Three Times the Fun

This has been quite a full labor day weekend for our family, and Cruz in particular.  Yesterday, September 1st, was Cruz' actual birthday AND his birthday party. 

He had requested that the party be held at "the train park," AKA Oak Meadow.  We had briefly thought about hosting the party at our house until Cruz intervened.  Some of you might recall that this was the same venue as last year's birthday party.

Cruz had a wonderful time with many close friends, old and new.  There was the playful mayhem with the colorful octopus and fish balloons that his Auntie Jen bought.  Eventually they all ended up in the trees.  And then there was the absurdity of his "dinosaur cake."

When we had asked Cruz what he wanted on his cake, he asked for dinosaurs.  When Sue ordered the cake, that's what she requested but they tried to push on her a "branded" cake such as Barney or a Disney derivative.  Since we're philosophically against marketing aimed at children Cruz' age, we simply wanted a cake that had a picture of a dinosaur on it.  They seemed apprehensive at the idea and what we got was this:

Someone asked if it was an armadillo.  A child commented that it looked like a crocodile.  Cruz thought it funny that his dinosaur cake had a very unusual dinosaur.

Cruz also requested that he have a "bear birthday hat."  We're not entirely sure where they idea came from but Sue was able to channel her inner Martha Stewart and produced this:

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Whitney also had a great time.  She loved watching the older kids, being out in the park on a wonderful summer day, and getting plenty of attention from many new faces meeting her for the first time, or seeing her for the first time in a while. 

Some of the biggest smiles though were reserved for Rosario, our nanny, whom as you can see Whitney absolute adores.

I'll save another post for the special guests we had this weekend, who came in to celebrate Cruz' birthday.