We had a party planned for Eva. We were going to go to her favorite park with lots of family and friends. We were going to have cake and ice cream and do lots and lots of playing at the playground. Except. My grandpa passed away...and that changed everything. Last week we scrambled to cancel her party (hopefully no one showed up at the park waiting for us), and we decided rather than postponing we'd just stay in the cities for an extra day and give Eva a whole birthday day with Grammy and Grampa and her aunt, uncle, and cousin. Which kind of morphed into almost two days of birthday fun. Ready for the pictures? No really--are you ready? Because I think this is a new high on the photo count for me. You should maybe go get a snack or something before you start...
Saturday was Eva's actual birthday, and her day started early with streamers and balloons and a special (Eva-requested and designed) birthday crown. As a surprise, I made a little one for Ducka too.
That morning was also the day we buried Gramps' ashes, so we spent the morning in the cemetery, but then we were off to begin the birthday festivities. We had lunch (yummy pizza!) with Eva's cousin Sebastian and his mama and daddy.
After lunch, we made a quick stop at a party store so the birthday girl could pick out a couple balloons. And, after a chain of ridiculous events, Daddy ran back into the party store five minutes later to buy new balloons to replace the ones that flew out the car window.
<<<pause for a birthday nap>>>
We spent the evening at "Grammy's Playground." And then Eva asked (very sweetly) to please go to McDonald's for dinner. So chicken nuggets it was.
You'd think that would be enough birthday fun for anyone, but we hadn't even gotten started. We all headed home to get a good night's sleep so we could get up early to enjoy the "Birthday Day" we'd planned for Sunday. Click below if you're not yet tired of birthday pictures...
The next morning, we headed to Como Zoo with Grammy and Grampa to spend the morning with the animals. We met Eva's Uncle Dicky, Auntie Alix, and cousin Sebastian there (you can go here to see the day's events from Sebastian's viewpoint--you know, in case there aren't enough pictures here for you).
Here's Eva and Grammy, practicing their seal claps at the seal show:
We brought a picnic lunch with us, and spent a relaxing hour or so lounging in the park. (Baby belly.)
After lunch, Grammy sent the kids (and most of us big kids, too!) on the carousel. Eva was a little nervous at first (rightly so--that thing goes FAST), but by the end of the ride she'd decided she LOVES carousels. I had to distract her to get her off of the thing.
After our ride, Sebastian headed home with his parents for a nap, and the rest of us continued on to visit a children's bookstore that Eva's been waiting and waiting to go to: Wild Rumpus bookstore. It's a magical place, filled with books and animals, including (but not limited to) a tarantula, a lizard, chinchillas, rabbits, parakeets, rats, three manx cats (tail-less), and a cute little chicken that runs around the bookstacks all day long. Eva was in heaven (as was her mama).
After the bookstore, we headed home to grill dinner...and to enjoy the most ridiculous birthday cake ever created. We'd taken Eva to the (best in the world) cake store the day before to help pick out her cake (I wasn't in the frame of mind to make one this year). She charmed the aprons off the nice ladies who work there, and they made Eva her dream cake: Ducks and Kitties, together at last. I laughed so hard when we picked it up, because they didn't leave one single space uncovered. Behold:
Epic, no? Eva thought so:
She let her cousin help clean the frosting off the ducks.
Next up: presents! Mike and I gave her a cradle for her dolls ducks. It's a cradle my dad built for me when I was little, and I made a new mattress, pillow, and blanket for it. Eva immediately knew what to do.
The evening ended outside, where Eva and Sebastian tried out the play tent that Grammy and Grampa gave Eva. You can see how tuckered out the little birthday girl was by this point:
And I'm tuckered out reliving it here. Geez. It was a great day (and a half) for all of us, I think--we all really needed to have some fun after spending three days in funeral mode. The only problem is, we might be in trouble when it comes to her fourth birthday. I hope she doesn't expect us to top this one!
If you're still reading, you deserve a medal. Or some cake. Come on over, we've got extra!
