Pro tip for spending Easter morning in a hotel room – assemble baskets in bathroom while running the bath. Might be more relevant for younger kids but useful for kids like mine who will cling to childhood traditions involving candy as long as possible. P.S. I am ready to be home.

Last evening with the cousins – a few pictures from a very eventful few days. I am not exaggerating that we planned this entire trip two weeks ago and somehow two sisters and five kids pulled off an epic road trip to Hollywood. While we did squeeze in a little culture (the Getty) we mostly relived the days when we lived here and took every visiting guest to see the sights. This time we played tourist and did the cheesy and fun stuff Sue and I loved as kids. Great, great trip.

My mission: be as ridiculous and as embarrassing as possible. Nailed it. I want to thank my videographer, Sue Jones who made it all possible and apologize to all the teens and tweens present who had to pretend not to know me for a good fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, sue and I keep rewatching this and laughing until our stomachs hurt. We are officially embarrassing old people. Ok, I am at least. She is an embarrassing old person enabler.

There is an inverse relationship between the amount of time I spend nagging my kids to pack for a trip and the amount of time I actually spend packing my own bag (approximate ratio of 10 hours: 10 minutes). Once again, I will spend the week borrowing socks and toiletries from Lily who is the only person in the family who packs like an adult.

We’ve only been waiting a year for this day…

Portland shows up.

Twins in our matching jackets, ready to march. Dear Portland, please hold on the rain.

Last one for the night…girls night out. Love these faces.

Margaret got a haircut and Alice got a
Polaroid camera…

Some years birthdays fall on the last day of the quarter when everyone is wrung out, strung out and stressed out, and to add insult to injury, on a day when there is early morning choir. This could be a problem when the family tradition is to have birthday morning celebration and presents. No matter. Everyone up and bleary eyed by six am to celebrate fifteen years around the sun for Alice because that’s what we do. Also what we do at 530 hanging the aging birthday banner upon discovering the H has finally given up the ghost? Decide it’s a British birthday sign and spend the morning saying “‘appy birthday, Govenah!” Happy birthday to my intense, big hearted, much loved girl.