Symphony in the Park, Part II

Tonight we met our friends Steve, Suzanne, Lila Anne (who is one of Rachel's best friends) and Lila's sister, Eva, who is barely past 1 and very restless, for the Oregon Symphony's last summer concert in Portland parks. They were playing at Grant Park, which would have been great for us to walk over to, except that I had to attend a party in Lake Oswego for the incoming Northwestern University freshmen. (Also went because I needed to talk to a judge who is writing a column for the fall issue of the magazine -- he's an NU grad, a very nice guy, and we ended up having an interesting conversation about things going on in the Washington judicial system. So it ended up being a work/pleasure kind of afternoon).

Anyway....I got back in time for us to catch the symphony as it was rehearsing. I opened the containers of food -- fried chicken (took me two hours to make this morning, but boy was the result worth it), a berry tart with white chocolate drizzled on top (well, the chocolate ended up seizing, so I called it "chunks of white chocolate"), freshly made popovers and salad/drinks from Steve and Suzanne.

Rachel and Lila Anne screeched and hugged each other as soon as they saw each other and Lila gave Rachel a picture she had drawn for her. They spent most of the concert trying to climb a tree with a bunch of other kids, or dancing in front of the symphony players. At one point they were holding hands and twirling around, and they were so cute I could barely stand it.

Earlier today Rachel said she didn't want to eat the berry tart, saying she liked to have berries in the winter (I quickly pointed out that berry season is in the summer, to which she replied, "Ohhh.").But when I started serving everyone else, she quickly changed her mind. And she was so generous with her compliments! "This is AMAZING, Mommy!" she said. A couple of other compliments followed, and as Suzanne, Steve, Lila and Eva were getting ready to leave, she bent down, put her arms around my leg, cuddled into my lap and said, "Thank you for making the berry tart, Mommy."

This is why I knock myself out cooking. I love making my little girl happy when she eats.