My Birthday Babies!

So this weekend officially marked the beginning of  what we call our birthday week here in the Rudge household.  It is my husband’s fault really.  Since I have known him he has insisted on celebrating not just his birthday, but the days leading up to it.  I think it stems from the fact that he had to share his birthday with several family members as a child growing up.  He felt somewhat shortchanged and so he has compensated, some might even say over compensated for this as an adult. Heck I guess I can’t blame him 🙂  And it has become a good tradition for our little family because our  children’s birthdays are two days apart. On top of that the first of the two days, February 23rd, is shared with Grandpa Rudge.  He and William were both born on this day and Emily blessed us with her presence on February 25th.  Of course the kid’s are six years apart, but still…

So this year we started celebrating birthdays about six days early.  Emily asked to go to the Ontario Science Center for the day and so off we went!  To add to the merriment we brought along Sydney her BFF (that is Best Friend Forever ) and her family.  It was great for William as well because his self proclaimed BFF is Troy, the younger brother of  Sydney so everyone was happy.  The OSC is a great place to spend the day, or at least an afternoon.  There is always something new to see and do.  The OSC rotates in new exhibits regularly so you can visit often and not see the same special showing over again.  The exhibits and experiences that are always there are so interesting and dynamic that you never get bored with them.  Heck the KidSpark and Science Arcade are enough all on their own, but add in the Space area and the Innovation Centers and you are set.  There is always something new to discover, create and enjoy.  Just this weekend I made an airplane for William and was introduced to this amazing chair type thing that vibrates your whole body!!  It was awesome!  It even gave my feet a massage, right through my runners 🙂  You can walk for miles, but there are places to rest, have a snack and watch the kids play.  It really is the best of both worlds; educational and fun.

Back to birthdays. The weekend was busy with the OSC and a sleepover with the BFF.  The girls had a great time playing with their dolls, doing crafts, listening to music, snacking on junk food and staying up late.  We even made bubble gum, although I think that particular event has made it’s last appearance at the Rudge household 🙁  What a sticky, blue mess!  It was not pretty, although according to Emily it tasted okay and the chewability of her creation was decent.  I guess that is all that matters.   Next came cupcake making for William.  Poor William has food allergies and so a store bought cake is never in the cards for him.  His very handy daddy and big sister concocted these wonderful chocolate cupcakes and I helped by decorating them.  Now I think it is fair to call this a joint effort, but Doug will try to tell you otherwise.  Don’t listen to him.  My writing technique would have been sorely missed if I had not been involved.  Just sayin…

The next day brought us to Family Day, which here in Ontario is a very much appreciated winter day off.  So we decided to celebrate the kid’s birthdays with the Rudge family on this day.  We had a wonderful early lunch at The Mandarin, our birthday celebrating restaurant staple.  The great thing about The Mandarin is that it is a buffet so everyone is happy 🙂 You can pig out on veggies, fruit, meat, chicken balls or in my case, veggie spring rolls 🙂 I love these and could just sit with a plate of them all day long. I am a dessert lover, but I do not find the dessert choices at The Mandarin to be all that. In any case we seem to go to The Mandarin for most family birthdays and we have their trademark magnetic fridge photo frames to prove it 🙂  As I type this I can count ten such frames on our fridge and I know a couple are missing. But they are such a sweet reminder of the event and I love having them to look at.  Ours span about eight to ten years so it is like a very creative and convenient “scrapbook”, right on our fridge. Plus the kids love to look at them and talk about the day etc..  So worth a yucky dessert table.

Today we had our lovely lunch and returned home for cake and prezzies (not my word).  There were three cakes today; one for Grandpa who turns 70 years young in three days, one for Emily who turns nine in five days and one for William, who will be three in three days. Lots of cake and icing, but they were all good ( okay I tried two of the three today, but there are leftovers for tomorrow 🙂  ) The kids were excited and grateful to get some wonderfully generous gifts.  I think William was super happy with his new Cars game and Cars suitcase.  He wheeled it all over the house!  Emily was very happy to get a game, a Monster High doll (don’t ask) and gift cards to purchase the new bedding she would like.  It was a busy, but happy day.  It did end on a bit of a downer though.  My poor little almost three year old was hip checked, accidentally, into the wall and he received one heck of a bump and bruise on his sweet little forehead.  I nearly passed out at the size of the growth coming out of his noggin!  I am not kidding when I say it was about two inches long and another inch wide.  The bump finally started to go down, but he cried from the pain.  My poor little man.  Makes me vaklemp to remember it.  Why do kids have to get hurt?  I know it is a part of growing, but some of these growing pains are not necessary.  Poor William got it in threes this week, ironically as he turns three.  His head was hit twice and he got a nasty cut on his hand.  His booboos abounded:-(  On that note I am going to check on him and sign off.  Busy week, oh you bet ya…..

FT&PD

Suz