Happy Birthday to me

I had a nice birthday today hanging out with my hubby and girls. I think the kids may have even had as much fun as I did, despite the fact that they weren't the birthday girls. Really, I can't blame them; what's not to love about starting the day off with chocolate chip pancakes?:



And then, of course, there was bubble wrap to trounce upon after I opened my birthday package from Yia-yia:



And Madeleine was absolutely entranced with the birthday card Ethan gave me:


"It's CLAWA! Look, it's a CLAWA!"

We headed down to the Boston Common after Madeleine's nap to enjoy the nice weather and let the kids take advantage of the summer activities there before they close for the season. We started off with the carousel:


They both loved the ride, although Madeleine seemed to think she could just switch seats mid-ride and experience all the other animals besides horses. "A sit a DOGGIE? A sit a CAT? A sit a DAT ONE?"

After the carousel the girls had an utter blast splashing around in the frog pond:






Next stop was the Tadpole playground, followed by the Public Gardens:



The best part about the Public Gardens was the Make Way for Ducklings statues. Julia insisted on sitting atop each duck in turn:



While Madeleine preferred to give each of them a hug:




Finally, to end the Boston adventure, we went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants:



We have been hesitant to take the kids here because we didn't know if they would a) sit still through dinner and b) actually like the Ethiopian cuisine. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they fulfilled both expectations. In fact, Julia even asked, "Um, Mom, uh, the next time we go to the Frog Pond and go see the Make Way for Ducklings statues, could we go here for dinner again?" And Madeleine, while spitting out her vegetables ("No, fank you.") and eating only a little bit of food in general was still on quite amazing behavior, sitting still in her chair without even an attempt to get down or tip over the woven basket table. She seemed fascinated with the decor of the restaurant, although she insisted, a bit disturbingly, on pointing to the woman in one of the pictures and shouting, "It's MOMMY!" repeatedly:



The birthday finished off with Julia and Ethan singing to me while bringing me a chocolate tofu pie complete with lit candle (although all we had was one of the two 3's needed to announce my age.)



Julia had already eaten a cookie for dessert, but was clearly concerned about my birthday happiness, because she asked, "Mom, can I please have a piece of pie after my cookie so I can make your birthday even better?" And she did, and she did.