Birthdays these days.

Birthdays are hard to celebrate when you're a grownup. For us, anyway. I have friends who are forever sharing pictures of the special occasions they pull off for their significant others omni anno, with scavenger hunts and surprise event tickets and special date nights. It's adorable, and intimidating.

 

We have a one year old, two school schedules, and beltway commutes. We managed a late afternoon lunch date for Seth's birthday, and I bought him a juicer to replace the one he burned up after less than two weeks.

OK, fine. It was a really great lunch date with mimosas and bleu cheese fries, and we went home afterwards and lounged in bed in front of the TV until it was time to pick up Finley. It felt pretty luxurious.

 

And it's a really, really nice juicer.

 

So I'm telling myself that I did OK on Seth's birthday. Which is fortunate, since our spur of the moment birthday eve dinner with Finley was characterized by tears, thrown silverware, and my still chewing dinner on my way out the door after Seth had finally had it and dragged the little terrorist to the car. We may have reached the "family restaurant meals are on hold for awhile" phase.

Still, it was a nice short week, even if we did come down with colds (for once, I'm blaming Seth's fellow college students instead of Finley's daycare buddies for the germs) and decide to spend our weekend recovering at home. Seth threw at his first track meet of the season despite being under the weather, and was happy with his "baseline effort." Finley helped me with chores,

 and was rewarded with a trip to the park.

The weather was gorgeous on Saturday, so we scrapped museum plans and went for a family hike. (We discovered that nothing makes Finley happier than watching her Dad break sticks. Argument #436783642 for not buying a ton of expensive toys.)

Sunday was rainy, which delighted Finley since she had the playground all to herself.

She also got a Barnes and Noble date out of the deal (and a bite of my Georgetown cupcake). All in all, a pretty nice weekend at home for the little beast. 

My favorite photo this week is an action shot of finley knocking down Seth's carefully constructed train at the bookstore.

And now we're busy getting ready for Sara's arrival tomorrow! The Tibetan singing bowls have arrived (don't ask), and I have restrained myself and stayed out of the nutella- so far...