Fine birthday dining

We wanted to celebrate Patrick's birthday with his cousin Amelia, but realised she would NOT be interested in the big, loud crowd of boys he invited to his party, so we decided to do a family dinner where she could come with her parents and sister. Nice and quiet. Patrick loves shrimp, and when we went to Captain D's a couple months ago he pounded an entire platter of fish and shrimp, and stole my crab cake to boot; I figured another trip to the Captain's would be perfect! We brought along a Bostom cream pie (my new favorite) and ordered plenty of fish, shrimp, and crab cakes to go around. He opened presents in a corner booth, but since we were quite the spectacle trooping in with gifts, baby bouncers, and kids galore, we decided not to bring any more attention to ourselves by singing "happy birthday." It was really nice to get out together! Loved the company, loved the gifts, we love birthdays :)

 

Joe and I went for artsy gifts, since it combined his love of dinos and art. Perfect! This one you made small dino molds of plaster of paris, then painted them, and mounted a magnet on the back. Of course, he got it Friday night and by Sunday night he'd already molded and painted both batches of plaster... looks like his next gift needs to be refills!

 

This one you paint pre-made dinosaurs, which are bigger. They worked on that one tonight, Patrick was gracious enough to share both art projects with Eli.

His aunt Gina and uncle Ryan knew how to win his heart - a DRAGON! He's recently expanded his obsession with non-existant creatures to include dragons, so the timing was PERFECT. Like crack to an addict. Like soda to a mormon mom.

Caroline and Amelia looking pretty bored, but looking back it was the only picture I got of them! Whoops. They were actually just intent on him opening his next gift, some SWEET Levi jeans from Kari. I don't know when boy jeans will stop being "cute," but the answer is "not yet!"

 Ethan hung out in the bouncer. Pink because we're borrowing from Kari; our other bouncer, a gender-neutral giraffe, finally gave up the ghost. One too many big kids bounced on it. Poor Ethan.

Our lovely near-neighbors, Kari and Jonathan, who braved out-to-dinner with some crazy girlies.

 

Exhibit A: Crazy Girlie

Joe loves Addilyn, probably because she's easier to hold than our own kids since she weighs 1/4 as much.

 Ok, I guess Ethan got out of the bouncer for 2 seconds for a photo opp. This is one of those pictures where you don't realise until AFTER you take it that there are some unwanted background objects... like the restroom sign.  Just a reminder that you sacrifice class for handiness when dealing with kids, it was GREAT to be so close to the bathroom for the sudden "I need to pee!" emergency.

 Addilyn, Joe, Me, Ethan, and Caroline trying to be helpful in the background - typical picture!

Great times with the Captain! Happy birthday, Patrick!