.  She's no dummy.  Of course, Princess for a Day in New York City must include:

First, a best friend.  Maeve was our lucky winner.

Then mani-pedis, of course.  The women giving them the pedicures spoke Spanish with the girls the entire time, much to the amusement of the other patrons.

Then Holden and Kevin joined us for a carriage ride through Central Park.

We had some time to kill so we spent an hour in the Central Park Zoo.

And ended up of course, at The Plaza for high tea, Eloise style.

I do believe Ella had the birthday of a lifetime.

I hope mom had a pretty good time, too.