Birthdays!

The end of August and start of September will forever be the birthday season in our little household. Millie's first birthday was a road trip to Evansville.

 

In keeping with her "Cupcake" nickname, her birthday cake was an enormous cupcake. Above she's peeling open the more manageable fun-sized version,

 

She was intimidated for only a few brief minutes.

Finnegan was not to be outdone even at his sister's birthday. He monopolized the time of his Aunt Kara and partook of some home-made strawberry ice cream compliments of his great grandparents Gene & Carol.

His own birthday event was back in the friendly confines of our home here in Indy. Cars and Cars 2 were an overwhelming theme. I am quite amazed at how virtually everything can be redone into a Cars theme.

That said, I am heartened to see two old favorites from my far distant youth revamped for the Cars generation.If you remember the Playdoh fun factory, there is a great Cars spin-off version that involves Mater regurgitating various Play-doh shapes and the much beloved Viewmaster has gotten updated to be Finnegan's first binoculars that, with the flip of a switch serve as actual binoculars. Keen.

Another recurring theme of Finnegan's birthday has been his virtually year-long obsession with firefighters. The day before his birthday party we made a surprise trip to Indianapolis Fire Station 31 where Firefighter Dan, twenty-two years a fireman and second generation at that, enthusiastically gave a surprisingly intimidated Finn a great tour. My photos were crappy but our friend Tim took some that I hope to share in a separate post soon.

 

This visit was a great lead-in to Finn's Fire Chief uniform, complete with helmet, raincoat (this one fit better than the one he tried on with Fireman Dan), badge, extinguisher and a very annoying bull horn that cannot be used as a true voice amplifier but does have a very loud and very popular siren sound. The outfit is awesome and super cute, but that siren is killing us.

Worst of all, as Alisha realized late that night, we had no one to blame. The loudest most annoying gifts, usually an honor prized and relished by my sister, were this year entirely our own doing. In addition to the never-ending bullhorn siren we also gifted him, at my request, a saxoflute. Follow the link and laugh at our naivete. It came with two, count'em two whistles.

That wasn't all the excitement. There was a Lightening McQueen pinata which we filled with chocolates and then left hanging outside for three hours on a 100 degree day. Because we are brilliant parents. 

But seriously, look at the stance and the serious look on his face.

Did I mention it was a 100 degrees? So we sent him through the kidwash (my summer family craft and enjoyment project) a couple times which some how just got him dirtier. 

Don't freak-out. That is just mulch.

Any who. A first and a third birthday successfully celebrated fifteen days apart. Sounds like this will be a busy two-weeks for the rest of our lives.