Catherine's Birthday Party

Today is Catherine's birthday party. We decided to just have a small celebration with a couple family members versus a big party with kids from her school. Ginger's point of view is we didn't do a big party for Quinn until he was four, and Catherine is young enough that she doesn't really care about other people being there. My point of view is it's cheaper (come on, like that surprises any of you).

Quinn still needed to buy a present for Catherine today, and I needed mini baking cups for cupcakes. So Quinn and I took a quick trip to the store this morning before everyone showed up. We stopped by Food Lion first to get the baking cups, but they didn't have the mini ones. At least I don't think they did. We couldn't locate any among the regular baking cup area, and when I asked at the checkout if they had the mini ones it was like talking to the CVS pharmacy lady all over again:

     Me: Do you have any of the mini
         baking cups? Like these but
         smaller.
Cashier: You want another one of those?
     Me: No, miniature baking cups.
         These are regular size. Smaller
         ones. *uses hands to illustrate
         point*
Cashier: You want a package with less
         cups?
     Me: *Sigh*

Luckily the customer that was in front of me heard my conversation as she was leaving and came back to inform me that Michaels had them. So we walked over to Michaels and got the cups (and yes, they get link pimpage because they had the cups, and their cashiers knew exactly what I was talking about when I asked and directed me right to them). After that it was off to Toys 'R Us for Quinn to pick out a present for Catherine. Unfortunately he apparently had his heart set on buying her this Disney Princess Harp. It was $30, which was a little more than I was hoping to spend (okay, give to him and have him spend), but when he told me he wanted to get it for her because he knew she would love it, I broke down and bought it. Curse me for being a sentimental fool.

Once we got home Catherine and I started baking the cupcakes. She likes to help mix the ingredients, but gets bored about the time you have to put the batter into the bins. All the guests arrived (Grammy, Pop Pop, Grandmaw, Uncle JJ and Nana) while the cupcakes were baking. Around that time Ginger and Quinn wrapped the harp he bought her. And then shortly thereafter we all headed out to eat (I know regular readers of this blog are shocked that Ginger's Mom came to visit and we went out to eat). We went to Artie's, which is the restaurant next to where I (and some fellow friends) used to bowl back in the really old days. Quinn loves to go out to eat with his Uncle JJ because JJ always brings his Nintendo DS. We heard nary a peep from Quinn the entire meal. Except for a couple of times when he got indignant that I had the audacity to eat a couple of french fries off his plate. Both kids hate the chicken at Artie's, so Ginger had stopped by KFC and got popcorn chicken to replace the chicken in the kid meals there. I ended up eating the chicken from the kid's dinners that they didn't eat (I also had the Lobster Bisque, which I can heartily recommend if you happen to go there).

After lunch we headed back home, and Catherine's birthday party began in earnest. Quinn gave Catherine the present he got for her, and shockingly actually stopped playing the Nintendo DS long enough to watch her open it. Catherine got lamps, clothes, Calico Critters, and more Disney Princess stuff than I thought China capable of producing. Quinn also got a couple of presents. I don't necessarily buy into this idea that siblings should get presents on a child's birthday, but I was an only child, so what do I know. Anyway, Quinn got some "Rescue Hero" toys (which he just absolutely loved) and a Nascar Nintendo game (that's probably a little too hard for him, and sadly too hard for me also).



Then came the cakes. There are multiple cakes because Ginger bakes a chocolate cake for the kid's birthday's and I bake them (yellow) cupcakes (and Ginger makes the icing). This has been a tradition for about as long as I can remember. So Catherine got a cake and cupcakes, each with 3 candles on them. After that we ended the present giving with Catherine getting her 'big' present. Which was an activity center from Ginger's parents. It includes a desk, easel, chalkboard, puppet theater and a toy storage piece (all of this Ginger and I assembled the night before). The other big present was from us (Ginger did all the work getting it). We gave her a bunch of stackable plastic drawers and filled all the drawers with things for Catherine to use on the activity table (crayons, markers, paint, pencils, etc).

After all our guests left the kids quickly got shuffled upstairs to go to bed. No nap for them again today, and they weren't in bed till almost 8:30. They're going to be hurting something fierce tomorrow (actually, so will I more than likely considering how late I'm up and how long I've gone on writing this). Once the kids were down, I watched another "Colbert Report", then Ginger came down and we watched "Chicken Run" (good movie, it was Ginger's first time seeing it). After that Ginger went to get some sleep, and I watched this week's "Justice League Unlimited". This was (in my opinion) one of the best episodes so far this season. I really hope people are watching this (last chance, the show has been effectively cancelled, so this is the last season) because it's really well done. Tonight's episode had the Big Three (Supes, Bats and Wonder Woman) plus guest star Deadman. If you didn't see it and have any interest in watching it, let me know.

I tried another sunset shot tonight since I had such good luck last night with no planning. Apparently if I have time to prepare, it just doesn't turn out as good.