Andrew's Birthday! ~ ~ ~~ ><((((°>

I woke up early so I could work this morning, but I had trouble thinking past the excitement of Andrew's birthday. So I ran drove (no time for exercise this morning) to Safeway to buy all the types of sugar-free gum I could find that he might like (as he and I did for Mali), this time in a Costco box of Goldfish (crackers) his mom picked up for him yesterday. (He has already received his main gift: a new cell phone! Also his auxiliary gift: a digital camera.)
He needed his present this morning because we won't all be together until he gets home late from watching the Varsity track meet. I also retrieved his traditional birthday donut and even some chocolate and blueberry muffins as they were still hot from the oven. Susy was up early when I returned, making home-made chocolate muffins for the boy, so now there are many muffins for celebrating his birthday. He may even share. Andrew stumbled downstairs in his usual morning fog to a joyful, non-singing birthday greeting, and was happy.

I'm guessing there will be kids here this afternoon who will help him eat the muffins before I drive them to the track meet. Yesterday Andrew's friends Rian and Kyle were here until 8:00, since I let them talk me into playing a game of hearts after work. (Hey Mom: Guess who won!)
Mali had her friend Hannah over, helping her sort through her clothes - a Susy-decreed project. Hannah took payment of a couple of outfits, since she is slightly smaller than Mali.

Soccer! - - and - - The Complete History of America (abridged)

Mali's team played another great game, but lost 3-1. This time a lot of the loss can be credited to some sadly inadequate officiating. To properly illustrate this, let me tell you that my darling, sweet, lovable daughter - full of laughter and dancing, fine drama, kind words, and love for all - my wonderfully smart and cheerful girl Mali got a yellow card!!!!

To the referee's (only) credit, it MAY have been a slight foul -
To Mali's credit most of our fans were sure the foul was on the other girl who tripped/collided with her, and
To Andrew's credit we practically had to restrain him from going after the ref after this crazy call. He loves his little sister.

Later, we realized that the ref may have mistaken Mali for the even sweeter-looking and smaller Caroline, who earlier had received the referee's warning for flattening an opponent with the audacity and temerity (or perhaps blissful ignorance) to wander into Caroline's range with some small relationship to the ball. Caroline is quite vicious on the pitch.

Later also, the referee awarded a penalty kick to the other team when their player tripped completely on her own in the penalty box. She made the shot to tie the score at 1-1 just before halftime, and the wind sort of went out of the Xtreme's sails.

Except for Mali's. After the game she sailed over to us skipping and singing the new "I got a yellow card" song that she made up.

We had to rush away from the game so we could get to the local theater troupe
Bag & Baggage's performance of The Complete History of America (abridged). It was bawdy, funny, and clever, and thankfully the kids loved it, after expressing much pre-show resentment for our activity choice. We met Michael, Dominica, Eric, and Aaron there. Dominica had told us about the show - and Aaron's teacher's recommendation of it - and was horrified at the bawdy nature of the whole thing, mostly I think because she had recommended it to us and wasn't sure how we would take it. Also possibly because they arrived just after the nice man walked the crowd explaining to all the parents how the show would be a bit pg-13. But without that old Shakespearian trick of appealing to the least-common denominator, I'm sure the kids would have been as bored as they expected prior to the show.