Despite the fact he shared his birthday weekend with Mother's Day, we gave Peter reasonably free reign over the weekend's activities and were not at all surprised with our results. Burritos for dinner and lunch; a visit to Grammy and Poppy's house; watching a soccer game; and National Train Day.
Birthdays (and other holidays) still remain very small affairs in our family, celebrated to be sure but in small ways, not large. I was a bit disappointed when Peter began asking about the birthday presents he'd receive (mostly because...eh...he wasn't getting any?), but it seems a natural conclusion given that we celebrate our friends' birthdays with gifts galore.
So for his birthday he had: a puzzle, hidden under the futon, because someone had woken a bazillion times the night before and I didn't have a chance to wrap it; a birthday bunting; an ice-cream cake; and National Train Day.
National Train Day was kind of a bust, although we're always looking for good train trips and this one was easy-peasy, cottage-cheesy (as the kids say). It was at 30th Street Station, which is the main train station for Philadelphia and remained busy despite the Train Day activities.
Big hits: the drumline; the train ride to the city; watching Lucy trying to attack the costumed Reese's Cup and Hershey Bar men. (She hit them, on several occasions, before I willed myself to step between them. She did it to be funny - and it was hilarious - but also so very inappropriate. At least we know she's not afraid of costumes.)
Not such a big hit: all the crowds; the long lines on the trains we could tour*; and the overwhelming distractedness of the soft pretzel store upstairs, which Lucy had spotted and then asked about every three minutes. "I want a pretzel. I want a pretzel. I want a pretzel." I should note that she was eating a pretzel (of the hard stick variety) when she spotted the stand, threw the pretzel to the train station floor, and said, "I WANT THAT." This girl, she knows what she wants.
Biggest hits of all: FUNCTIONING TRAIN BATHROOMS. Lucy insisted on trying every one she found. The popcorn machine, which Kevin remembered from last year. He made sure he was the first one in line when Train Day officially opened. (Lucy noted, "we've never had YELLOW popcorn before!!!") The soft pretzel stand, where the kids ordered cinnamon pretzels and buttery pretzels and Kevin and I had to stuff a dozen in our mouths to keep the kids from eating all of them. Yes, had to.
At home, we all enjoyed the ice cream cake I made**, complete with fancy-schamncy train decorations.***
Sunday we visited Grammy and Poppy in New Jersey. Of note:
- Peter and Lucy talked all morning about visiting with their cousins Connor and Matt at their soccer game. When they finally made it to the soccer game, they suddenly became shy and reserved. I realized that Connor and Matt are almost like celebrities for the kids. At any rate, I'm thankful the older boys took our children's well-intentioned but annoying affection well, and I'm hopeful none of the thousands of leaves Peter dumped on Matt's head were actually poison ivy.
- I made a completely inedible cake to serve for Peter's birthday, and I didn't even healthy it up. I think the only thing eaten was the whipped cream, and that I did healthy up with the grass-fed non-homogenized whipping cream.
*It was exactly like standing up in the airplane aisle way waiting to deplane. Awesome, right?
**You can make your own: melt a gallon of vanilla ice cream. Pour half in a container, put chocolate chips and crushed cookies in the middle, put the other ice cream atop, cover with more chocolate chips and, if you're feeling fancy, some whipped cream. Oh-la-la.
***Oh-so-fancy: Internet clip-art and construction paper with toothpicks taped to the back.
Comments