About Today.

We had BIG plans today. 

At 1:00 this afternoon we were going to celebrate La's cousin Lydia's third birthday in West Allis, Wisconsin. I'm sure you've guessed from the above photo that we didn't exactly make it to the party. We were, however, in the car for 2 full hours ... PLENTY of time to get to West Allis. But, due to severe flooding and the closing of the Edens "Expressway," we never actually made it further than 6 or 7 miles from our home.

(I just did the math on that ... We probably went a total of 15 miles round-trip in 2 hours. That means we averaged a speed of 7.5 miles per hour. WHAT THE ...???)

Needless to say, La was BIG TIME bummed out. 

She was wearing a pretty little yellow party dress and a pretty little bow in her hair and even a string of pearls around her neck. The poor thing just didn't understand the concept at all. She kept trying to coax me into getting her to the party somehow – despite the closed expressway. The arguments she concocted sounded completely rational to her: "but don't they understand mama? I have a party to go to!!! We need to buy an airplane and just FLY ourselves there."

I talked to my mom briefly in the traffic jam while La sniffled in the backseat. She said, "oh honey, why don't you just do something REALLY FUN today ... like take her for ice cream??!!"

Yeah. Ice cream.

That should do it. "Here, La. I know you were going to go to a birthday party where there would be ice cream AND cake and games and party favors and balloons and ponies and all of your cousins. It surely would have been a grand ol' time. One that you would never forget. But, the road to Wisconsin was closed. Sorry about your luck. Here's a vanilla ice cream cone. With sprinkles. Enjoy!"

Riiiiight.

So I called Aunt M, who suggested we go and PAINT POTTERY! What a great idea!

So we drove (very slowly through flooded streets) to Aunt M's, where the two of them first made an apple cobbler with fresh farmer's market apples bought by Aunt M this morning.

And I ate it. Delicious!

Then La, Aunt M, Kate (M's roommate) and I were off to paint pottery at Glazed Expressions. La painted a Fairy and a christmas ornament, I painted a coffee mug and Aunt M and Kate both painted wine goblets. 

It turned out to be an alright day after all.