Birthday recap

Although ES's birthday was last weekend, we figured people would have other plans to go out of town for the holiday weekend, so we waited until this weekend to have his birthday party. That plan sorta backfired because 2 out of the 4 friends ES invited to his party were unable to come. Even so, I could hardly believe the level of noise and chaos in our house from three second grade boys (plus 5-year old YB).

For his birthday, ES wanted to go see Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. This was my first time going to the fairly new theater at Brambleton, and it was pretty nice. My wife bought the tickets in advance on Fandango, so we just walked right in without having to wait in line for tickets. I thought we were going to need a home equity loan to pay for the refreshments though. Holy cow I think we spent more than the tickets cost on candy and soda for the kids alone.

The movie was pretty good. Not as good as the original if you ask me, but it was entertaining nonetheless. The boys really liked it though, and that's all that really mattered. After the movie, we headed back to our house for P2C2 (presents, pizza, cake, chaos).

I tried taking pictures of opening presents, but they were all blurred like this. Deja vu.

We tried something new and different for the pizza. We decided to let the boys make their own individual pizzas.

My wife made her usual batch of pizza dough, then divided it into quarters.

I rolled out the four individual pizza doughs, put them on parchment paper, and trimmed the excess paper.

My wife set out bowls of sauce, cheese, and pepperoni, and we let the boys go to town making their own pizza.

I think they had a good time. There was a lot of laughter. I should've taken a picture of the after-action MESS though. There were pieces of shredded cheese and flour and birthday cake ALL OVER the floor by the end of the evening - thank goodness for Roomba!

Of course, I had to work a traditional blunoz self-portrait in there somewhere, right? This is the white pizza we made for the adults (i.e. me and LW). It's just olive oil, sauteed garlic, and cheese.

Those of you who know our boys know that they're obsessed with dogs, so it should come as no surprise what the theme of the birthday cake was...

8 candles plus 1 for good luck

My wife got the cake at Super Target and it was a really delicious, moist chocolate cake. Two thumbs up for birthday cake from Super Target!

One of ES's friends had to leave, but the other stayed long enough for a game of chess before his mom came to pick him up.

Tangent.

Our chess table is one of my most prized possessions. My dad bought the carved wood chess pieces while he was on deployment in WESTPAC (Western Pacific) many many moons ago, but we didn't have a table big enough for the pieces. My Grandpa is an expert with woodworking and used to love doing wood-inlays of different colors, so he made this chess table to go with the chess pieces my dad bought in WESTPAC. Back sometime around the 2000-ish timeframe, my mom decided to let me take custody of the chess table, and I am very grateful to my dad for the pieces, to my grandpa for the love and care he put into making the table, and to my mom for allowing me to have it after it being a regular fixture in her house for so many years. Our boys love the table and it brings me great joy to see them using it.

End of Tangent.

Overall, I think the birthday went pretty well. Kudos to my wonderful wife for the make-your-own-pizza idea for the birthday party. It turned out great. Kudos also to my wonderful wife for the great cake she picked out, the presents most of the presents she picked out :-), and for the time and effort she put into planning the whole day.