Happy Birthday, M3!

Today was M3's birthday, so I (TubaDad) am going to be a guest blogger for the evening. The big day started with the little girls giving her hugs in bed and singing Happy Birthday. A little later in the morning Catherine took a great birthday picture of M3 and the girls:



After dropping the girls off at preschool, Catherine took M3 to the nail salon to get a pedicure. I heard that one of the girls said "Dose yook preddy, Mama!"



M3 took a couple of pictures with the new 105mm macro lens she got for her birthday. We actually got it while we were up in Oregon, with the expert advice of good friend and avid photographer D2. It was a good choice. It's great for taking close-up pictures of things like newly painted toes, and has a nice soft bokeh. For the non-photographers, that's an adaptation of a Japanese word that means blurred or fuzzy and refers to the out of focus background - it's a nice effect!



Taking a picture of the nearest cat seems to be a universal test of any new piece of photographic gear. Maybe it's because they don't move as much as one of the twinadoes!



The girls took a bunch of stuff into the bathroom to pretend like they were on an airplane going to see H2 and S2. (notice the famous ladybug suitcase that went to China with us in 2006, it has now been gifted to poor Catherine). This time the fisheye lens went on the camera, and M3 got a shot of the whole bathroom (nice step stool, M3!). These girls have active and creative imaginations!



M3 and I got to go out to dinner by ourselves tonight, and Catherine was kind enough to babysit the girls while we were gone. I don't think the girls even noticed we were gone, and she even gave them a bath. She's brave, and very good with the girls. Thanks, Catherine!

We of course had gifts and more singing when we got home from dinner, and Wela had brought over some very tasty cupcakes to compliment the awesome chocolate cake she made for yesterday. The little girls did another stellar decorating job, and loved helping open the presents. They have the process of opening a present pretty much nailed.

Happy birthday, sweetie. I hope you had a great day, and we have another fun year ahead of us! For those of you who are curious, the Mac has gone back to the Apple store where it will soon find another happy home. M3 tried to like it, but it was just wasn't making her happy (which of course means I'm not happy, either). The 15" MacBook Pro wasn't the right ergonomic fit for her, and the new 13" model doesn't have firewire for our video camera. The white 13" Macbook does have firewire, but doesn't have the good LED screen. Bummer. We might check out an iMac sometime in the future - until then we'll try not to curse at the Windows machines in front of the kids.