Birthday Party Away

Today started like just about any other day, provided any other day starts with Ginger and Catherine attending early church and then all of us driving down to Richmond to attend a Birthday party for Quinn.


If you were wondering what the theme for the party was going to be, you really haven't been paying close attention for the past year or so. All the little party favors and what not were NASCAR based.


Ginger's grandmother recently fell and broke her hip, so she can't really travel. That's why we decided to move Quinn's birthday party down to Richmond, so she would be able to attend.


The helmet face masks were obviously made for smaller kids. That's just what I need, something that draws even more attention to my nose and makes it look even bigger. And with the mask on it looks like I have no mouth (some people are probably already hoping I start wearing it full time).


Quinn got a couple of different gifts, like this insanely large pool table. Thanks a lot Nana for giving him that. I can't wait to try and find room for that in the basement somewhere.


Even though he didn't say it, it certainly appeared as if his favorite gift of the day was a lightsaber he got from Grammy and Pop pop. I'll be honest, I'm not positive this is a smart gift. Any gift where the goal is to smack someone else around with a stick is dubious at best in my mind. It's odd how Quinn knows so much about Star Wars and lightsabers. It's not like we've ever let him watch the movie (at least not yet, now that he's six, seems like that's something he could probably handle), so he's just getting his information from other kids at school.


We've already informed Quinn that he can only play with the lightsaber against other adults and only outside. He already accidentally smacked Catherine today when he got a little animated while playing with his Uncle JJ's Wii game system. And after being on the receiving end of Quinn and his lightsaber, I really don't want him hitting Catherine, even if it's just 'playing'. It's not like he intentionally hurts you, but his wild swings have a lot of force behind them (no pun intended). He's obviously inexperienced in the ways of the force, employing the rarely used Berserker Jedi style of raw energy and emotion versus cultivated skill.


And I haven't mentioned much about Catherine, but she was there too. And it's amazing how devious Catherine is for only being four years old. Quinn already knew he was going to get a lightsaber because Grammy and Pop pop been him they were getting him one. But Ginger, Catherine and myself were the ones that actually bought it. At lunch Ginger had told Quinn he was getting a pink lightsaber. And with no coaching Catherine started playing along completely and telling him that yes, she had helped pick out a pink lightsaber for him. Of course that practically caused Quinn to have a meltdown and Catherine went over and comforted him and told him not to worry, they had really gotten him a green one.


No one puts Catherine in the corner. Well, except maybe Catherine. I don't remember what was going on at this point, but suddenly she got really shy and went and hid in the corner.


On the way we ran into more than a bit of traffic. It took us an hour to go about five miles. Ironically it appears that we were slowed down because of NASCAR. The NASCAR race in Richmond yesterday was rained out, so they rescheduled the race for today. And even though we tried to leave Richmond to head home about three hours after the race ended, we were still stuck in the race's exit traffic. I tried explaining to Ginger that I used to have to sit in traffic like this on a regular basis back when I was visiting her in Richmond prior to us getting married. Somehow that didn't end up garnering me as much sympathy as I thought it would.

After being in the car for an hour and a half, the kids finally fell asleep (I was worried for a while they were going to stay awake the entire trip). Catherine took the longest to fall asleep, because she claimed she wouldn't be able to sleep with the seat belt on her shoulder, so I fixed that problem by putting teddy is under the seat belt between her shoulder and the seat belt. Teddy is a stuffed animal she's had forever, but never really cared about, and now just yesterday she started insisting on taking teddy with her.