Halloween princess
Veeka was OK with being Mother Teresa for the third or fourth year in a row, but after I bought her an orange-and-black princess dress, that is all she wanted to wear. So here are photos of her and some little friends visiting a local aviation museum last weekend to have face paint put on, clamber around the planes, make bats and spiders out of pipe cleaners, lanterns out of paper and eat lots of popcorn. I was exhausted but they had a great time. Giving Veeka a dress - instead of a sari - to wear made walking a lot easier. The aviation museum was a Godsend in that Saturday was the day it snowed here, so there was absolutely nothing to do outside. Well, there wasthat evening walk we took through the jack-o-lantern patch in Greenbelt in the slosh and the mud.
By the time most of you are reading this, Veeka will have been baptized and taken her First Communion. What a process that has turned out to be: Two visits with the priest, the buying of enormous amounts of food for an after-the-baptism party. And the expected sheet cake I'm providing for the parish refreshment table after the service. Plus the stuff for extra punch, fruit, veggies, dips, getting the invites out, ordering and picking up the balloons, getting presents from Oma and Opa, going over the service every night with Veeka so she can properly renounce Satan during the service. Explaining to her what taking the bread and wine really mean and how not to spill anything. Buying white shoes, white flowered headband and several pairs of white tights (little girls have an amazing ability to go through at least one pair a day.)
Deciding the front yard looks like a mess, so spending a few hours raking piles of dead pine needles and producing six bags of yard debris. Mommy very tired after that. Then arranging for a professional photographer to come and negotiating a contract. Figuring out where in the church we can shoot photos before the service. And getting my hair done for this event. Getting someone to read the baptism litany during the service. Explaining everything to the godparents (who are Catholics) so they understand what goes on during an Episcopal service. Ordering invitations and sending them out. It is like planning a mini-wedding! That said, will add that my niece - and Veeka's cousin - Lindsay just announced her engagement and upcoming wedding next October in the Seattle area. Which means pulling Veeka out of school for at least a week. Will worry about that later.