e squared: Happy 1/2 Birthday!

Already 2 1/2! I decided to do a little celebration because (a) why not; (b) being born right around Christmas means she kind of gets screwed over in the birthday department; (c) I like cake; (d) she has been talking about her own birthday party for several weeks and while I refuse to give her a "jumpy" birthday party as she has been requesting, it is pretty easy to give her a cake.

I asked her what she wanted to do for her two and a half birthday. I gave her several options- zoo, splash park, movie. Her answer? "All of them." While we didn't make it to the splash park, I did have some friends over yesterday for a "Movies and Margaritas" play date (yes, just as awesome as it sounds) to accommodate the movie part of her half birthday dreams.

Showing off her 1/2 cake for her 1/2 birthday

On Saturday, her actual 1/2 birthday, we went to the zoo, or "ooze" as she calls it. There was a special exhibit with moving, noise-making dinosaurs. I have hesitated to take her in there when I have done solo zoo trips with the kids, because it's the type of thing that could either be a big hit or a big disaster. It started off okay...

Watching the dinosaurs from the safety of Daddy's arms

...then she got a big nervous. But wait! An area where she could pretend to be a paleontologist! All was safe again.

Pretty sure Jim was more excited about this than Ella

After the dino dig, she decided she wasn't quite so happy. However, we came across some nesting dinos and baby dinos aren't quite so scary. Complete meltdown averted.

See? Not so scary

Even better, there was one that had a Mommy, Big Girl, and Baby!

About 30 seconds before the T-Rex crisis

And then we saw the T-Rex.

Marian was interested

Clinging to Jim in terror. Yes, I'm the asshole mom who took a picture

Sadly, the terror of the T-Rex extended to not wanting anything in the gift shop. I have offered to buy my kids something in a gift shop exactly once and my guess is that opportunity will not come about again for another several years. Should have taken the chance when you had it, kiddo.

After the zoo we were all starving. Thankfully Jim remembered this place called Silver Dollar Cafe that was mostly along the way home so we stopped for a bite to eat. I tend to be ~~pretty~~ very skeptical of the restaurants around here. However I do have to admit it was pretty much as advertised- that is, nothing fancy with a better than average beer selection for BFE (which isn't saying much, but that's a different gripe altogether). As we walked in we spotted a friend of mine who passed along a good suggestion for an ice cream shop nearby, which did surpass expectations.

Later on we had the second half of the birthday cake. I'm not sure if Ella had forgotten about it or was simply amazed that I hadn't consumed it all already. She thought it was the coolest thing that we sang "Happy 1/2 Birthday to You" two days in a row. Or maybe that she got cake two days in a row. Either way, for a brief period of time I was The Best Mom Ever and got to make her incredibly happy. Which gave me the patience to deal with the toddler sugar high.