Birthday Fun For One and All

Yesterday we indulged in birthday fun for Jamie. My parents came into town for the weekend to celebrate with us so we started off the day with a trip to the Carnegie Museum. Um, Holy Crowded Building, Batman. We've had nice weather the last few days and that hitherto unknown deity referred to as Yellow Orb has been gracing us with his presence. I figured everyone would be outside doing something. Apparently not. They were all in Oakland at the Museum.

But, no matter, we still had fun. We saw the dinosaurs (always a popular destination) and looked at the Hall of Wildlife. We saw the special exhibit on whales and checked out the gem and mineral hall. As always, people watching in these situations is a hoot. We saw cute little kids, sullen teenagers spending their time texting (why exactly are you at a museum again?) and then we saw something I couldn't quite explain. A family had rented one of the double wide museum strollers. On one side was a little girl about 4 years old. On the other was her big (and I mean, ahem, big) brother of about 8. Now, why did you need the stroller in the first place? And even if the 4 year old required it, the 8 year old did not. Get up and use your damn legs! You might benefit from it, kid. Did the parents really need to be pushing 100 pounds worth of kids around the museum?

By the way, this is still what happens when you point a camera at Liam.

After we came home we got ready for Jamie's party. Scot's parents came over to celebrate with us so it was a small gathering. I made a very yummy recipe called "Pasta Rustica" for dinner (which I will post separately later) although Jamie had macaroni and cheese with pears. Then it came time to open gifts.

This went about as well as you would expect.

Gift #2 was this tractor from Scot's sister. Jamie immediately fell in love with it. He refused to pay any attention to anything else from there on out. Scot and I had to open all the rest of his gifts. Once we got them out of the packaging he consented to play with them but he kept returning to that tractor. He loves it.


Liam is also in love with everything Jamie got. As it was with Christmas, so it is with the birthday. Liam is into Jamie's new things to the point where Jamie can't even play with them because Liam is hogging everything. It's driving me completely insane.

Then it came time for the traditional smashing of the cake. I made cupcakes for him because I was pressed for time and it gave him a small portion of his own to destroy. It took him a few minutes to get the idea but once he did, he was all over that chocolate cake like white on rice.



He had a great time and so did everyone else. The house, in particular the kitchen, is now trashed and I've got to get off my dead duff and do something about it. However, it was a much more successful first birthday than Liam's (who got seriously ill the night of his party) and now it's back to normal life. If anyone can tell me what that is, I'd appreciate it. ;)