Ellie’s Birthday, the return
Ellie’s birthday was September 7 but we couldn’t get the gang together until today. Cristin and I finished the cupcakes sometime last night. We spent about two hours decorating them. It took a while to figure out the best temperature to maintain the marshmallows at so they they could easily be cut with scissors without cracking. Today was a beautiful day, really a spectacularly beautiful day. A boating day is what I am trying to say. I am also quite positive that Ellie wanted to go on the boat for her birthday but she can’t talk and thus the two of us got outvoted. I took her for a long walk in the morning so she could get a nap in and I could avoid shopping. Cristin took Phoebe to stop and shop and they bought balloons. Phoebe picked Scooby Doo but she insists on calling him Smelly Bill which is a character, also a dog, in one of her books. We met everybody at “the Inn” which is still in the midst of an identity crisis. Our table was in between the bar and the restaurant and the ambiance was as well because we heard Joan Jet, Falco, and the Beastie Boys before I managed to finish my waffles. Phoebe ate well and Ellie ate well too but that goes without saying. She is an eating machine and I like the age she is at because I just cut up a whole bunch of stuff and give it to her and this allows me to devote more time to the completely miserable exercise of convincing Phoebe to eat. People of other generations always tell me, “she will eat when she is hungry”. This was apparently when people had time to feed children at will or at a time when people were quite comfortable giving in. Getting her to eat is a game and quite frankly I don’t like to lose. This includes taunting her with information about how much Ellie has eaten to try to raise her competitive spirit. I am sure the experts would frown on this but psychology, especially child psychology, has too many conflicting theories to be taken too seriously. After brunch we played in the Park and Cristin decided that the next year we would just sit at the picnic tables and have hamburgers while the kids ran around and around and around. Lindsay and Olivia seemed to know about tag and racing and such and were trying to teach Phoebe. Lindsay already knows the tactic of declaring a race and setting the basic guidelines while one is already in motion and assured victory. Cristin moved the show along and we went home for cupcakes and the ladies all helped Ellie blow out her one candle. There is something so cute about a single candle. You know that the year ahead will be full of fun and laughter and discovery. Two candles is much more foreboding. Ellie got lots of great gifts from everybody including Seven’s Jeans. I don’t know much about them but they always make me think of my sister because her husband wore Seven’s on their first date and she expressed concerns to me on the phone that he might be too “metro”. I am not sure why he chose to wear them and I am quite surprised he owned them because he is definitely not “metro” and her decision to go with the second impression was clearly a good one. Maybe he was testing her. After gifts we watched the Patriots and the ladies made pizzas. Earlier in the day we had warned our neighbor that the Howleys were coming (there is considerable evidence that their presence in Mattapoisett is strongly positively correlated with a Patriot loss). He said to us, “good thing they are playing a sh!tty team”. We informed Peter of this and he wasn’t sure if this was a good thing because if they did win it might take a little pressure off the “the curse” but if they lost it mean that the curse was absolutely real. They lost. Happy birthday again Ellie and thanks to everybody for coming.
Above: That is a polar bear, one of a dozen. Below: September continues to be the best month. Light breeze and a dozen or so boats sailing in the Bay. 
Above: Poppie entertains the peanut. Below: Happy Birthday to the Peanut. She is not so sure about being the center of attention. 
Above: The ladies eat their cupcakes. The icing at least. Below: Phoebe and Olivia made food for everyone. At some point they discovered they could pour water from their water bottles into tupperware cups. They would then do shots of the water or on occasion bring it into the adult area and dump it on somebody. 
Above; Phoebe helps Ellie open gifts while Olivia monitors. Below: Ellie can walk. For some reason it requires that she be carrying something. As long as it is carried below the center of mass this makes sense to me. 
Above: Ellie shows off her balance skills while Gaga prepares to take another series of images that will forever live on her SD card. Below: Cristin decided to destroy any chance of the cousins napping on the way home. I am fairly certain we could have given them boxes of TNT and it wouldn’t faze dave. Below: I wish the kids were as exhausted as Rudy. He hung out with everybody the whole time and Ellie showed off her torture skills. She had a whole fistful of rudy at one point and was pulling him by his skin across the floor. 
