In the aftermath of the very long weekend.

First, the birthday: pictures of.

What I should be doing right now is work for tomorrow. What I am doing instead is handing out on the internet, fiddling with my pictures on flickr and wasting time that I really don't have. It's a rainy day and their girls are watching a movie, we need a day to recover from the weekend.

Matilda's party went really well, the cabaret she requested was a success, and although the pictures really don't do them justice, I think my favorite part was the puppet show my parents did. It was that story about the lion and the mouse, where the lion saves the mouse (this time from a carnivorous chimpanzee) and promises to repay the lion some day. The best part was the way the mouse (played by a small rabbit puppet with very large ears) looked like it was desperately pulling itself across the the top of the curtain whenever my dad moved it.

On her real birthday we went to a performance of Cinderella at the Egg in Albany. The tickets were her birthday gift from Tim and Andrea and it was perfect. (Not least because I don't have to figure out where to put it.) The stepsisters were played by two male dancers, who were great, totally over-the-top and hilarious, especially when they were competing for Prince Charming's attention.

Birthday's are great, but there is that let-down at the end that hits you even when you already know to expect it, and when you're five, you just don't see it coming. Matilda did really well, especially when we were around our friends and family, which was great, but she did have a few, "I want more presents," moments later that night.
But we're taking today to relax (even though I shouldn't be) and do nothing. Tomorrow life as we know it will resume, at least for the time being.