Birthday squared

Since Sage and Eliza's birthdays are so close, we decide to kill the fatted calf. In other words, we forked out money for Kangaroo Zoo (aka overpriced, over-germed kiddie heaven).


Lily enjoying a snuggly moment on what was probably the orange inflatable equivalent of a petri dish.

Eliza jumped on this dinosaur, and two other kids climbed on with her. They had never met, but they all enjoyed shifting their weight, which made one of the trio dip down suddenly. Why don't adults make friends that quickly? Maybe if there were more adult-sized purple inflatable brontosauruses we would.

I poked my head into the frozen yogurt store next door to get directions home and felt so bad for the nice old gentleman that owned the empty place that we unpacked the girls and brought them in for a treat at the SELF-SERVE bar (aka bar of happiness).
I had to rescind the "self-serve" invitation when Eliza decided she needed an entire pound of gummi worms on her frozen yogurt. I also had to rescind some of my sympathy for the owner when he said business had been good all winter long, and then proceded to charge the near equivalent of Kangaroo Zoo highway robbery for our pile of frozen gummi products. When we got in the car I realized that I had really dropped the ball on all my college math training when I failed to calculate what "39 cents per ounce" really meant. It means that we paid $6.24/lb for circus animal cookies, white chocolate chips and gummi worms, that's what.

Later we made Eliza a really lovely birthday cake. Lovely, according to our newly 3 year old means pink, hearts and M+Ms. She showed her approval by digging in for a taste test long before dessert time.

The next day we had a tea party birthday bash for Sage and Eliza. (They wanted a princess party, but I just couldn't do it.) My neighbor loaned me all sorts of beautiful table decor, and we set up a fancy tea party/lunch on the front lawn.
Here's Eliza after she served herself a pile of about 20 lemon drops (before tasting one).

You would not believe how much better cheese tastes when it's painstakingly cut into star shapes.
What's a of party without a bunch of olives? Because we are just classy like that!
Mark made a neat 4-layer cake for the girls.
If the truth be known, I deserve at least most of the credit for the fact that it was 4 layers. I wanted a thin sheet cake, so I mixed up what I thought was half the package and cooked it. The result truly deserved to be called a "sheet" cake because it was as thin as a pancake. After a little improv and another "half" of a cake mix, it ended up with four layers.

And lest you think I'm rambling about a cake, and who cares anyway, the answer is, you're right. Eliza did not care. She did not eat one piece of her birthday cake. She was too busy smearing herself in her new present--a makeup kit. I'm not sure if she's trying to keep her lipstick from smearing in the picture below, or if she was just irritated that I made her stop beautifying herself for a ten second photo shoot. I wonder if pink is really her color, though.


And this little girl played in the grass (in her PJs) during the entire party. And for the record, I'm not sure if that pink forehead is from Eliza's makeup kit, or a little nose dive. I was busy snitching olives and cheese stars.