Dino-mite!

So we have this rule... we don't really do birthday parties before age 4.  I just don't see the point in putting a lot of time into something if they aren't going to remember.  Well, the problem is Kiah remembers.  She is old enough.  She understands birthday parties and she wanted a party for Eli.  But over the last 3 years I have learned a think or two about Eli.  And Eli does not like parties.  He is getting to the point where he tolerates them, sorta.  He is better about crowds, sorta.  So I decided we would have a party, at Kiah's request, but it would be a family party.

Eli wanted a blue dinosaur cake.  So I made a simple blue dinosaur.  He liked it a lot.  At least to look at it.  He really didn't ea too much of it.  But I think it was my own fault.  I told him when we were done with cake we would open dinosaur eggs.  If there hadn't been sheets of rain falling we would have gone on a hunt and dug for the eggs, BUT it was terrible outside.  It was literally so dark outside from the clouds it looked like the sun never rose. (and actually there was quite a few tornadoes that devastated areas.)  So we just smashed them open. (ETA: Some people have asked about the dinosaur eggs.  I added a link.  I didn't have any coffee grounds.  I actually did have some, they come in handy for various craft reasons.  So I omitted them.  But I replaced it with some old brewer's yeast I had.  Not sure how that may have changed things or not.  They were not completely dry when we smashed them.  It was so humid because of the rain, but they were dry enough for smashing.... and probably worked better because they didn't make as big a mess.  Oh... I just filled them with a rubber ball for each child/)

Chris' boss was competing in a BBQ competition not too far from us, so we headed over to eat some good cue!.  Honestly, some of the best ribs I have ever had.  I really had to work hard to share them with everyone else... not that they were actually mine to share.

We took the kids on a few rides.  Eli thought he wanted to go on the big slide.  We got all the way to the top... Well to tell you the truth, we got about 2/3 the way up and Eli froze.  Then the Carney at the top came down and took Eli's hand and helped me get Eli up to the top.  Then Eli went stiff as a board.  I thought about just pushing him down the slide, but visions of  A Christmas Story kept playing in my head and I just couldn't do it.  The stairs we super narrow.  So we had to wait fro there to be a big enough gap in kids climbing up for me to carry a rather large, terrified 3 year old down the mud slicked stairs, along with the soggy potato sack mat he was supposed to ride down on.  We made it.

The mud was quite bad in places. It wouldn't be a BBQ competition without mud! Right by the slide it was the worst! If we were making bud pies it would have been perfect.  I am convinced one of the carnies would bottle it up and sell it like snake oil to some high falutin' spa for their mud soaks.  So we had to find some good old fashioned mud puddles to splash around in a bit to wash off.

It was a fun birthday!