It has been nineteen days since I posted any true content (MILP roundups don’t count!). The past nearly-three-weeks have been, as usual, chock full, and here are the pictures to prove it.
First, our little bit turns four months, and I get the bunny pic to prove it.
Then, our three year old magically turns into a four year old overnight. His actual birthday falls on a Sunday, which is Father’s Day this year. We throw some decorations up around the house and let him open all his (Dollar Store) presents from us. He gets a Ninja Turtles footstool, a Spiderman kid-sized camp chair, a Star Wars straw cup, and a case for his innotab. Lots of cheap crap with licensed images slapped on it – the hit of the four-year-old set.
After opening presents and eating donuts and drinking DD coffee, the Craigerator had his delicious breakfast. He took to those solids with glee. Meanwhile, I am keeping up the fiction that “feeding the baby is a privilege only bestowed upon the very well behaved” as long as possible.
That night, we had homemade cake after supper, and Liam blew out the candles.
After the week went by, my parents arrived on Friday night for a fun weekend. They came bearing gifts – most for the birthday boy, but a couple for his brothers. That included a little baby bathrobe with Craig’s name embroidered on it, which he immediately hated with every fiber of his being.
Saturday morning was Liam’s Spiderman birthday party. Just after Craig was born, I went to a silent auction for Jack’s school and won myself a gift card to Oriental Trading. (I paid $15 for a $35 donated card, so it worked out for me and the school!) It got put in a pile and forgotten for a while, but I recovered it in time to bunch a whole bunch of junk for Liam’s birthday. I had him sit in my lap and scroll through the OT website, and eventually helped him settle on a birthday theme. It was a near thing between Frozen and Spiderman, but ultimately Spiderman won. When I asked what fancy thing he wanted as a decoration – a spiderman cutout? A spiderman cupcake holder? – he was like “LANTERNS!” He was totally digging on all of the paper lanterns, in every color. So, lanterns it was.
I put up red and black streamers (probably should have been red and blue but they didn’t have the right blue), got some Spiderman plates and cups, bought one red tablecloth and one black one, and sprinkled red and black jellybeans down the center of the tables. Mom and I made little red goody bags with little plastic spider rings, some Spiderman stickers, a plastic ball with a fake spider in the center, some bubbles, and Spiderman fruit snacks – all sealed up with a Spiderman sticker.
Liam arrived shortly after the decorating was done and a few minutes before his first guest. He was dressed in a cute outfit topped by his Batman Halloween costume. He’d wanted to wear Jack’s full-body Spiderman costume, but it was too hot, so the Professor got him to compromise. Sadly, I have no pictures of this ridiculousness.
We were set up at a playground, so the kids all ran and played on the swings and slides, while the adults got to sit in the shade of the pavilion and chat. It was very hot, so I had lots of drinks – some sodas and Gatorade in a cooler, lemonade and iced water in pitchers. At around noon, I sent my dad off to pick up the Chick fil a tray I’d ordered, and we served nuggets, fruit salad, green salad, and wraps to the crew. It was devoured – we had quite a bit of green salad left but not much else. For dessert, I’d attempted to make red frosted red velvet cupcakes (the frosting looked more pink than red), and drew black webs on them.
I have zero pictures from after the kids arrived, since I was trying to manage the crowds. But I think it went well. Nobody died of heat stroke, we all got to chat, and we had plenty of grandparents along to assist! I couldn’t have done it without my mom, who came with me to help decorate – my in-laws, who helped watch the other kids and deliver and carry – and my dad, who ran hither and yon fetching items from various stores. It was a rare treat to have all of the family in town for one of my kids’ birthday parties, and I know he enjoyed it.
Everyone was in town for Craig’s baptism, which was the following day. He did just great – he kept a paci in his mouth the whole time, which made him look a little funny, but he didn’t cry a bit. As the pastor passed him off to me, he said urgently through clenched teeth “take him, take him, take him.” I think Craig broke him.
We took everyone to lunch at a local grill called Big Daddy’s, and had delicious burgers by the riverside. We then headed over to a condo on Orange Beach, where the Professor’s family would be staying for a weeklong beach vacation, and where my family came and had dinner with the group. And my kids are pestering me right now and won’t let me finish, so I’ll wrap up June completely tomorrow.