Spunky Stories and Monkey Tales: Happy Birthday Kate!!

*Quick un-birthday related Update*

I talked to Roy- our friendly neighborhood officer guy/ keeper of tall grass/code enforcer/whatever Apparently our property line most likely goes back beyond our fence and it's now officially our responsibility to keep that area free of tall grass and weeds. He said he sent out letters to other houses in the neighborhood and someone had complained because it was causing there to be too many mosquitoes. Hmmm I'm no insect expert- but I thought mosquito populations increased when there were areas of standing water. That's not what's lurking behind our fence. Since Roy seemed like a nice guy I didn't argue with him and just said we were doing what we could to take care of it and would try to have it cleared by next Tuesday. And you know by we I mean Daniel. Anyway...

So yesterday was our little socialite's 5th birthday. We had the very best intentions to have a Mother/Daughter shopping day of fun in the big city with a tagalong baby that she keeps requesting I dress in girly clothing. (I think someone isn't quite over not getting a sister.) I was going to get up, get her breakfast in bed, get all of us ready, pick up the house, bake a cake, wrap presents, and get to the city no later then 1:00. Sounds totally do-able right?

Oh so wrong. Life is harder when you have 2. Especially when one of the 2 is in a "I want to stare lovingly into Mommy's eyes all the time and/or eat" phase. I am proud to say that I got all of the above accomplished. We just didn't technically get out of town until 3:30. No real need to mention that the birthday girl herself had to come in and wake me up at 9:30 to remind me I was supposed to bring her breakfast in bed- but I will.

But I hurried around and to her excitement presented her with a watermelon tray with a pancake and fresh pineapple.

So we finally headed off to the city with a quick pit-stop for gas and drinks. I am happy to report that we were able to stop by a few stores and find my large and in charge baby some summer clothes that fit him- and bonus they were all on sale! Here he is rocking his leg rolls in a new outfit from Baby Gap.

We were sorely disappointed at the lack of sale clothing for Kate and ran out of time before we could look at other stores for some back to school clothes for her. She's in a "not remotely interested" phase in terms of clothing. Last year you had to go through approval before we bought something or she wouldn't wear it. Now she doesn't want to talk about it. I'm sure this will change dramatically in a few years. She picked out some giant panda earrings- but Daniel vetoed those and ended up just getting a new umbrella from Gymboree because she recently discovered what happens when you sit on your umbrella while it's open. She's currently angling towards using some of her birthday money on some more of this new Strawberry Shortcake toy line they have at Target.

We had a tasty dinner at the Japanese Steakhouse at a table with a couple having an Anniversary dinner away from their 4 girls (one of them only being a day younger than Aidan)- who I'm sure were SO excited to be seated next to people with children, and 2 people visiting from China who surprisingly had never been to a Japanese Steakhouse before. Hmm. It was a good time and after a short moping session and me following my daughter's advice on "You'll never get something if you don't ask," she had an fancy umbrella for her Sprite.