The Family Name Game

I loved it when Lara shared some of the names from her family history in her comment the last time we played the Old Lady Name Game (they were amazing), and I've wanted to do a family-themed, old-person name post ever since.

And then my friend Sandra sent me these treasures she came across when doing some indexing:

Alfereta

Therilonia

Artuda

Arsolene

Two groups of sisters:

Nicey Lee & Honey Bee

Christine, Ernestine, and Frostine

and a man named Uritha

These were also amazing. I mean, Frostine? Come on! You can't get better than that.


And a while back, a good friend of mine shared with me the first and middle names of her aunts on her mom's side. Can you believe these?

Nellie Carolyn

Gladys Louise

Stella Ruth

Bernie Annette

Patsy Wathalene

Norma Colene

Flora Marlene

Now, besides Wathalene, the names themselves aren't all that bizarre, but the combinations are delightful. And I think I have to agree with my friend, who said that "Bernie Annette" is her favorite. WOW.

But it was showing Anna our pedigree chart the other day and seeing a few of the winners on there of our very own that made me put pen to paper. Or keys to board.

Both sides of my family are mostly British (at least for a few generations), with plenty of Anns and Jameses and Hannahs and Williams. But every once in a while, there is a name that's almost unrecognizable as a name. (Most are female, which is interesting. Maybe I'll put a star by the men's names.) So are you ready for these? These are actual, bonafide names in my family line:

Pirene

Elsone

Nielsine (not to mention that she had the last name NIELSEN—can you imagine?)

Thola

Emma Scragg (I've always loved that last name)

Philomelia (what the what?)

Huldah

Delectah

Easter

Pleasant * (this one's definitely recognizable, but I loved that it was a man)

Detmorus * (okay, okay, so he was from Holland...)

Avice (this is a little too close to "avarice," if you ask me)

Comfort

Fernice * (how do you think you pronounce it?)

Gamaliel * (which is a name, there was one in the bible, but it's certainly unusual)

Wheatly *

Kunigunde (from Germany, but still)

Mehitable (?)

I could probably go on and on, but that's enough for now. Some of the coolest names I found? 

Luke Raven, which sounds like a character in a detective story (or am I just thinking of The Maltese Falcon?)

and

Ann Lovelace, whose father and grandfather were named William Lovelace Knight (maybe they were knights? I feel another good story coming on...)

Now what are some of yours?

Birthday Traditions

Obviuosly, birthdays have been on my mind, as of late, and I've been thinking a lot about birthday traditions. With Anna, I have carried over some from my own childhood, and some seem to have developed on their own.

Back in the days of yore, when I was growing up, here were our birthday traditions:

• We got to pick our favorite kind of sweet cold cereal (like Cap'n Crunch, or something) because we never got the good stuff, ordinarily.
• We got to choose what we had for dinner.
• We got to pick the kind of birthday cake we wanted.
• The kitchen was always decorated with crepe paper and balloons.
• * UPDATE * I totally forgot about the special birthday plate and goblet! I'm so ashamed. (Thanks for reminding me, Jen.) Anyway, we got to use these fancy things when we ate our birthday dinner. I always looked forward to this part of my birthday.

I think that pretty much covers it, besides getting a few presents, obviously. Way, way back, the kids in my family also got to go out to dinner, just ourselves with our parents, and to a movie. I think I only got to do this once or twice because it became extremely hard with eight kids and the birthday-date tradition was eventually abandoned. I even remember doubling up once with a brother whose birthday was in September because my parents hadn't gotten around to him yet. It was fun while it lasted, though.

Probably 15+ years ago, I made a birthday banner (that we still use to this day) from cardstock, curling ribbon, and scotch tape. With quality supplies like that, it's really kind of a miracle that it has lasted this long. And this thing has traveled to many homes and places. We have even been known to send it to different states once in a while if someone is having a birthday.

For some reason, my sister and I started a tradition of making a birthday sign written backwards and putting it up on the wall opposite the bathroom mirror. This year was the first year I did that for Anna, which she loved (probably now that she can read it).

When you're concentrating so hard on writing backwards, it's easy to forget silly, unnecessary letters like H . . .

Last year, I decided to make Anna a shirt with a 5 on it for her 5th birthday. She got to pick the color of the shirt and the ribbon I used to make the 5. 

Although I hadn't necessarily planned on making one every year, she was excited this year to have a 6 shirt, so we made it happen. And a new tradition was born.

The lace she chose had a string of fake pearls up the middle—very fancy. We'll see how long they last. While I was in the middle of sewing this, I mourned the fact that I hadn't thought to do it when she was 4 (because of the straight lines), but I'm totally looking forward to 7. That's going to be a breeze.

I love the traditions. They make the celebrations that much more fun because, while the presents are fun surprises, you anticipate the traditions and know what to expect. It's fun that Anna's at an age where she can remember last year's birthday and birthday traditions and can look forward to them again. All the traditions don't always show up every single year, but when they do, they're delightful.

So now I want to know about some of your birthday traditions, old or new. Last one to comment is a rotten egg!

Happy Birthday to Anna!

Last week was Anna's 6th birthday. 6 is good, but it's also weird. She's like a full-blown kid now. She has left the toddler years far behind and is using words like "prevent" and "voluntary" all the time. She also corrected herself on the pronunciation of the word "invitation" last week, which is one of the words I was hoping would stick around for a while because she said it with a B: inbitation. So cute.

Anyway, her birthday was a delight—for her and for me. We had a lot of fun. (Although I did feel like I got sucker punched every time I looked at a picture of her I took that day because it seemed like she aged all at once that very day. She looks so old to me here!)

Just for fun, here's her at 5 so we have something to compare it to. 

Do you see what I mean? I can see it, but it could just be the loss-of-childhood tears clouding my vision. (Just kidding. I really am okay that she's getting older. I'm aware that she's aging at the rate everyone else does.)

So here's how the celebrations went down (there were many):

For months, Anna has been requesting breakfast in bed. I don't know where she got the idea, but after shooting down the idea several times, I finally told her that she could have breakfast in bed on her birthday. It was pretty awesome because she was totally awake before me but she had to stay in bed until I made her breakfast so it would be official. I did give her a few books to read so she had something to do.

For breakfast, she requested waffles and ice cream and strawberries, and I obliged. When else can you have ice cream for breakfast, if not your birthday? After breakfast, she finally emerged for presents. She got a lot of presents from so many people that love her and was probably genuinely spoiled, but she was also genuinely gracious about all of them. She called several of them "masterpieces" when she opened them and gave lots of thankful hugs. Giving her presents is partly for her and partly for me. It's just so darn fun to know what she would absolutely love and googly-eyed faint over (which she does often about things she's in love with) and then see it actually happen.

We were planning on having a cousin water party that afternoon, but since the Crazy Wind Storm of 2012 decided to make it super cold (and windy) earlier in the week, we bumped the party to Friday when temperatures were supposed to be warmer. (Friday was warmer, but it was still windy. Good thing I like the wind or else I would have been really mad that the wind made the little swimmers chilly. Instead, I was only a little mad.)

But back to Thursday. For dinner, Anna really wanted to roast hot dogs and make s'mores, so we just up and built a fire in the backyard. It was awesome. We also had some chips and sugar snap peas and carrot sticks (to, you know, balance out the hot dogs), and Anna also picked out a special can of pickled beets for us to eat. (By 6, I meant she was turning 86.)

The next day, we got ready for the party, which was basically kids playing in little pools and sliding down slip 'n' slides. They also painted rocks and beat a pinata to death. We had pina coladas and fruit kabobs, which I enjoyed as I laid back on a lounging chair and watched. Since Anna's birthday happened to be the same day as National Chocolate Ice Cream Day, we had chocolate ice cream sundaes. A delightful addition.

Anna LOVES it when her cousins come over, so I knew she would love this party. I think everybody had a good time. I know I did, sipping my pina colada on the patio. Some pictures to enjoy:

some of the cousins in question

I feel like this picture needs explaining. This is a horse trough that has never been used as a horse trough. (People are always concerned about this point.) It has, however, been our pool since before I was born, I think, and it's super fantastic. We generated some pretty great whirlpools in here, growing up. And I loved seeing it packed with 100 cousins that day.

love this one!

Anyway, that was the birthday. Lots of presents, lots of treats, lots of fun, and I needed lots of sleep to recover from it all. But it has been 6 years well spent. Happy birthday, Annabelle.

(And you know what next year means, since she was born on the 7th? GOLDEN BIRTHDAY!)

May Photo Blitz

May was a complete whirlwind. I tried to make it last because I knew it was monumental (last month of kindergarten, last month of school before the calm but routine-free summer, etc.), but it ended anyway. Here are some of the things we did.

Kindergarten graduation. Do you love the upside-down-plastic-bowl graduation hats or what?

Anna showing me the chicks they got to see hatch in their classroom. Sometimes I wish I went to kindergarten.

with her teacher Mrs. Williams, who was amazing

In her outfit for the dance festival. Since the kindergarteners were dancing to Jackson 5's "ABC 123," the teachers requested they wear something from the 60s or 70s, so we went authentic. This is a dress my mom made for my oldest sister in probably 1970. She looked amazingly awesome.

Making a friendship lei at her class party. And I just noticed that's my foot in the corner. Proof that I was there.

The other thing we did this month is grow butterflies. We got this nifty net cage thing from Anna's grandma and we ordered some caterpillars online and all 5 grew into painted lady butterflies. We LOVED watching them grow and change. So fun.

We kept the butterflies inside for a few days until it warmed up enough for them to go outside. Their diet was seriously the cutest thing I've ever heard: fresh orange slices and sugar water dropped on fresh flowers. Doesn't that sound magically dainty?

This one stuck around for a while and didn't want to leave. (My shadow is further proof that I was there for all of these occasions.)

After we let the butterflies go, we noticed they left quite a few eggs behind. We're crossing our fingers and hoping to see some larvae soon. (<— sentence I never thought I'd say)

Now it's on to summer!