A Whole Lot of Birthday

Last week was R's school vacation and his birthday. I had the week off with him, and we had a nice time together hanging around home, riding bikes, meeting up with friends at the park, going to IKEA (hooray!), doing science experiments and craft projects (remember Shrinkydinks?!?!), and going to see "How to Train Your Dragon" (which was really, really good! especially in 3D IMAX).

But the best part was his birthday. Between our family party at home with my sister who was visiting from Pittsburgh, exploring the Harvard Museum of Natural History and asking the curator about R's potential meteorites (diagnosis: inconclusive), going out for a birthday dinner with friends at the Melting Pot, and a huge friend party at this place, it was quite the stellar celebration.

 Cake at home

The BIG slide at the bouncy place

Exiting another big bouncy slide

R, me, and my friend's daughter

Cake with friends

Connect 4 with Aunt Ericka

We had a great visit with my sister, and we were really sad to take her back to the airport on Sunday. She and R played lots of games together and had many tickling fights. I loved sharing a blanket with her on the couch each evening and gabbing and watching TV. We all drove down to my dad's for a visit on Saturday (where we stuffed ourselves silly on homemade pizza), and on Sunday morning, we took a fun hike in the woods where we found caves, giant rocks to climb, a turtle, a snake, chipmunks, and lots of gnats. 

It was a good week. Now, we're back to school and work - and counting the weeks until our end-of-summer vacation.