Happy Birthday!

Normally I would reserve my blog posts to the exclusivity of what’s happening with baby A and baby B, but since my birthday is coming up, I’m going to go off course a bit and tell you about my weekend. Because it was AWESOME!

Technically, my birthday isn’t until this Saturday, but with my brother and sister-in-law coming to stay with us, the family BBQ (at which we will finally announce the genders!) and celebrating my youngest step daughter’s birthday, it didn’t leave much room for anything else. So my darling husband said we would celebrate the weekend before.

Saturday started out usual enough. Kevin did his morning “computing” (this is a weekend ritual during which he checks his Facebook, e-mail, watches videos and generally just checks up on what’s going on in the world) while I ate breakfast, then he headed outside to mow and trim the lawn. I did my usual, too, and cleaned up the house and started some laundry. I know, I know. Maybe we’re filling the stereotypical gender roles, but I’m perfectly ok doing the inside chores while he works on the outside stuff. Besides…I think I’m better at it anyway. Just kidding, Kevin. Mostly.

After the chores were all done, we took a well-deserved nap. After finally waking up, we headed off to the local Arts Festival. Ah, the Arts Festival. We walked around and looked at all the artisan’s booths – everything from paintings made from human blood to functional airplanes made from old soda cans. There was so much to see! We watched a musical performance by some local kids playing on some improvised percussion instruments: Items like old paint buckets, glass casserole dish lids, metal pots and plastic bins. It was really cool and definitely took some talent! We watched a demonstration where an audience volunteer got to make a glass egg, then we got ourselves something to eat. After stuffing ourselves silly, we headed up to the stage and sat on the grass while the Cuban musicians played. There were some people dancing the salsa in front of us. One of the guys took his shoes off and left them off to the side. We REALLY wanted to steal his shoes and watch him look for them. But in the end, we just didn’t have the guts. We had a good laugh thinking about it, though.

The next day, we started the morning the lazy way. We slept in, hung around in our pajamas and cuddled on the couch. I went to the store and did some grocery shopping because we’ve been out of decent food for weeks. I loaded up on my fruits and even snuck in a few vegetables. After I got home, we put everything away and then got ready for the day (yep, I went grocery shopping without showering and I even sported a lazy ponytail…I’m already on my way to mom-hood!). Here is the part related to the pregnancy: It took me FOREVER to find something that fit! I was on the verge of tears because I was too fat for all my old, cute clothes but I was too little to wear all the cute maternity stuff I got from my sister in law. I finally found an outfit (after help from my husband) and we were able to leave the house.

This day was my “birthday surprise” date, so I didn’t know what we were doing until we got there. I’ve been wanting to go to our local aquarium for a long time, and was pleasantly surprised when that was where we ended up! We spent a couple of hours looking at all the creatures and had so much fun! I think my favorite part was the coral reef stuff. We even got to see the octopus out and about. It was awesome!

After the aquarium adventure, we stopped by the gas station to get ourselves something to drink, then headed to the park to hang out at the drum circle. If you don’t know what a drum circle is, imagine yourself travelling back in time to the early 70’s and hanging out with some hippies. That’s basically the drum circle. People from all walks of life gather together, some of them bring instruments like drums, bongos, guitars, shakers or whatever and just play. There are also people who bring these big hula hoop things and “dance” with them. A recent addition we noticed yesterday were baton throwers. They looked like the flame kind, but were not lit at the time. We did notice there were some fire trucks there, though, so maybe the flames came after dark…

The “people watching” at events like this is priceless. Your eyes are really opened to all kinds of people and events. If nothing else, it stirs interesting conversation.

We left the drum circle and headed to this restaurant I’ve been wanting to try for years: The Melting Pot. This place is a high-end fondue restaurant and is also snooty enough to require reservations in advance. Although this part of the date wasn’t exactly a surprise, I was still thrilled to be going. When we got there, I (of course) had to use the restroom. When I came out and they showed us to our table, there were 4 happy balloons on the table waiting for us! If you have known me for longer than 6 minutes, you know how much I love balloons. They are the ultimate happy maker. I believe world peace could be attained simply by giving bunches of balloons to all the world leaders. Instant peace and joy.

We started off with a most delicious cheddar fondue served with apples, bread and vegetables. Then, we had our house salad followed by the main course. We weren’t exactly sure how the “cooking style” worked, but soon figured it out. They provide a brothy-type sauce and a few fondue skewers. You stab the meats and veggies you want to eat (salmon, filet mignon, etc) and let them cook in the pot for a few minutes until they’re done. This seemed wildly unsafe to us, as they were putting the responsibility of cooking in our laps, but we got the hang of it pretty quickly.

After the main course, we were given a chocolate fondue menu to choose from for the dessert. OMG. So many awesome options. After much deliberation, we finally decided on the Yin & Yang: a combination of dark chocolate and white chocolate, brought in the shape of a Yin & Yang. We dipped Rice Krispie treats, cheesecake, brownies, marshmallows, strawberries and bananas and it was SOOO GOOOOOD. I wanted to keep eating and eating and eating, but alas, I was one bite away from exploding all over the room. A woman came by to take our picture and after a few minutes came back with the picture in a cute silver frame for us to take. Kevin had made “special arrangements” for the balloons and picture so he got lots and lots of points for this date.

While we were on our way back to the car, a group of people passed us and one of the gentlemen said, “Happy Birthday! …or something…” (I would imagine because I was carrying the balloons). I replied with a very loud and genuine, “Thank you!”.

I had so much fun with Kevin this weekend. He did a great job of making me feel special and it was so nice to spend some time with him. These babies sure do have a great dad!