A GREAT weekend!

We just survived an exhausting but super fun weekend! For those not in the know, Kai turns THREE on Tuesday and this weekend we celebrated with his first "official" birthday party. We rented an indoor soccer turf where a bouncy house and other toys for active little people were set up. Kai and 8 of his little friends got to run wild while the parents got to chat while supervising and we all enjoyed a meal of lukewarm pizza, salad, toddler food (aka cheese, fruit and juice boxes) and the delicious cake pictured below :-)

Once again we baked Grandma Barb's tried and true chocolate zucchini cake and it did not disappoint. And Daddy once again came through in the artistic department with an excellent rendition of Lightning McQueen (no, it's not red but we didn't think the parents would appreciate a generous helping of Red No 4). The night before the party the grown ups (Daddy, Mommy and Granddad who drove down for the big event) stayed up late baking, decorating, stuffing treat bags and potting seedlings (we decided to do an Earth Day theme of potted seedlings for the treat bags).

Unfortunately, we didn't snap too many photos of the actual event as we discovered that supervising our own two kidlets, setting up the food, and visiting with our guests kept us busy enough, even with a Granddad on hand.

Here is our little Buds clutching one of his presents. The concept of presents has really taken root for Kai now and whenever he hears someone say something about a present he gets a pining tone to his voice and says "Runner wants a present!" This weekend he was not disappointed as his little friends were more than excited to hand him his birthday gifts. It was neat to see him return the favor the following day when we attended another birthday party and he carefully carried the gift on his lap as we drove over and held it tight until he was able to turn it over to its rightful owner, the birthday girl.

Runner loves his cake and here he is making sure the crumbs don't go to waste!

In true Kai fashion, the gift opening took more than one day. Here he is the next morning opening one of his cards. He really likes cards and opened each one, announcing "there's a card in there!" with genuine surprise! I managed to catch one of those moments in pixels but unfortunately missed the top of his head.

Spending time with Granddad was an extra special part of the weekend. Here is Kai getting some bedtime "cuggles" and tickles from Granddad. After the party on Saturday afternoon Dad and I got out for a 25 mile bike ride. We didn't plan to dress up like Team Pearl Harbor Cycling Club, honest. Seriously though, it was a great afternoon for a ride and I thought it was pretty cool that my Dad, who doesn't get the chance to ride much, could hop on a bike and hammer out a 25 mile ride like it was nothing.

A final highlight of the weekend was finding a FREE kids' size Gary Fisher mountain bike while we were out for a stroll. Someone actually threw one out for the garbage! We grabbed it b/c even if our kids don't end up using it, it would make a great donation for some kiddo somewhere. Granddad spotted it as he and Kai went for a run (Kai actually run/walked almost 2 miles today!) And just to prove how sleep deprivation damages the brain, when Granddad said to me "Did you see that Gary Fisher?" I actually responded with "is that a bird?" I'm sorry fellow fat tire friends; I hang my head in shame ;-) When Greg arrived home and saw our "find" in the garage he just shook his head .... that brings our bicycle stable count to TEN!