Two Parties in One

Xander and Ronan have birthdays two weeks apart. Xander turned five on May 16th and Ronan will turn two tomorrow on the 29th. Last year they celebrated their birthdays together and we went to the grand opening of Gigi's playhouse. They had a carnival and other fun things. This year we decided we would go to the zoo. Xander is a huge dinosaur fan and our local zoo had opened up an electronic dinosaur exhibit. Both my parents and Isaac's, as well as my brother and his family joined us. The forecast had foretold warm 76 degree weather and I took this into account when I laid out tank tops and shorts the night before. Instead we were greeted with weather that seemed to more accurately depict Fall. This called for last minute changes for jackets. Clouds threatened rain but we pressed on not willing disappointment on the kiddos. A light rain began as we headed into the entry building. We were fortunate that light rain was the worse it got the rest of our zoo outing. Minus a trip to the Omaha zoo when Ronan was four months this was his first zoo trip and Inara's. He loved it and clapped at nearly every exhibit. His favorite appeared to be the monkeys. Every time they would move he would grab the fence and bounce up and down yelling with excitement.
Inara favored the giraffes. When she saw them she let out a delightful squeal of laughter and pointed at the giraffes. She would turn to me smiling then look back at the giraffes. Xander couldn't wait to get to the dinosaur exhibit we'd been promising. He ran right for the large white building that contained all the animated dinosaurs. He requested his picture in front of each dinosaur. He got firm with one set of dinosaurs because they were fighting. He put his hands on his hips and told those dinosaurs that fighting was bad.Landon tried to figure out the clues in the zoo detective boxes. I still don't know if he figured it out by the time we left but he carefully remembered each clue box all the way through the zoo. Jadzia seemed to quietly walk through the zoo taking everything in all in normal Jadzia fashion. She was somewhat drawn to the dinosaur cut outs. She liked me taking her picture as a dinosaur. We had a full morning at the zoo.

My brother got Xander and Ronan presents for their birthdays. He let them pick out whatever they wanted from the dinosaur gift shop. Xander picked a bucket of plastic dinosaurs and I picked a long neck dinosaur for Ronan. He loved it and hugged it as Grandpa pushed him in the stroller.

We went home for lunch, cake and presents. Xander and Ronan each had their own cake. Landon held Ronan up to the table and helped him blow out his candles. Ronan gobbled his cake down as did Xander. Xander was pretty happy about the giant lion balloon his Grandma Fullmer had brought him.We finished the party with presents. Xander and Ronan opened their presents together. Xander's mouth hung wide open when he opened his khung zhu tank vehicle. He also loved the frog Isaac and I had gotten him. He had been wanting it from build a bear for awhile and squeezed him tight when he saw him. Ronan got a ball popper and a light up sea turtle. We cleaned up wrapping paper and Grandma Fullmer had even more surprises.

She had brought a bunch of science books and science projects for the kids to do for school. Landon and Xander both got electronic Venus fly trap plants. You put batteries in them and bait it. You place it outside to attract insects. When an insect goes into the waiting jar below it snaps shut trapping the insect inside. They can study the insect then release it through a little door on the side of the jar. Landon was happy to have a Venus fly trap at last. I think it's a pretty cool concept. I'm looking forward to doing the science projects with the kids.Jadzia was beyond excited to have a replacement "magic wand" it was really a baton with streamers. She got one for Easter but Landon had accidentally broken it so she was extremely excited to have a new one. In fact she refused to leave for Grandma's without taking it with her. The three big kids left with Grandma and Grandpa Fullmer until Wednesday. My parents took the two babies for the afternoon and Isaac and I went on a date.We had dinner and talked. I'm happy we still have good conversation and we talk about just about anything. After eating we saw a movie and then headed home. Tomorrow Ronan will be two. I'm trying to decide what I will do for the blog on his birthday. His birth story is extremely long. So much so I'm writing a book about his birth and the months that followed. I'm thinking I'll include a chapter I had written but it will make for an extensive blog. I can't believe he will be two.