Retro Annie

Last week was Annie's 11th birthday.  I alternate between friend parties and a family activity every other year.  This year was a family activity year and what that was originally suppose to mean is that we do something as a family for the birthday.  But what it has morphed into is each kid doing something with their same-aged cousins and somehow they talk me into inviting an extra friend or two.  This year Annie wanted to go to City Creek and walk around and have lunch at Blue Lemon downtown.  She invited her cousins- Tailyn and Grace, but Grace was out of town so she invited an extra friend.  So Annie, Tailyn, Maci and Hannah went downtown last Friday for a girls' afternoon of shopping and lunch. 

It really was fun and probably the most I have enjoyed myself at any of my kids' birthday events.  Which got me thinking about how Annie is growing up and becoming quite the young lady.  For anyone who knew Annie as a toddler and little girl, you know she was a hand full!  She was constantly going and I have many funny stories about her earlier antics.  For example once during sacrament meeting she chucked her shoes at a man's head.  Luckily he was watching her and was able to dodge the flying Mary Janes coming at his head. I even had someone ask me when she was little if she had ADHD!   But it is fun as a mother to watch her grow up and see how she channels all that frenetic energy into good, productive things like piano, school, softball or her newly emerging "Sweet as Cherry Pie" babysitting service.  Yet in all this reminiscing I decided I needed to get some of those early"Annie stories" recorded.  So for your reading pleasure, here are 3 authentic "Annie stories"!

One, Two, Twenty
When Annie was about 4 years old we were at a family reunion.  They had this huge balloon launcher that the kids loved.  There was a bucket of water balloons for the kids to grab from but the lady in charge told the kids they could only take one at a time.  Annie was so excited by the balloon launcher and could barely contain herself as she was reaching to get a water balloon. I kept telling her she could only get one as she kept trying to stuff her arms full.  She also kept trying to bargain with me to get more.  She would say, "I want one."  Then it would be, "I want two."  Then she finally yelled out her unbridled 4 year old request while shaking her hands in the air, "I WANT TWENTY!"  She just couldn't contain herself any longer.  So now when my family is trying to show some restraint -like around a yummy dessert- but we just can't do it anymore we yell out, "I want one, I want two, I WANT TWENTY!"

Lick It
Again when Annie was about 4, she was playing outside with her at the time BFF- Lauren.  They were playing in the dirt making mud.  She came in all muddy and after I cleaned her up, I told her "No more playing the mud." because I didn't want to clean her up again.  She went out to play with Lauren again and when I went out to check on her she was again covered in mud up to her elbows.  I went up to her and asked her what was on her hands.  She looked down at them innocently and said, "chocolate" without missing a beat.  I said, "Really- that's chocolate?"  And she just nodded confidently.  So I said, "If that's chocolate on your hands, lick your fingers."  She hesitated for a moment then gingerly brought her finger up to her mouth and licked the tiniest bit of mud off her fingertip.  I said, "Is it good?"  She again nodded her head, but not so confidently.  I proceeded to take her inside and tell her that I knew it was mud and that she should never lie to her mother because I will always know when she's lying!

Shaky Inside
When Annie was 7 I was making French Dip sandwiches that called for beer.  Since we don't drink alcohol, I was a little nervous using this ingredient.  So I researched it on the internet and found out that when you cook something with alcohol for over 2 hours then all the alcohol cooks out and you are just left with the taste.  Well the facts that the meat cooks in the beer for over 3 hours and everything on the internet you read is true assured me that we would be just fine, so I went ahead and bought the beer.  I put it in my downstairs fridge so I didn't have to answer a lot of questions from enquiring minds.  But then I forgot this and sent Finn downstairs to get a gallon of milk from the same fridge I had put the beer.  Finn came upstairs with the milk and a worried look on his face. "How come we had beer in our fridge?"  Eric quickly and jokingly replied. "Because Mom drinks beer now."  I immediately interjected, "No, I don't!" and proceeded to tell them about how all the alcohol cooks out after 2 hours and you are just left with the taste- as if they understood and couldn't totally see through all my justification!  Eric could apparently see right through me because when I was done with my little explanation he said, "And mom likes the taste of beer."  At this point Annie pipes in with a "And I do too!"  Taken aback I asked, "Annie!  Have you tried beer?"  Annie said, "No, but I want to."  Then she says aside to Finn, "It makes you all shaky inside!"  Needless to say I haven't cooked with beer since!