Cora's 4th Birthday Interview

For at least a year now we've heard tirelessly about every last detail of Cora's birthday. She wanted it to be fancy--REALLY FANCY!!! Our Coco is basically Fancy Nancy embodied so the theme couldn't have been more perfect. Everyone had to wear dresses and sparkles, and boys were supposed to wear ties, or at least a church shirt. She wanted candy and berry cake--a BIG berry cake with flowers. There was to be a piñata and boas and music and games. She wanted decorations that were sparkly, flowers on the tables and balloons too. This girl has opinions, especially when it comes to fanciness, and for over a month we were making all the preparations for her big family bash. I know she's only four, but it's quarantine people, and a girl's gotta have something to look forward to so I really wanted to make her birthday party perfect. And you know what? It really was! Luckily our amazing family obliged, they came to MePa's house donning prom gowns and sparkly costumes, raising pinkies while sipping pink lemonade and using fancy words during dinner. Cora couldn't have been more pleased by anything, EVER! She greeted everyone with her signature, "I like your dress!" or "You look pretty in that sparkly outfit," and then also ate up all the comments about her fancy outfit, which she calls her party dress (nearly one month later I'm happy/exhausted to report that she wears almost nothing other than her party dress--she adores it!!!) I don't know where this girly-girl comes from but I love her so much and I'm just so, sincerely grateful for her positive, sparkly, brilliant energy in our home. Happy birthday Corabelle Wigglesworth, you are our favorite four year old in the world!

  

BIRTHDAY INTERVIEW:

What is your favorite...

Color:  Um, rainbow.

Food:  Watermelon. 

Game:   My fancy Mancy one.

Book: Fancy Mancy. 

Toy: The one I got for my birthday. The girl that sings and wears dresses and is named Jojo Sewa. 

Treat:   Chocolate Chips.

Song:  A song that Jojo Sewa sings.

Thing to learn about:  Kangaroos.

Animal:   Giraffes.

TV show:  Daniel Tiger

Thing to wear:  Dresses

Holiday:  Christmas

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A builder, I want to build castles.

If someone was being mean to your brother or sister, what would you do?  Uhhhh, I don’t know (face very worried) Maybe I would kick the person being mean to my brother and sister.

Who is your best friend?  Everett and Quinn and Talmage.

What is something you want to learn to do this year? I want to learn to…hmmm…I want to learn to climb big giant trees. But I don’t know how to right now.

What is something that you are really good at? Ummm, I’m really good at hugging each other. 

If you had a million dollars, what would you buy? I would buy a doll. A doll that has blonde hair, a dress with buttons and a headband on her head. And, lipstick on her lips!

If you were an animal, what would you be? I would be a giraffe, because do you know that giraffes have long necks? I want a long neck for myself when I am an animal, so I want to be a giraffe! 

  

What do you want someone to invent? I want them to make, hmmmm, I want them to make a robot. I want him to clean dishes by hisself, fastly.

If you could have a magic power, what would it be?  It would be floating and punching bad guys.

How many kids do you want to have when you grow up and get married?  OH, I don’t want to do this.

What kind of house would you like to live in: an igloo, a tree house, a castle, a cave, or our house? A castle!

Who is the cutest boy in the whole world? Talmage

Where do you want to go on your mission?  Um, New York

What's your favorite scripture story? Hmmm, the lamanites cross the sea, one. The one where Jesus was a baby, yep, that one!

T's 11th birthday interview

T turned 11 on March 11th, and it was a golden birthday for the books! His big birthday bash was cancelled last minute thanks to quarantine, but he was lucky enough to sneak in a birthday trip (a big surprise for him!) to Disneyland with Mema and Pepa before it closed down. His last day of school at Westwood Charter was on his birthday, and he was nearly the last guest to leave Mickey's theme park nearly three months ago. This has been such a weird time for the world and our family, and T has handled it with so much grace and maturity. He is a kind boy--always welcoming people with hugs, offering to help and desperately trying to add something useful to an adult conversation. He loves Pokemon, board games, his bow and arrow and a good adventure. Gosh, we are lucky he was our first kid and such a stellar one at that. We love you, T. Happy birthday! 

BIRTHDAY INTERVIEW:

What is your favorite...

Color:  Yellow

Food:   Am I allowed to say desserts? Well, if we’re just having dinner I really like pizza but if we’re talking about desserts than I really like milkshakes with a bunch of mashed up Halloween candy in it.

Game:   Video, card or board? My favorite is Clash of Clans. My favorite board game is Munchkin and my favorite card game is gin rummy.

Book:  Um, The Battle for Scandia. It’s in the Rangers Apprentice series.

Toy:  Ooohhhh, you know? I really like my new bow and arrow!

Treat:   You know, I think I already answered this in question two so, you know. 

Song:  Imagine Dragons and Jonas Brothers.

Thing to learn about:  Ooooh, yeah that’s easy: science! Chemistry.

Animal:   The peregrine falcon. 

TV show: The new Star Wars movie.

Thing to wear: My skeleton pajamas. 

Holiday: Today and Christmas. 

What do you want to be when you grow up?  I want to be a chemist, a car designer or a race car driver. 

If someone was being mean to your brother or sister, what would you do?  First I’d ask him nicely to stop, and then I’d report him to an adult. But if they caught me on a bad day, I’d clean his clock with a new bow and arrow.

Who is your best friend? Luke.

What is something you want to learn to do this year? I want to learn more about social studies and science. I want to learn more about alchemy and Ancient Egypt.

What is something that you are really good at? Armpit farts.

If you had a million dollars, what would you buy? $200,000 in the savings account. Buy a condo, spend the rest on a car. And then I’d probably have $100,000 and use it on food.

If you were an animal, what would you be? You know, I feel like this has already been answered. Are mythical animals allowed? If so, I want to be a night fury.

  

What do you want someone to invent? A teleportation device. You could take surfing lessons in Hawaii, go have a slice of pizza in Italy, and then come home to do homework.

If you could have a magic power, what would it be?  ESP

How many kids do you want to have when you grow up and get married?  Who said I’m going to get married? If I did get married, two. 

What kind of house would you like to live in: an igloo, a tree house, a castle, a cave, or our house? How big is the treehouse? (It’s an imaginary treehouse so as big as you want). AHHHH…a treehouse!

Who is the cutest girl in the whole world? Skip. Uno. Skip. Reverse card. Reverse card.

Where do you want to go on your mission?  I want to go to Alaska. Or Italy.

What's your favorite scripture story? Helaman—all of Helaman. War---so much war!!!

BC (Before Corona)

It's been a long time since I've nurtured this space, nearly two months to be exact. My time, my energy, my emotions and headspace have been elsewhere and my focus has been on living as opposed to documenting. But here I am, practicing self-isolation and craving the solace of my computer keys in documenting this quarantine craziness, but first I feel the need to fill you in on February...and March...and let's be honest, most of January! My writers apathy was not an indication of their goodness and I'd be sad not to remember the memories made. I'm not going to write eloquent posts about each adventure, there will be no backdating in an attempt to fool my family into believing that I was always on top of documenting our deeds, but this is me doing the best I can to look back at a busy few odd months and say, yes, there was good to be found.

That good came in the form of solitary moments to be sure--family trips to the beach and quiet moments in our home with Reagan the dog, but most of the goodness of the past few months have come from the people around our family who bring so much joy and light and happiness to me. The goodness was a week-long visit from my sister and her kids where we played and beached and ate and talked and still ended up in tears when they left after 168 straight hours together. The goodness was my Runners Club who serve as weekly best friends, confidantes, motivators and therapists. The goodness was baseball season (at least the first week of it) where my three oldest kids left their whole hearts on the field and rubbed shoulders with people--especially stellar coaches--who no doubt have shaped their lives for the better. The goodness came in a surprise trip to Yorba Linda to celebrate our favorite Annie-girls birthday and visit our best Burnett buds, and a trip to see Ellen on her last day of filming (Justin Timberlake was a guest--I nearly died!) And at the very end of our Before Coronavirus existence the goodness came in the form of my angel parents, who surprised Talmage on his golden birthday with tickets to Disneyland (the last day before it all shut down). Oh, and then there was Quinny's first lost tooth, an overnight field trip for T, a memorable date night at the Magic Castle and Cora's big-girl trip to see Frozen...it's been full and beautiful over here. 

An obvious extrovert, it's no wonder that people predominately filled my cup of happiness in the last few months and that I'm missing them so much right now. Telephone and Zoom and Marco Polo and all the other apps we are now intimately intermingled with are amazing, sure, but they are no match for a hug, a hangout, or a high-five. I'm going to keep looking at these pictures (maybe a little longingly) and feel grateful for what we have, and look forward to more (in person) memories to come.