Dinner in Tokyo, or at Least Tokyo Diner

One more day until his real birthday and we had our second birthday celebration.  Since I did not invite any family, or my friends and their children to Monkey Joe's, I had to at least have my parents over.  And I invited the Hazel's as well.  Meme and Pap would not have enjoyed our choice of eatery (Meme would, not Pap) 

I told Baylor it was a surprise where we were going and who was going to meet us there.  In typical Thatcher fashion, he guessed where we were going and who was meeting us there. Of course I don't have a good poker face so he said he knew he was right when I would smile.  

We love Tokyo Diner and loved sharing it with our family.  The kids sat in the middle, my parents on one end and Heather and I on the other.  We had another couple join us at the table as well.  The kids did great and had a good time together.  

They bought Baylor a Star Wars shirt and RC Jurassic truck.  He loved them both. 

Baylor was most excited about the onion volcano, which is always impressive!  It did not fail to disappoint anyone.

The kids all used the cheater chopsticks and Baylor was keen to show his cousins how to use them to eat rice.  

I had mentioned when we arrived that is was Baylor's birthday and the brought the kids a pineapple with whipped cream. It must have been a good one because the three of them ate it all!  

Love these kids!!  And that they get along so well and love to be together.  

Heather had to run to Ollie's and was going to join us for cake and coffee later.  Mom and Dad bought him a tee shirt, a Stormtropper winter hat, and the Jurassic World DVD. 

 Needless to say, he was totally stoked to get the DVD.  

I let the kids pick the frosting for their personal chocolate cakes and they blew out candles.  It was another good day celebrating my little guy,  

Monkey Joe's Party

It is that magical time of year again when we do all we can to celebrate the birth of my super, awesome, and amazing son.  And I get to make his birthday cake dreams come true.  This year he asked for a chocolate Jurassic cake.  He wanted one with the printed edible icing but I waited too long to look for one and none of the store bakeries had any Jurassic cakes.  And it was too late to order one online.  So we discussed it and decided for a more realistic cake top with his toy dinos and plastic trees.  We decorated the top of the cake together.  We made grass edging, a nest for the ovaraptor, lots of chocolate rocks and candy bones left over from Halloween decoration.  Because with dinosaurs, there must be bones. He enjoyed helping me to decorated it. 

This grass should make for some interesting tongues.  

The party was at Monkey Joe's and was pretty pricey so we went with the smallest group plan, 8 kids including the birthday child, and encouraged him to stick to the kids he was really close to at school and that we could invite without having to send invited to school.  The party was 2 to 4 so I would not have to buy their ridiculously expensive pizza.  I did spring for a bowl of chips and a bowl of pretzels.  We had two no's and one no RSVP who did not show.  Caden brought his brother and I had his mom sign him in as a guest so she would not have the pay extra for him.  When we arrived Kartikay was there waiting for us.  They were sweet to come for a bit as they were waiting for the party before heading to NJ to celebrate Diwali, Indian New Year, with their family.  The reason Baylor wanted his party here is so he can sit in the big blow up throne.  

The boys made short work of decorating the cake, jamming in the dinos and trees willy-nilly.  I think they did a fine job and they were both pleased with their work. 

And then it was back to the throne. 

I took photos of his with most of his friends in the throne, mostly to use as potential thank you card photos.  And as a good memory of the day. 

Baylor and Caden 

Landon and Curtis, they went to pre-K daycare together but were in different Kindergarten classes.  Now they are in the same First Grade and the three of them, including Baylor, are good friends. 

Monkey Joe himself came in to see the birthday boy. 

We let them play for an hour and then called them in for cake.  The only time I left the orange room was to round up the kids for cake.  

It was a rousing round of Happy Birthday after which he eventually blew out all seven candles.  

 The whole gang tried to fit on the throne and I think they did a good job.  

Then they wanted him to open his gifts. He got several nice things. 

Then they got to play for about another half hour.  It was a nice party and when the helper girl asked me if I wanted to take home the extra chips and pretzels and I of course said yes.  

All About Me Week

This week is Baylor's turn for All About Me week at school.  Friday he brought home a large poster with several places he had to fill out.  Gloria helped him while I searched for photos for him to take. 

 I read it later and teared up where he wrote I am special because: I'm a gift to my parents.  And he is!  

He also put his cousins as members of his family.  I asked him why he put them there and he said, they all know I have parents, they are a part of my family too.  And he still wants to be a paleontologist when he grow up.

The Family Tree

Either the way I see colors is off or my camera does,  when I take photos of the sky, it does not match what I see.  It is still pretty but not quite the same. 

We had an Aunts Meeting in Red Lion at DiAnn's house and I stayed afterward to paint a tree on a wall for her to make a family tree.  I had sent her photo images in the past but decided to print some more last week for further inspiration.  Something directed me to print one of a leaning branch and in the end that is what we went with as it fit the space perfectly.  Thank you to who ever on the other side inspired me, you knew exactly what we would need. I am pretty sure DiAnn's sister and niece are the two who guided me.  

We decided to add two dragonflies to the wall to represent them and were able to include some of the cobalt blue color DiAnn wanted to use.  

I see I need to get a better bra, my boobs are much lower than DiAnn's!  

She has not decided how to hang the photos but we at least have the tree done.  

While I was busy painting, poor Baylor had to entertain himself.  Sometimes someone was playing with him, like Connor when he was there.  But after that severeral of the cousins would play with him too, including DiAnn.  She helped him to make four tunnels in the sand box.  He was so proud of them he took photos to show Gloria.  We ate dinner with the family and it was nice to hang out with them, even though most of it was me standing on the step stool with a brush in my hand.  Just glad I was able to do something for her and glad we got it done! 

Yellow Slime

Baylor will randomly ask to make slime and I don't always have one cup of white glue on hand.  Well, he asked and I rounded up the glue and the borax, water and measuring cups.  He picked yellow for this slime.  

He played with it for about 10 minutes and then asked to bag it up.  I wonder how long it will be before he plays with it again because he kept saying last time it made more. Which it did not but in his head it did and made him be disappointed with it.