Three days of birthday

... one for each year! How great would it be if you got to celebrate for as many days as you were years old? I could certainly use a month off every April. But Jack had been looking forward to his birthday for so long, and then it stretched out for so many days, that he woke up this morning and asked "Is it still my birthday?" Sorry buddy! All good things must come to an end!

Two days before his birthday, on birthday-eve-eve, his preschool celebrated him. Lauren his preschool-marm got him a great dino-cake (actually apparently they don't make such a thing as a dino-cake, which I can't quite believe but it's true, so she had to buy a golf cake and put her own dinos on it) and he sat there and glowed as bright as the candles while all the kids sang to him.



I love the kid in the background. That's Aden, who's just two days older than Jack, so technically this was his actual birthday, but he'd had his cake the day before, I'm not sure why. It must have been weird for him to sing happy birthday to someone whose birthday it wasn't on his own birthday. But he didn't complain. Kids don't overthink things like we do. May we all learn to be a little more like Aden.

The next day we went into the city to meet up with my friends Carolyn and Raven and baby (who is no longer a baby but a big boy!) Noah, in town from DC for Carolyn to go to a conference-- the timing of which worked out perfectly for them to join us for birthday fun! We went to see sea otters at the wharf, went to see fish at the Rainforest Cafe, ate crab, played at the beach, and enjoyed their luxurious hotel room. Sadie was 10 months old that day, I realized when someone on the bart ride over asked me how old she was.  I think this is exactly how Sadie would choose to spend her 10 month birthday, though, so it worked out.



Sadie's at the stage where she thinks eating sand is hilarious, which makes for an interesting time at the beach. Especially a city beach, where I don't think the sand is so benign. We had a fun back and forth of her trying to stuff a handful of sand in her mouth, me slapping her hand down and saying NO!, her looking at me as she picked up another handful of sand to stuff in her mouth, repeat ad nauseum. Either she doesn't understand no yet, or she just really doesn't care. I'm afraid to say I think it's the latter.

The next day was the real birthday. We got up, opened some presents, Sadie took her morning nap while I made flourless chocolate cupcakes (because what I have learned from making cake for a three-year-old is that you better like it, because however much he takes he'll only eat half of, and you hate to see food go to waste), and then we packed up the car for Half Moon Bay, where I had found the perfect place for Jack's birthday party.



The Lemos Farm had picnic tables for our feast, lots of treats for sale, playgrounds, a bouncy house, train rides, a petting zoo, a "digger zone," and one other thing that I think was the highlight of Jack's party.



I actually found this place by googling "pony ride half moon bay". Half Moon Bay because our main present to Jack this year was new baby chickens, and that's the place we get them. Pony ride, because, well, pony ride! I have never seen a smile stuck so permanently on Jack's face, or any of his friends' faces either for that matter. They all loved it. Sometimes you fret about planning something you don't have time to plan and so don't actually plan anything until the week before and then stumble into something wonderful. And that was the best present of all.  Actually, no, my kids are the best present of all.



So we could've stayed there all day, but we still had chickens to get! Meet Sweetie and Tweetie, our new red leghorn chicks.



Jack named them himself (with a little help from Grandad). He is so excited about them. I think he is a much better age to appreciate raising an animal than he was when we got the first set of chickens-- which was just a bit older than Sadie is now, actually. So maybe Sadie will have to get some chickens for her third birthday, too. That seems to be a good schedule. We haven't yet figured out what's happening to the last set of chickens. Will we try to integrate the flock? Will we have them for dinner, as originally planned? We'll have to decide pretty quick! But for now, we have some very cute peeping creatures hanging out on our washing machine in a box that is already too small for them.

After a day (or three) like this, presents almost seem like too much. But he did get presents. And they all followed a certain theme:



Dinos dinos dinos! (And a crocodile.) And now we know that chickens come from dinos, too! So it all makes sense. Happy dino birthday, Jacksasaurus! I can't believe you're three.