Birthdayest weekend around

This weekend was EPIC.  So, so, so fun.

When we found out Dorothy's due date-- March 19-- I was so excited to think of her sharing a birthday with Ben-- March 13, or being a Pi Day baby.  In the end, she was an Ides of March baby, and she and Ben can share a birthday weekend which is way better than a single day of celebration.  And!  We can have birthday cake, pie, and then more birthday cake.  PERFECT.

Especially this year.

Ben slept in until 9:00, the longest he has slept in a couple of years, because I took all the kids downtown for the most amazing kosher donuts EVER. We never go to this particular bakery because it is all the way downtown and because there's no place to eat in the bakery itself.  We can't drive all the way back across town with a carful of delicious donuts and not eat them, and they are too good to eat mindlessly in the car.  On Friday, though, we settled that conundrum by eating them outside my building.  I parked in the 25-minute meter spot, and we walked up to the big 4th-floor open area and took over a picnic table where the kids amused themselves by trying to find my office windows above them.  Hint: the really, really, really cluttered ones.

Even though he was on spring break and enjoyed a peaceful morning, the kids had no school for teacher professional development, and I had a morning meeting and Cooper had a doctor's appointment to recheck his ears after his infection.  So birthday Ben had to wrangle all the kids at the doctor's office.  ALWAYS FUN.

The rest of his day was pretty blah-- housework, kid fights, laundry, etc.  After they all went to bed, though, we had steaks and crab legs and lots of wine, and that was excellent.

Also, I baked this cake, and it was completely delicious even though I did not let it cool before getting it out of the pans and the layers fell apart and had to be jammed back together with this delicious whipped cream frosting.  36 candles, by the way, make a freaking FIRE on your cake.  The smoke detector went crazy.

(And Ben had to light his own candles.  Poor Ben)

We also packed everyone's suitcases so that the next day we could head to Pekin to see my parents for Dorothy's birthday, see old friends for Ben's birthday, and take Dorothy to a fairy princess tea party. SO FUN, all of it.

Except maybe the drive, which always is a little bit terrible.  (Summer vacation is going to be SO FUN).

As soon as we got there, Ben and my dad met up with Ben's college bestie and let the boys run around Bradley and eat Culvers.  Cooper climbed a tree, which was ADORABLE:

I also completely love this one of him and Lydia Moss Bradley because of his cute little scooter in the background.  Ben was actually a little annoyed because Cooper scootered across the street all by himself, but it was spring break and not traffic-y

At my parents' house, Dorothy and my mom and I got ready for the fairy tea.  Dorothy was the cutest Dorothy imaginable in last year's Easter dress, some IKEA wings, and Gap ballet flats that are funny enough to order in every color, especially because her little feet rise out of them like tiny loaves of bread.

Also precious beyond words was the tea itself.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  A room decorated to the nines and hundreds of teeny girls in fancy dresses and fairy wings.  IT WAS THE CUTEST.  We went with 2 college friends who are sisters and their 3 little girls and their mom.  The grown ups got about ZERO time to talk because the tea was actually a toddler rave, with all the girls on the dance floor pretty much the whole time, at least as soon as they got done with their blue cupcakes in tea cups.  Dorothy also appreciated the Goldfish and Pirate Booty on the table, almost choked herself on carrots, and ate the croissant off my sandwich and hers. She also enjoyed dumping water all over herself while repeatedly asking for pink juice because she is classy.

On the dance floor, she hugged lots of kids, grabbed kids by the hands and demanded that they dance with her her, and even shook a little girl by the shoulders while screaming PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY.  She saw a much larger girl (like a 6-year-old) in the same light-up Elsa dress up shoes she has at home.  Dorothy immediately removed her own shoes, knocked the big girl down, and tried to take the shoes from her feet.  OH MY GOD.

When her favorite song in the universe, "Let it Go," DUH, came on,  Dorothy was in the bathroom.  When she heard the music, she ran as fast as she could onto the dance floor and was able to belt out the last chorus.  Completely cute.  We will for sure go again next year when my little bruiser is hopefully old enough to model fairy wear on the runway.  (Yes, that actually happens.  And while the girls are walking, the emcee is reading facts about them but they are like 3 and 4, so she is saying stuff like "Sophie does not enjoy circle time, but she loves snack time."  It's hilarious).

And!  Bonus!  I saw 3 high school friends and their girls and an old sorority sister and her girls.  It was AWESOME.

Now I shall regale you with 1000 pictures even though I forgot my camera and the lighting was weird, so these are all on my phone and they are blurry for the aforementioned reasons and because she never stopped moving even once.

And if you thought things couldn't get better, let me just tell you, THEY DID.

Back at my parents' house, Dorothy played happily by herself for a few minutes while I changed my clothes for Ben's birthday dinner, and my mom mixed us some cocktails because OMG toddler raves.  (A FB friend of mine went to an earlier tea and let me know I should bring a flask, and SHE WAS RIGHT). (Also, we had gin and Diet Squirt, and you should really try it).

Then when Ben and the boys got home, we ditched all the kids with my parents OVERNIGHT and went out for dinner and drinks-- so many drinks-- with college friends and stayed at a hotel ALL BY OURSELVES.  It was amazing.

It was the grill-your-own-steakhouse we went to for our rehearsal dinner almost 10 years ago, and it turns out, when it's your birthday, they bring you cake and sing and ring a cowbell.  So, that was awesome.

The next morning, we rang in Dorothy's birthday-- you know, after we dragged our hungover selves out of bed and took showers and got dressed and had coffee with NO ONE SCREAMING AT US for the first time in forever-- with cake and presents

 Then we jumped in the car to celebrate in the Chicago burbs with Ben's family.

We had a really fun pizza party at a tavern by his grandma's house, and Dorothy loved her Frozen cake with its inappropriately positioned candle.

We dragged our exhausted, full, and totally happy selves into our own house at about 5:30 last night and immediately unpacked and conquered mount laundry while the children ate leftover party food, and Dorothy opened her Frozen-themed gifts from us.

She has been carrying little Elsa and big Elsa around all day.

A helluva 2nd/36th birthday weekend.

I'll be planning all year to top it for next year.  3 and 37 HERE WE COME.