Last day as five year olds!
In Waldorf Schools, the kindergarten birthdays are very special. Great care is given to the celebrating of them. We had Kyle and Owen’s “school birthdays” on Tuesday. Since they are in two separate classrooms, we had two separate celebrations. Braydon and I were there the entire morning (crazy!). One of the things that happens during the “school birthday” is that the child’s parents are asked to bring in a special treat for the class. Typically people bring a cake, or cookies, or brownies, or something special to the child. Kyle and Owen are not huge sweets/desserts fans. There are a couple of specific things they love (whipped cream, for example! –and– Owen only: frosting!), but they don’t really have a favorite dessert. They love fruit. They love ginger cookies (although they associate them with fall and/or Christmas). Kyle loves fig newtons and Owen loves chocolate chip cookies. But I wanted it to be really special. I was kind of stumped as to what to bring in this year. In the past I’ve always brought store-bought cupcakes for their school and daycare birthday celebrations. But this year I really wanted to bring something homemade– the boys are old enough now to ‘get it’ and to appreciate something truly good and special and made-with-love-by-their-mama. I discussed it with them several times, but we couldn’t come up with anything that they really wanted. Owen finally declared that he wanted a “cake with lots of frosting with no cake inside it” (i.e., a big pot of frosting!!!!!!!!!!) LOL!!! But I knew that wouldn’t go over well with the teachers. đ And I also know that Owen is actually very picky about his frosting. So, I set out to create the best 6th Birthday Treat Ever. And, boy, did I ever!!! Seriously… it was incredible. Two classrooms of kids ages 4-7 and not one child didn’t love this. Kids were begging for seconds and thirds. We witnessed more than one child literally licking their plates (and that doesn’t even include Owen, who regularly licks his plate). The teachers told me it was the biggest hit ever– they’ve never seen the kids in their classes love a birthday treat so. I highly recommend this whole spread for any occasion… but if you’ve got little kids to charm… this is the way to do it!!!! Make it and you will not be disappointed! I cannot rave enough about this (and neither can Kyle and Owen). By the end of that day Tuesday we had nothing— nothing!– left! Nada! And believe me, we started out with a lot that morning! (Braydon and I made all of it the night before)…
Kyle and Owen’s 6th Birthday Treat — the Best Ever!!!
Pound Cake, Strawberries, Buttercream Frosting, and Whipped Cream
Owen loves buttercream frosting and they both love whipped cream. I made both for both classes. I had everything in separate containers so that kids could pick and choose their toppings for their cake. Some chose just strawberries, many chose either the buttercream or the whipped cream, but most chose to load it up with it all. Everybody left happy!
POUND CAKE
I got this recipe from the foodie blog Black Girl Chef’s Whites (a great food blog). I altered it only a tiny bit (using fresh lemon juice instead of lemon extract; omitting the glaze/frosting that she calls for; and using two large pound cake pans instead of one large angel-food-style-pan).
1Â lb butter, room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs, room temperature
4 cups flour, sifted
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Â Butter and flour two pound cake style baking pans.
In electric mixer cream butter and sugar. Â Add eggs one at a time, beat until incorporated. Â Add flour and milk alternately, ending with the flour. Â Add vanilla and lemon, beat well, making sure to scrape down bowl as needed.
Pour batter evenly into prepared pans, bake for about 1 hour or until pick inserted in cake comes out clean. Â Cool in pan on rack for 30 minutes, then remove cake from pan. Let cool completely before storing in airtight container until serving.
STRAWBERRIES
Cut up, or slice, fresh strawberries (I used five pounds of strawberries total for the two classrooms). Sprinkle with sugar. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.
BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
I doubled this recipe.
1/2 cup butter, softened
4-1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5-6 tablespoons milk
In a large bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add in sugar, vanilla, and milk. Beat until light and fluffy. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve. Bring to room temperature before serving.
WHIPPED CREAM
This was Braydon’s contribution. He’s the best whipped cream maker ever. He doubled this recipe.
In mixer, whip together 1 pint heavy whipping cream, 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Beat until desired consistency. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.
P.S. Meera loved it too! She could not stop taste-testing it the morning of their school birthdays!
And, yes, I am crazy for doing this kind of stuff for my kids. I know that. And yes, we were up ’till all hours on Monday night making all this stuff (although that [the up late working our tails off part] is not unusual). When they were 3 or 4 or 5 it wouldn’t have been worth it (they wouldn’t have appreciated it), but we’re raising quite the little foodies here and they are now old enough to truly appreciate these things–Â it was so, so, so worth it!!!
Kyle and Owen were not easy to potty train. I never worried about it though. It just was not something I was willing to allow myself to stress over. They were in diapers until they were three. And even after they were out of diapers they still weren’t night-time-potty-trained—- not even close. They always had to wear a pull-up to bed. A few weeks before Meera was due to be born, as the boys approached their fourth birthday, Braydon and I did a push for night-time-potty-training. We were thinking that with a new baby coming it would really, really, really nice to have the boys completely out of diapers. Kyle cooperated. He was ready, and motivated. Our ‘thing’ was that if he could wake up with a dry pull-up for three nights in a row, then he could try sleeping with no pull-up. It wasn’t long after our big push that Kyle was fully night-time-potty-training. Owen, on the other hand, was a whole different story. He had absolutely no interest whatsoever in night-time-potty-training, and he had absolutely zero motivation to go for it. He would tell us openly that he thought pull-ups were “great” and he seriously questioned why anyone would choose to get up in the night to pee on the potty when you could just stay in bed and pee in your pull-up. It made no difference to him to know that Kyle wasn’t wearing a pull-up any longer. It made no difference to him to know that most kids his age weren’t wearing pull-ups any longer. None of that mattered. He happily wore his pull-up to bed every night for a full two years after his brother had stopped. And he’d happily wake up every single morning with a soaking wet, heavy-with-pee-filled pull-up. He has a mind of his own. But then, suddenly, out of the blue, about three weeks ago, Owen announced to us that he was going to “stop wearing pull-ups by the time he turned six.” We were all overjoyed– and flabbergasted. With Kyle and his parents cheering him on with gusto, and with us committing to waking him up to pee each night before we go to bed, Owen determined to go for it. Three times he got to ‘2’ (2 dry pull-ups in a row), but then crashed and burned on the third night… sending him right back to 1. He got frustrated with himself, but he didn’t give up. And then, just last week, he did it. 3 nights in a row with a dry pull-up. And then, for the first time in his life, he got to go to bed pull-up-free. With Kyle there were many accidents in the first few days/weeks/months of pull-up-free nights. So, we were fully anticipating lots of laundry and making-of-beds. But no. Owen has been pull-up-free for the past week and has not had one accident. Not even close. Owen is officially 100% potty trained day-and-night. Just in the nick of time too (for his own self-imposed deadline)—Â as he is just about to turn six. A big deal for Owen (and the whole family)! And I am so, so glad that I didn’t ever let myself get stressed over the whole thing. I truly believe it to be true (at least with my boys), that when they are ready, they are ready. No point in rushing them. For whatever it may be.
Three weeks ago Kyle lost his first tooth. Each day since we’ve been waiting on the edge of our seats for Owen to lose his. Owen’s tooth was very loose, even when Kyle lost his. And in the past few days it was very, very loose. Owen has been so full of anticipation and just totally beyond excited to lose his own first tooth. He has asked Braydon several times to try pulling it out. Braydon has tried to no avail. Over the past couple of weeks MorMor and MorFar both also tried. And Margie has tried a few times too. It just wasn’t coming out. But today, it was dangling by a thread– literally just about hanging out of his mouth. And tonight was the big night. After dinner Owen asked Braydon, yet again, to pull it out. We knew this time it would be it– but still, Owen was shocked and stunned when it actually happened. Braydon held Owen on his lap and with a tissue wrapped around his tooth it took barely a quick tug to pop it out! Owen was ecstatic and proud and couldn’t stop looking at himself in the mirror. The boys went to bed with Owen’s tooth and a dictated-to-Mommy letter-to-the-Tooth-Fairy tucked safely inside the Tooth Fairy Pillow. The boys were both filled with great excitement for a visit from the Tooth Fairy.
A big night for Owen — right smack dab in the middle of Birthday Week. The excitement level could not be higher around here these days. We’re just bursting at the seams with it all. And now, not only do we have two just-on-the-verge-of-turning-six year-olds… but we also have two boys who are just about as thrilled as can be with the fact that now they’ve both lost their first teeth when they were still five.
(If you look closely at this last picture you’ll see that Kyle’s about to lose his next tooth– the grown-up-tooth is already coming in. And although you can’t see it as well on Owen in this picture, he’s got the same thing going on in his mouth.)
K & O’s birthday is May 8th. But somehow it always becomes their birthweek, as opposed to their birthday. How does that happen?– I ask myself this every year. I go over it and over it in my mind. And here it is: First of all, there is their big annual birthday party… which, this year (like, it seems, most years) — for complex scheduling purposes — needed to be held on the weekend before their actual birthday. This is a huge blow-out-of-a-bash and we (for a bunch of very good reasons that I’ll defend until the day I die) go all out for it. It was Saturday, May 1. Then, there is their school birthday. This is a very big deal in the Waldorf Kindergarten. It is deep and profound and intimate and emotional. I’ll cry like only a mama-on-the-occasion-of-her-child’s-birthday can. And then, at the end of it, I’ll be emotionally exhausted in a way that I am on no other day of the year. That will be tomorrow. Tuesday, May 4. And then there is their actual birthday. On that day they will wake up to their end-of-the-bed-present (the one gift they will each get from us; a tradition carried forward from one generation to the next from the Johnson side of the family). And then, that evening, they will get to choose their birthday dinner (whatever they want– I will make it, or they will chose to go to the restaurant of their choice). It will be a small family affair to celebrate the actual day that they were born — to honor their birthmother who gave them life on that day in Port au Prince, Haiti — and to express joy for the fact that K & O are on this earth. When all is said and done, it will be a full week of double (twin) festivities. It is a lot. Many would say it is way too much. Those people don’t know all the details of the why’s and how’s and what if’s. They don’t understand our boys’ histories, our family’s story, K & O’s personalities. There is a reason and a purpose for every bit of it. Reasons and purposes that I know, in my heart, are the foundation for the Birthday Week. And so, we do it. And this week, we are doing it.
*
Something I started last year was the writing down for — and the reading aloud to — the boys their “Birthday Story.” This was inspired by the personalized Birthday Stories that are told to each child by their teachers in Waldorf School Kindergartens. The story is laden with meaning particular to the child (or in our case, children), and it points to their own life history in the shaping of their life trajectory. Here is Owen and Kyle’s “Birthday Story”~~
Kyle & Owenâs Birthday Story
Kyle Macon Johnson-McCormick and Owen Badio Johnson-McCormick were born in a very special place â a city called Port au Prince â in a country called Haiti. They were also born in a very special way â as twins. Owen and Kyle grew together in their birthmotherâs belly until the day they were both born. They were born on May 8, 2004. It was spring in Haiti, the air was hot, and the twin baby boys were healthy and strong!
Owen and Kyleâs birthmother was a beautiful woman who wanted these special twin baby boys to have a wonderful life. She could not take care of any babies, so she made a big decision: for Owen and Kyle to be adopted.  This was how their birthmother showed how very much she loved Owen and Kyle. And this was how Heather and Braydon Johnson-McCormick got to be able to adopt Owen and Kyle and become their Mommy and Papi.
Owen and Kyle were in an orphanage in Haiti until they were eight months old. While they were in Haiti, Rock (the Orphanage Director), and Patrick (Rockâs cousin), and the nannies at the orphanage took care of them. January 31, 2005 was the day that their Mommy and Papi came to bring them home. That was a very, very special day! Heather and Braydon flew on a big airplane from Pennsylvania all the way to Haiti. When they got to Haiti they were so excited to meet their babies that they didnât even take time to eat lunch!!!
When they became a family forever, this is how it happened:
Heather and Braydon walked into the orphanage and Heather saw Owen right away; he was sitting on the floor. Heather went right to Owen and she thought he was the most beautiful baby she had ever seen. She looked at Owen and touched his cheek and said, so gently, âHi Owen, I am your Mama!â Owen did not make any noise; he was very quiet. But he used his big brown eyes to look his Mommy right in her eyes and baby Owen was very peaceful and happy. Then Heather held her baby boy very close for a long time.
Rock went into the Sleeping Room and found Kyle. He brought out little, tiny, baby Kyle and put him in Braydonâs arms. Braydon held Kyle right away. He looked at Kyle and touched his cheek and said, so gently, âHi Kyle, I am your Papi!â Kyle did not make any noise; he was very quiet. He sat on his Papiâs lap and his brown eyes were so big and he and his Papi looked right in each otherâs eyes. Baby Kyle was very peaceful and happy.
Then they switched–Â Papi held Owen for the first time. He held him for a long time. The whole time Owen was chewing on Papiâs shirt buttons!!! And Mommy held Kyle for the first time. She thought he was the most beautiful baby she had ever seen! She held him close for a long time. The brand new family left the orphanage to go to the hotel. While they were driving to the hotel, Kyle fell fast asleep in his Mommyâs arms! When they got to the hotel, Papi fed Owen a bottle and Owen was so happy and so peaceful that he fell fast asleep in his Papiâs arms! Owen and Kyle were very deeply loved, right from the start.
Owen and Kyle had their first airplane rides when they were just babiesâthat was when they came home from Haiti. Owen sat on his Papiâs lap, and Kyle sat on Mommyâs lap, and they kissed and hugged and snuggled for the whole airplane ride! When the plane landed in Florida Mommy and Papi said, âWelcome to the United States!â That is when Kyle and Owen became Haitian-American. When Owen and Kyle came home to their own house in Pennsylvania, they were both very, very happy babies! They loved to eat when they were babies! They loved bottles of baby formula. They loved baby food. They loved bread and bananas and yogurt and hummus! Â Owen and Kyle both learned to walk when they were 10 months old! They took their first steps on the exact same day!
Kyle and Owen were baptized on their 1st birthday; it was a very special day. When they were 1 year old they started swimming. They could jump into the water and stay under water, holding their breath, for a long, long time, even when they were so tiny! They also loved playing golf, and could hit the ball pretty far for 1-year-olds!!! Their favorite thing was booksâ they always loved to sit on peopleâs laps while they read books to them. But Kyle couldnât hear very well, so the year he was one year old he had an operation to fix his earsâ after that he could hear the books even better!
At Owen and Kyleâs 2nd Birthday Party a band came to their house and played, âThis Little Light of Mine, Iâm Gonna Let it Shine.â That was their favorite song! They loved to sing and dance to it! When they were 2 years old Owen and Kyle each got a scooter. They would ride them all over the place, really, really fast!
When Kyle and Owen were 3 years old, they got their first bicycles. The first time Owen tried to ride it, he got right up on it and starting peddling like he had been doing it forever! The first time Kyle tried to ride his bike, he rode down his driveway and crashed into a big bush!!!! But he got right back onto his bike and tried it againâthe second time he didnât crash at all! Kyle and Owen started doing bicycle tricks when they were just 3 years old, and they have spent many days riding their bikes together in their driveway. Also when they were 3 years old, Owen had a special operation to turn his âouttieâ belly button into an âinnie.â After the operation, he had a big smiley-face bandage on his belly button!!!
When they were 4 years old Kyle and Owen got the training wheels off their bikes; that made them love bike-riding even more! And when they were 4, they got a baby sister!!! Meera Grace was born on May 28th. They had wanted a baby brother or sister for a long time. The first time Kyle and Owen met Meera she had just been born. They went to the hospital and each brother got to hold his sister in his arms. They held her so sweetly and kissed her all over her head. Kyle and Owen are really good big brothers â they always know how to make Meera laugh and be happy, and they take such good care of her.
The year they were 5 years old, Owen broke his collar bone skiing in New Hampshire at Christmastime, and he also learned to do forward and backward flips on the trampoline. That same year was the year that Kyle lost his first tooth, and he also learned how to âslam-dunkâ the basketball. When they were 5, Owen and Kyle both learned how to tie their own shoe laces.
Now Kyle and Owen are turning 6. Their favorite things to do are to play outside with each other. They love every kind of sport, especially baseball. Owen and Kyle also love airplanes and going on tripsâ they have travelled to a lot of different places, and they always love adventures. Something that is really special about Owen is that he is very friendly and funny. Something that is really special about Kyle is that he is very thoughtful and loving. It seems that everywhere Kyle and Owen go, they always make the people around them feel happy.
We are so happy and thankful that Kyle and Owen were born! We canât wait to see what will happen during the year that they are six!
Last week of classes at Lehigh + Boys’ huge birthday bash on Saturday + MorMor here for a few days to help me with all that needs to be done (including, first and foremost, helping to maintain my sanity) + 3 crazy bambinos with enough personality to fill a skyscraper + 2 exhausted parents counting the days ’till vacation…
= lots and lots to blog about, but no time to blog
A rainy Sunday is the perfect time to re-twist. Especially since we’re in full-blown countdown mode to the big 6th Birthday Party (and, although Owen could not care less, according to Kyle, their hair must look great for that bash)! One week from yesterday, it will be May 1, the day of the much anticipated PARTY. Only six sleeps to go! So… Meera’s naptime, 2 mugs of hot coffee for the Loc Twisters, and Brother Bear (movie) playing for the 2 bambinos who sport locs… and voila! Freshly twisted tight locs!
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