UPDATE: So I'm pretty sure my daughter has opened her gifts by now, so it's safe to talk about them now. Plus she's had a lot going on - SAT's last weekend, Junior Prom in two weeks, and of course lots of school work catch up after being out of school for two days traveling with the chorus and then several days of in-school music activities right afterwards....poor girl is probably spending every waking moment catching up! Gotta keep up those good grades from the rest of the year, would be a shame to let it all go downhill now. Junior year is so important!
This year there are a bunch of new books out that my daughter would just love, she's an avid reader, always has been, would pour thorough books in mere days, even hours, but I obviously have no idea which books she has already and which ones she needs, so I thought an Amazon gift card would be a good bet. That way she can get whichever books she wants, or something else if she wants. Also sent her a panda bookmark from Chinatown in NYC that she can use in her new books. And what birthday present would be complete without a few cute purse things, she was always into that kind of girlie stuff. One was a purple patent leather alligator imprint mini-wallet and the other a hot pink velvet makeup bag with hand lotion and nail stuff. To go with her nail stuff, I found these tat-toes - no that's not a misspelling - they are tattoos for your toes. They were a really cute pink flowery print that is just sooo my daughter. A friend of mine also told me about an interesting video called MisRepresentation. It talks about the media's obsession with focusing girls on beauty instead of brains. It has interviews with teenage girls as well as Condolezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Gloria Steinem, Katie Couric and other smart women. I hope it's good. I didn't watch it myself, so I could send her the unopened package, but I'm pretty confident in the person who recommended it. My daughter also likes to write stories, so I sent her another monogrammed journal and a fancy pen that she would like. And for her love of NYC and drama, a key chain from Broadway. Lastly, and probably the simplest but most fun, was a package of glow bracelets. Hope she saves them for her camping trips this summer with her friends. They would be perfect around the camp fire!
As for me, I'm plugging along with spring clean up around the office and the house. Have gardens in both places, so it's a bit of work every spring, but I do enjoy it. Love seeing the results of a neat clean yard, nice flowers and a lots of delicious organic vegetables. Just about finished with the clean up, still have some mulching to do but I think I'm ahead of the game this year thanks to the good weather. Need to stop by the town DPW for the free mulch...I'll take free any day. All the vegetables are already in the garden, hoping for an early corn crop again this year. Wishing everyone a happy spring, and my kids a good final push to the school year....keep those grades up and let me know if you'd like to visit some colleges this summer....be happy to take you around to see a few! Love and miss you both, and the other half of your family sends their love, hugs and kisses!
