The Weekend Update

It's been a busy weekend as usual, so let's start at the beginning.

Yesterday, Flamingo Joe went roller skating. He's been under a lot of stress and roller skating helps him to relax.

He did take a couple a few kids with him to give him credibility. They had fun, too.

It was Ben and Kate's first time skating. Ben did pretty well, but Kate . . .

Kate is a roller skating diva! She got frustrated because her wheels were too tight, so we got them switched out with some looser ones and she skated and skated and skated until the very end. Mace, on the other hand, lasted about 10 or 15 minutes longer than he did last week and then pulled me back to the carpet so he could run around in his socks.

So after skating yesterday afternoon, it was the usual Saturday afternoon prep work for Coffeehouse and then Coffeehouse itself. This morning, we went to church (the highlight of which, depending on your perspective, is the video at the end of this post).

And then (brace yourself) it was time for Mace's 3rd birthday party. For the past month, he's been telling everyone who could understand him, "My bud'day comin' up!" And it came -- officially it came yesterday, but the party itself was today.

Flamingo Joe was in charge of decorations, so he took that to mean that we needed 80 balloons blown up with the air compressor:

The photo above reflects only a small cross-section of the total number of balloons blown up for the party.

The esteemed party guests included Dez (who came even though she has pneumonia), Adam and Lucas (and their mother Ahlem), and Mace's girlfriend/babysitter, Sweet Kari.

I was in charge of the cake. I'm always in charge of the cake, actually. I've decided that I'm always in charge of the cake because I'm the only one willing to spend three hours making the cake and only succeeding in creating something both attractive and edible in one out of six attempts. This year, I did not use salted butter in the buttercream frosting; so, as opposed to my last attempt at buttercream frosting (click here for: catastrophic salted buttercream fiasco), we could actually eat the cake.

Most importantly, Mace could actually tell what the cake was supposed to be . . . maybe you can, too (but don't tell me if you can't or I'll cry -- that's already three hours of my life I'll never get back):

Don't laugh . . . that's Thomas' good side. We're definitely not in any danger of Thomas the Tank Engine's lawyers suing us for trademark infringement anytime soon. But Mace thought he was very cheeky even though he didn't have a nose or, for that matter, cheeks.

We had to sing Happy Birthday twice and have Mace blow out the candles twice 'cause Flamingo Joe (who was also in charge of taking the pictures) didn't quite catch the candle-blowing-out the first time. Mace now thinks you get everything double at birthday parties. He opened two or three presents twice -- but that was mainly because he didn't seem to understand that once all the presents were unwrapped, there were just no more presents. He kept trying to negotiate for more presents, "Jus' one more?" -- and he'd hold up his #1 finger for emphasis -- "Jus' one?".

The one real problem with making black icing for a birthday cake is the goth-tinged pictures you get during the present-opening phase of the big event:

And perhaps you were wondering, like I was, just why Flamingo Joe decided we needed 80 balloons blown up for the party.

Wasn't learning to shoot a BB gun the perfect ending to your 3 year birthday party?

As promised, here is the video highlight from church this morning. Please forgive the camera angle, I couldn't get Casey to turn and face the congregation. And during the second time through when we get to the chorus, I was just as surprised as you will be that Casey dropped down to sing the harmony part I'd never taught him.