planetpayne

Ingrid’s second 5th birthday party went well. She walked into a room decorated all red, with Clifford the big red dog decorations dispersed throughout. The St. Louis bunch were all there. There were no kids but she didn’t seem to notice. I think she enjoyed being the center of attention. This year, there was no shyness at all. It seems that living on the road has really changed Ingrid into a social butterfly. Kind of funny, since whenever I tell people she’s home schooled, I get the “oh, I would love to do that with my child, but the socialization is so important…”, it’s always something along those lines. Well I can tell you first hand that Ingrid has no problem socializing with other children. She is different than most her peers, in that she hasn’t learned to call other kids names, or hit them, or make fun of them. Also in that she is comfortable around adults, and can easily stay and have a conversation with an adult. 

So a room full of adults was no problem. We played Clifford trivia, pin the tag on the Clifford, and drop the dog bone into the 2-liter bottle. It was all extremely fun for Ingrid. She enjoyed laughing at all of our attempts to win the prizes. In the end, all the prizes somehow ended up in her bag and she didn’t really notice anything suspicious about that (or maybe she did, but decided not to bring it up). There was a chocolate Clifford cake and even a pinata! The pinata was not actually Clifford, but one of those little Mexican toros. The funny thing is that Ingrid ran up to me and whispered excitedly, “Mommy, it’s a bighorn sheep!!!”. The big horn sheep is her current favorite animal. Nice work, Grandma!

The day after the party, Grandma Pam took Ingrid and I to see Mary Poppins the play. It was playing at the Fox theatre, which I’d never seen before then. It’s a really old theatre, renovated, even with it’s own pipe organ. The show was spectacular. Mary Poppins flew over us in the end! We weren’t allowed to take photos during the show of course but here’s one Pam took outside while waiting for the show to start.

After driving for two days, we made a brief stop in Kansas City to see Katie, Andrew’s cousin. Ingrid loves Katie and she spent the whole dinner sitting next to Katie and just looking up at her admiringly. It was really cute and I felt a little sad when it was time to leave, because I know Ingrid would love to see Katie on a regular basis. 

Today we’re in Babler State Park, about 30 minutes from Andrew’s mom’s house. We haven’t explored the park much yet but we -love- the campsite. It’s incredibly spacious and beautiful. It’s quiet and relaxed, there aren’t many people here during the week. At night the cicadas take over and it’s super loud but not in an unpleasant way. This morning I found one in the Vanagon and I couldn’t believe how big it was. It looked like one of those bugs in a horror movie that ate something and became gigantic. I think this is the first time I’ve ever been able to see a bug’s eyes clearly without getting close to it. I think it was probably as big as a small bird.

Last night we came home to a massive lighting and thunder show. Well it was massive for me, anyway. Probably not a big deal to Andrew. The lightning lit up the sky completely, I’ve never seen lightning this intense. And the raindrops were huge! It was all part of the adventure and I was sorry that Ingrid missed it. She did wake once in the middle of the night and ask if it was time to pack to go to Grandma’s house yet, then fell immediately back to sleep. 

Tonight we have reservations for Ingrid’s favorite steak restaurant, Ruth’s Chris. Andrew’s mom introduced us to this wonderful restaurant and it’s become a tradition for us to go there whenever we’re together. It’s definitely a “special occasion” kind of a place but well worth the money. Our special occasion is the belated celebration of Ingrid’s birthday. Tomorrow Grandma Pam is throwing Ingrid a surprise party at her house. Everything is ready to go and it should be a fun time.