Frail Deeds Dancing: Birthday Bonanza

The Family Picture

I’m sadly back in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts after a truly fun stay with the FBR as she celebrated her second birthday in a style I hope she becomes accustomed to. She was a fabulous hostess but my knees will take some recovery time for the extensive period I volunteered to operate at her level. I sat down to watch an episode of Daniel Tiger with her and at one point she leaned her head over onto my shoulder – I think this is what heavenly bliss must feel like.

Bliss

The rest of the weekend she was a blur of energy as the adults tried to keep up with her frenetic pace. My daughter did a fabulous job with the birthday party ably assisted by Wingman and grandparents. The huge bouquet of balloons we bought on Friday fell victim to the heat over night and settled into a floor level existence. This was kind of a downer for the adults but warmly embraced by the FBR since she could fully engulf herself in the balloons. This led to an entire weekend of watching her submerge herself only to reappear with her hair fully charged with static electricity.

Balloon Baths

The Favorite Son and ABFA arrived with the ABFA sporting the ever increasing evidence of the FRB’s imminent First Cousin. I count the time we all spent together before and after the party as the true highlight of the weekend. We finally managed to take a full family portrait which will be current only until February when the BRS arrives and will require additional photographic evidence of procreation.

The ABFA Baby Bump in Front of Birthday Presents

Working with Legos with Uncle Legomaniac

The party was a gas. They have acquired a really fun group of neighborhood friends most of whom are also refugees from Brooklyn. I can see that might need some explaining. Over the past couple decades Brooklyn became a destination of choice for a whole generation of young professionals who eschewed the horribly high apartment prices of Manhattan while starting their careers in NYC. Nature obviously took its course resulting in marriages and children which created the problem of raising children in a vibrant singles social scene diametrically opposed to raising younguns’. A sizable percentage of that displaced population ended up in Maplewood, New Jersey where they have fallen in on and rejuvenated aging family neighborhoods.

Party Scenes

I had a lot of fun talking with various members of the refugee class while the semi-controlled chaos of a couple dozen toddlers in full party mode swirled around us. My favorite moment of the party was when we all sang Happy Birthday to the FBR who seemed genuinely touched by the attention. She wasn’t that keen in the candle blowing department but fully embraced the family tradition of using a sword to cut her cake. There was kind of a gasp from the adults when Bonecrusher appeared to do the honors; cold steel and liberals don’tcha know. The party only lasted a couple hours but it was frenzied and entirely too much fun. The adults remaining afterwards needed all of the FBR’s nap time to recover themselves. My daughter exposed us all to the tv series, The Good Place, with old friend Ted Danson – it was hilarious.

Happy Birthday Song

Well received

Not So Sure About the Candle Blowing

Bonecrusher Deployed

And Expertly Wielded

We took the entire family for a brief tour of Maplewood before settling in at the FBR’s favorite diner where she held court for a couple hours. She completed her birthday celebration with a stack of Mickey Mouse pancakes and a bowl of ice cream with the heretofore new experience of “sprinkles”. This being only her second birthday I have to comment on the absolute aplomb she displayed for the entire day – a true social maven. It was also cool to see her surrounded by the group of friends she’ll grow up with. I gave her parents a warning order that the teenage parties will be a different kind of challenge.

Test Driving her New Rocking Chair (one of our gifts)

Where to Start

Lots of Books

She Stole my Camera at One point - Here is result

Family Hug

We spent yesterday morning at the Kid Zone, a local indoor amusement park complete with a huge jungle gym, an arcade, and assorted kid sized business establishments along with strangely enough - a nerf cannon shooting range. The FBR, courtesy of earlier visits, knew all the sweet spots and was charging from one location to another, it was exhausting just watching her in action. My wife was called upon to enter the maze like jungle gym at one point to rescue the FBR from a precarious location. I was laughing so hard I forgot to snap a picture.

the Ladies at Diner time

Brother and Sister

After another shared nap time to recover from the Kid Zone experience we had to face the ride back to Worcester. As we were pulling out the entire New Jersey contingent was walking a couple houses down for another toddler get together – just a great environment to bring up children. We on the other hand were faced with another hour long delay awaiting the opportunity to cross the new Tappan Zee bridge. I chose to try another of the options I had arrived at through a map recon of the area. We took the Palisades Parkway north and crossed the Hudson River at the next bridge up and saw parts of New York state that I didn’t know existed as we foraged our way east to I-684. The Bear Mountain Parkway is not for the faint of heart.

Kid Zone Chaos

Mini-Diner

Nerf Cannons

Learning Shopping From the Master

We arrived home in time to see the Patriots lay a sound beating on their old nemeses from Denver which looked to be a shadow of their former selves. We were halfway through this very enjoyable viewing when our daughter called to see if we’d had additional baggage for our trip back. It turns out she left her purse in our car during one of many trips together. It was small enough for us not to notice. It held her driver’s license and work cell phone. This wouldn’t be a huge issue normally except she had to get on a plane this morning for a business trip to North Carolina where she was supposed to rent a car. I volunteered to drive back with it but wiser (hers) heads prevailed and she worked it out. This presented a frustratingly sad ending to what was a thoroughly enjoyable time spent with my favorite people in the world over the weekend.