Annual Birthday Blowout Weekend

Seth's birthday weekend has become a Nieman family tradition we love. It's always the same week as Valentine's Day and President's Day, so Tony & Jayne come for the long weekend, celebrate with us, and give us the bonus opportunity to sneak out for a valentine/ birthday date.

This time, for Seth's 35th, we had big plans to head to the city, get a top-notch steak dinner, and go out on the town.

Instead, we shoveled our way out after a surprise snowfall,

braved the cold for a walk across the Hudson (some of us anyway),

day drank at a biergarten, played outside (the new Elmo jacket is Ford's prized possession),

 and had the impromptu birthday party of Finley's dreams.



Seriously, her dreams. At one point I caught her walking around like this, carrying a Bose speaker blaring her favorite song, wearing snow boots and what looks to be a pageant costume, and swigging from an illicit two liter bottle of soda of unknown origin. May not be the world's most responsible parenting to have cracked up, but you only live once and birthday weekends are definitely "special 'ccasions."  

For our part, Seth and I scrapped our elaborate plans and cancelled our fancy dinner reservation, instead making a run down to White Plains where we stayed at the Crowne Plaza, ate at the hotel bar in jeans, slept for eight glorious uninterrupted hours, and had kickass sandwiches in the truck on the way back to the skating session we had promised Finley. Not a bad birthday celebration, and perfectly in keeping with our funny, crazy life these days.

The rest of the long weekend was too. We got in lots of quality Grandma/Grandpa and Mom/Dad time- the mini cornhole game was a real hit, as was the hilarious Mickey garb Ford refused to remove even for baths-

and some leisurely errands-running, which naturally included Saturday morning trips to Target/Starbucks

and Party City. Where we tried on all the costumes.

And for the bonus round, we got to include Grandma and Grandpa in kid date night, which is another one of our favorite things. Jayne and I took Ford to the Mother-Son dance, where he stuffed his face with ice cream and owned the dance floor.





And we got to hang out with some of my Mom Squad favorites to boot.

Seth and Tony took Finley and Mikayla to Barnes & Noble and a "fancy dinner," where they swear no beer was served although this photo looks suspicious.

All in all, it was another spectacular Nieman Family Birthday Blowout Weekend. Even if I just realized that in all of these photos, Seth only makes a single appearance. Trust me when I say that 35 looks good on him- and our kids have coopted all the other holidays, so it was just a matter of time on birthdays.

We wouldn't change a thing.

Wiener dogs and so. much. chocolate.

Finley and Ford's luck held. While we struggled with Congress and ballet night

and the necessity of late night trips to Target (me), 

a sinus infection and a return to teaching (Seth), and trying to somehow pull off the commemoration of a holiday we're not even wild about ourselves

F+F reaped the chocolate covered benefits. 

Their week included destroying Sally's house,

Army-Navy basketball,

VIP status for the annual halftime wiener dog race,

blatant bribery on shopping trips,

and lots and lots of fabulous playdates.

Including an incredible princess tea party followed by a Broadway production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella at Ike Hall for the Finster, who was in heaven.

It was a week. One of my favorites was this "nothing to see here, just a Wednesday morning" moment.

Back at home and a trip to the hoot.

When the whirlwind that is Walter Reed churns you up and spits you out, invariably it deposits you squarely on a Monday morning. Such is life, and we were destined to spend the week playing catchup- although there were sweet moments like these to remind us to smell the roses. 

Seth spent the first part of the week recovering in bed, and then on Wednesday afternoon took himself coyote hunting from his truck, logged a good night's sleep, and got up and taught class the next morning. I think he had just decided he had had enough convalescing. 

My week was indeed spent being late for everything, caught up on nothing, and grateful- as usual- for Sally, who at least made sure we had milk in the fridge. Lucky for Ford, since that and chocolate chips are about all he ingests these days.

Somewhere in there was a snow delay, and it was one of those crummy, icy snows that is neither pretty nor soft but is damn near impossible to shovel. Finley tried to help, and we eventually gave up, took a few death-defying runs on the snow tube, then headed for school and work resolving to park on the street until the ice melted instead.

By Friday we were all d-u-n, but we had promised the kids a date night. Or rather, Finley had played on Dad guilt at having missed the dance and scored herself the promise of the bookstore and a "fancy restaurant." Seth didn't take pictures, but I snapped a couple of Ford enjoying the consolation prize (Mom, plus a trip to the germ-riddled indoor playplace and dinner at Chili's.)

And then the kids proceeded to have the weekend of their "greams" while Seth caught up on sleep and work and I tried to engage in as much "life admin" (largely laundry and grocery shopping and bill paying, oh my!) as I could. These guys, on the other hand, had inner tube races while Seth put snow tires on his wheelchair

and were incredible "vestibal" buddies at the winter hoot, a Catskills music festival I had been dying to go to. They kicked off their shoes and danced the afternoon away

and LOVED the instrument petting zoo.

We made it back south in time for a beer-and-sausage date with the Biers.

Super Bowl Sunday dawned with gray skies and freezing rain, the perfect day to stay inside and test out the new instant pot (which is amazing) before spending game evening as all holidays should be spent: playing dressup

 sword fighting with cadets

 having princess dress-clad Nerf wars

 and even watching a bit of football.

It went too fast, as all good weekends do, but with an appropriate amount of buffalo sauce. A real Super Bowl win.

My favorite photos of the week were from the hoot, and this one makes me laugh. Von Trapp family, here we come!