Happy Birthday, Sophia

It's a good thing that Sophia has recently decided to become remarkably even-tempered (most days, anyway) because her birthday this year wasn't quite as fun as birthdays usually are.

I really did plan to give her a fun birthday activity.  I did some research online, found a park that looked promising - a lake, paddle boats, playground, carousel, and mini-golf - and even planned a picnic.  When we got there we decided to walk around the lake.  "You do know," I told Brandon, "that according to what I read, this trail is 4 miles long."

"Four miles?!  There's no way the lake is four miles around."

It turns out that the path didn't just go around the lake.  Halfway through we found ourselves in the middle of a neighborhood, walking past a school to find the other side of a trail that had dumped us out into suburbia.  When I asked Sophia if she had had a nice walk, she blithely replied, "Yes, very nice," before stopping, thinking and then continuing, "well, maybe not so nice.  But this playground is nice."

This morning, after making coffeecake muffins, scrambled eggs, and bacon followed by chocolate cupcakes, Brandon and I got in the shower.  "Don't come into the room and get us unless someone is bleeding.  A lot."  Eleanor was asleep in the room, and I didn't want a repeat of last week's stegosaurus attack by Joseph.  Brandon got out of the shower first and went to check on the children.

Edwin was hiding in his room because, according to the girls, he had stuck a plastic bead up his nose.  Brandon was livid, as Edwin had had a pomegranate aril stuck up his nose in Baku and so should have known to stay far away from foreign objects that could get stuck up noses.  Like plastic beads.

So I took everyone to church and Brandon and Edwin went to Urgent Care.  About ten minutes into Sunday school Brandon called to tell me to pull everyone out from class so he could take us home.  Evidently the Urgent Care doctors couldn't get the bead out and he was going to have to make a trip to the ER.

Thankfully the wait time was short and both made it home for dinner - eggs benedict, asparagus, and salad - before cupcakes and presents.

And the presents were evidently good enough to make the cupcake less than interesting to either Sophia or Kathleen.  Then everyone went to bed.  

Hopefully we can do better next year.  Of course, that's what I said last year, too.