First Fishing Trip is a Success!

Easter Egg Hunt - Check!

Zoo!

Since, from these posts, it seems like we never do anything fun on a "regular" day, here are some photos from our trip to the ZOO!!! 

It was a gorgeous day, but - thanks, we think, to that night's scheduled "Boo at the Zoo" activity, it wasn't very crowded. Double-win!


We got off to a bit of a slow start, as Desmond insisted on pushing the stroller. We had parked probably 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the zoo.

Eventually, we reached a compromise to help get us there in a timely fashion.

No way did these little people have enough stamina to see everything, but we did pretty well. One of our first stops was the hippopotamus tank. There are some hippopotami just off camera to the right, but the fish were pretty fascinating.

Zebras!

We also saw some of the other usual suspects - lions, giraffes, and primates, among others. We had lunch by the flamingos. The gorilla statue was pretty fun.

The highlight of the day, however, was the train ride. We need to find a place where you can pay a single fee for unlimited train rides. THAT would be an exciting day.

Desmo waved to everyone he could see.

Dexter's M Party!

Ever since Dexter started receiving m&m's ("two m's!") as a reward for successful potty usage, they have seen a dramatic increase in popularity around here. While we were visiting Tootsie and Pop in August, Tootsie, Dexter, and Desmond had an "M Party" - siting on the sofa eating m&m's together. It was then that Dexter enthusiastically decided that his birthday party should be an M Party, too.

Easier said than done - would you believe there is almost NO m&m-branded stuff out in the world anymore? Just big things like towels or boxer shorts - not really stuff for a 3-year-old's birthday party. Somehow, though, we managed to pull it off.


The invitations:

The day started off with his "big" present - a big wheel from Tootsie & Pop. We wanted him to have a chance to enjoy it before the party craziness started. Desmond also got his big birthday present - a tricycle - a couple of months early so he could enjoy some time with it outside before the weather got horrible.

While they were riding around and having fun, party setup began in earnest.
There was an m&m bar, featuring eight different varieties of m&m's  - plain, peanut, peanut butter, dark chocolate, pretzel, dark chocolate peanut, coconut, and almond.

Favor bags were set out - just a small m&m plush doll and some fun size packs.

We had a couple of games. Memory with m&m images and "Guess how many m&m's in the jar" - with 3 jars (plain, peanut, and peanut butter).

Paulina tries her hand at m&m memory.

At the end of the day, Mary Klein won 2 out of 3 with an exactly correct guess of 333 m&m's. Emma won the third, but she didn't really want to brag about it.

Given the lack of availability of branded merchandise, decor was quite a challenge. We burned through a LOT of ink on the home printer, making all of these little cards with the m&m characters on them.

But what mostly saved the day, as you can see in many of the photos, was Granddad's lending us his m&m dispenser collection. The one next to the cake (within reach of many little fingers) saw the most use.

Other than the m&m sampler bar, the food was unremarkable. But we had to throw in the theme just a little bit anyway.

There was fruit punch. Dexter rrrrrreeeeeeeaaaaallllllyyyyyy liked it. Can you tell?

People! Lots of people came to the party! We had a lot of fun turning everyone into a walking m&m.

Dexter opened a BUNCH of presents!

CAKE!

And ice cream!!

And m&m characters made out of rice krispy treats! (They were better than Desmond makes it seem. Pretty much every kid gnawed on one for a while.

OK, some kids ended up taking turns gnawing on the same character. Sharing is good, right?

HAVE to include this picture.

He wouldn't let us put the m on the front of his shirt, so we sneaked it onto the back. Desmond also lost his left shoe very early in the day, and it never made its way back onto his foot.

Dexter wound down post-party with some of his new toys.

And we managed to get Thank You notes made, written, and sent within about 2 weeks. Woot!

All told, it was a great party. People had fun, the cake was delicious, and there were a LOT of m&m's left over. But most importantly, Dexter was happy. :)

But really. From now on? Only parties with themed merchandise easily available. Geez.