Kid Stuff: PJ's Long Weekend of Jubilee

PJ's long weekend of jubilee has concluded.

The celebration began on Thursday night, at the elementary school "Read and Treat."

Pictured below:  PJ and his friend, T.  T is in a Rangers jersey.  The less said about last Thursday night and the Rangers, the better.

Storybook parade was Friday, followed by lunch, followed by PJ's cupcake classroom party celebration.  THIS is PJ's cupcake cake:

Funny thing about our school district and Halloween:  if possible, they are more tolerant about the inclusion of Christian imagery in December "holiday" celebrations than they are of - well, anything scarier than pumpkins during October.  So I had to expend actual brain cells locating plates, napkins, etc., that would pass muster.  I settled on solid purple plates and black napkins with neon-colored spiders on neon-colored strings.  I figured that, if asked, I could finesse the plates with a simple "We cheer for TCU" - and the napkins with a "We're big into entomology."

Then I found the cake, which had spiders on it, and everything fell into place.  Cake was a big hit - with PJ's classmates, at least.  I'm sure that more than one of their parents was cursing my name that evening, on account of all of the lime green icing stains on their kid's uniform shirts

Whoops.

This is PJ enjoying his outdoor cupcake party with his friend Josiah.  They are in missing man formation, as their friend Dylan moved to Austin over the summer.  Funny story:  when I asked them to pose for me, as Josiah was putting his arm around PJ's shoulder he said, "Hey, Parker?  Remember Dylan?"  Apparently, posing for a picture together reminds them of Dylan, just as I am reminded of him when I photograph them.

Because I photographed the three of them a LOT.

No, I did not ask them to smile that way. 

Saturday morning, PJ requested birthday pancakes.  So we had birthday pancakes.

And then we - well, he - built a couch fort.  And the dog got inside of it with him.

Mom, Big Bro and Birthday Boy then said our goodbyes to said dog, and other pets, and Dad (who had a headache and looked like he REALLY needed a nap). First stop: a local pumpkin retailer. Second stop: the Museum of Science and History, which was Birthday Boy's pick over a Boo at the Zoo trip. (Hallelujah, said Mom. You just KNOW that the zoo had to be crowded on the second-to-last day of Boo at the Zoo season.)

We made it as far as the Fun With Physics Room.  (Okay, so that's technically not its name.  Neither is Giant Boy-Magnet Room.  But that would be equally accurate.)  Here is Birthday Boy playing with a beach ball and learning about wind shear, or some such.

Here we are testing out a wind tunnel with our own head.

Brother had to get into the act as well.

Then we built airplanes.

Then we tested airplanes using this little launcher thingie.

We stopped for a late lunch in the museum cafeteria, where Birthday Boy chowed down on pizza, curly fries and that dirt pudding stuff with the gummi worms on top.

Could you deny junk food to that face on his birthday?  Didn't think so.

On to Dino Dig:

"Can I get my arm all of the way through this hole?"

"Yes, I can."  (Note:  "Thumb up" is, apparently, Birthday Boy's signature move.  I catch it on film A LOT lately.)

Big Brother took it upon himself to completely excavate a bone, in order to ascertain if they really were cemented into the ground.  (Answer:  Yes, they are.)

(Fairly sure that sound paleontological practice does not include standing on a fossil while you're digging it out.  But having established that the "fossil" in question was a cement replica firmly tethered to terra firma, I suppose we're okay.)

Ta da.

Saturday evening was capped off with takeout hamburgers from Dutch's, cupcakes from J Rae's and PRESENTS - many of them Batman-related (surprise).



We actually take the time to read the cards now.  This is a new development.  Last year, we were still tossing them on the floor as soon as we confirmed that they did not contain money.

Ace enjoyed watching the gift unwrapping - from the back of Nana's sofa.

Yum.  J Rae's.  By the way, he picked pumpkin spice for his special birthday cupcake (the one that we topped with candles spelling out his initials).   Love the fact that my younger child shares my affinity for spice-flavored stuff.  They both do, actually, which is really weird given how picky the older child is.  But give 'em a snickerdoodle or gingerbread anything, and they're happy as clams.

This is our Y chromosome version of the Barbie Dream House:

The high-rise portion was a birthday gift from Dad and me.  The low-rise portion is old and accompanied us when we moved.

Clayface was a gift from the great-grandma:

Love Clayface.  You would, too, if you saw him in person:  his upper jaw flips up and back, revealing a hollow space inside his head.  You can store an Imaginext hero, plus his gear, in Clayface's cranium which is totally cool, because it means that at least one tiny hero will be safe from the orally fixated menace that is Ace the Batdog.  

Nana and Granddad got him a samurai playset - and Parker immediately decided that the dude below was the Liam Neeson version of Ra's al Ghul and, therefore, was wholly compatible with the Bat Cave.

I like the way you think, kid.

"Hey, Mom - let's play 'Dark Knight.'"  You betcha.  It is your birthday, after all.

Sunday we managed to avoid the zoo again.  (Yay, us.  Big fan of the zoo - when there isn't a special event going on.)  Instead, we went to see "Puss in Boots."  Two declawed Kitty Softpaws thumbs up on that one.

Monday:  Trick-or-treating.  More on that later. 

Tuesday morning heralded the beginning of November - and the end of PJ's very long weekend of birthday jubilee.   Which, based on early returns, was an unequivocal success.

Yay, us, again.