It's a magic number

Monday was Amelia's birthday. Because we have a birthday bash planned for this Saturday, her birthday was a little low key. My only wish was that I could take her to Cold Stone for ice cream. When we reached Cold Stone, we found a note on the door: "Under new management, closed until May 9."

Amelia was disappointed and so was I. Luckily, I knew there was a second Cold Stone, so off we went to the other side of town. When we got there we found another sign, just like the first. Evidently, whoever is the new manager of one shop is also the manager of the other. There weren't any other Cold Stone Creameries within a reasonable driving distance, so we went to a different ice cream shop. It wasn't nearly as good. At least I had the sense to keep Amelia from eating lime sherbert with mini M&Ms when she asked for the green ice cream.

Who knows? Maybe she'd like lime with chocolate.

I know Diana likes chocolate cookies.

I also brought Amelia to the grocery store to pick out her birthday cake. While we were there I bought her three balloons. When I asked her what color balloons she wanted she said, "Green." So, the clerk showed her two different shades of green balloons. After a moment, Amelia said, "No, black." I asked her, "How about two green balloons and a black balloon." "Ok!" she said. Just as the clerk was preparing to inflate the balloons, Amelia said, "No, orange." She left the store with three orange balloons. The balloons were tied together and attached to a clip - but they still didn't make it through the day.

Amelia also got three rides on the carosel outside the grocery store. But maybe the best part of her birthday was, yes, collecting snails in the backyard with mommy. This girl loves snails.

Lisa