Birthday Blitz

This weekend was our 'double the birthdays, double the fun' weekend with Tyler and Max's birthdays landing on Friday and Saturday respectively. On Friday the kids and I had an adventure heading downtown to hand in their passport applications (that story for another post though). After Max had a nap, and Lucy and I had picked up the groceries and party supplies for Max's birthday the next day, Tyler, Lucy, Max, Grandma, Papa and I headed into Calgary for some dinner and bowling. With Tyler studying so much for his PhD candidacy exam, we though a birthday celebration including the kids was in order. We went to a new little Vietnamese restaurant across from the Foothills hospital for dinner. It was closer to the location we were going bowling so we went here instead of our usual Vietnamese hang-out. The food was good, but we kept commenting on how it just wasn't quite the same. We headed out to Deerfoot mall afterwards for some bowling because they are the only bowling alley that doesn't require reservations. Well, unfortunately a little planning ahead goes a long way where bowling is concerned I guess. We got to Deerfoot about 7:45pm and discovered that a lane would not be available until after 9:00...a little too late for our kiddies, especially with a 45 minute car-ride home, so instead we walked around the outlet mall for a while, checked out some sales, but didn't buy anything, let the kids ride on some mall rides (because they were REALLY disappointed about no bowling) and then got a cone from DQ and headed home. All in all it was a long drive to go to Dairy Queen. Oh, and we ate Tyler's Rice Krispie Square cake and opened presents in the foodcourt while we waited. A pretty disappointing birthday, but Tyler said he didn't think about work once all evening, so it was totally worth it to him. I'm glad he's easy going.
The following morning, bright and early, we got up and left for Drumheller to go to the Tyrrell Museum for Max's birthday. We purused the museum for a few hours with Grandma and Papa, Sarah, Janeen and Kristen, and Mike and Tamm-e with Emma and Ashley, and then headed home exhausted. Max was pretty tired the entire time and wasn't too pleased that such a long drive to the museum resulted in him wanted to touch all the cool dinosaurs, but sadly he was not allowed. I guess my brilliant idea for a 2 year old birthday wasn't that brilliant. After fueling up on A&W we headed home and settled Max down for a nap before the next round of partying began. (Oh, and by the way, we bought a new digital camera this week and took it to the museum only to discover that the minisqule SD card only holds 14 pictures, so we don't have much to show for our trip...fortunately grandma brought her camera, so we'll have to upload some shots from her when I get them).
We had a party of hot dogs and smokies and other goodies when Max woke up, as well as a Lightening McQueen icecream cake and presents and hot tubbing and games and all that. Max was pretty grumpy most of the time, but I guess that's to be expected from a tired 2 year old. It was good to see everyone and just relax over some laid back food. I was nearly as sentimental as I thought I would be, probably due to the exhaustion and dealing with a grumpy 2 year old. Now it's Monday and we're still recovering.
Happy Birthday to my boys. I love you.

Wrap Up

This week, Lucy finished up her 8 weeks of soccer practice. She has come quite a long way in that time, but we won't be looking towards the Olympics just yet. I felt bad that 4 out of the 8 weeks she had a cold and just couldn't muster up much energy for playing soccer. Even after weeks and weeks, she still mostly avoided the other kids (and the coach - on the last day her coach said "Hi Lucy" as we were lacing up her shoes and she said nothing. I told her, "Lucy, you should say hi" and she whispered, "Mom, I'm just nervous around people I don't know", to which I responded, "You DO know her...she's your coach!"). Anyway...she had fun. She got to play goalie this week, which she enjoyed because it meant she didn't have to run, (she actually laid down or sat most of the time she was in there) and she was able to avoid the other kids. No one scored while she was in net either. Her favorite part, I think, was the drink break, where all the kids would line up at the door and march down the hallway to the water fountain singing, "The Ants go Marching One by One". We've decided to enroll the kids into gymnastics in April. This way, they can both participate, and it's a little more free-form, so Lucy will be able to 'dance' and make it look like she's doing gymnastics. I'm sure it was killing Max every week to see her half-heartedly participate, when he was just dying to get out there and play too. At the end of the program, the kids were each presented with a metal for participation. Lucy likes jewelry, so she enjoyed this part. We took a quick picture with the team and the two coaches...it's hard to get a good shot of that many people. Especially when the majority of them are under 4 years old. I'm proud of Lucy for sticking it out though and finishing what she started. She has learnt some good skills, and we'll try again next year. But we've decided to forgo outdoor soccer for this season. I don't think I could handle trying to encourage her to get in there, and ask Max to stay put 2-nights a week for 4 months.