Birthday Weekend Roundup

Let's just say that if you want a low key, nearly non-existant birthday celebration, come to our place. The Other Younger Half's birthday is on June 30th. It just so happened that this year it fell on a Saturday, and on a weekend that TOYH did not have to be stuck at the hospital on her internship. One would think that because of the convenience of having a birthday on the weekend, it would be easy to have a big blow-out. Well not here at the Stocking household! Here's what happened....

KyKy and The Madster spent the week at a "service camp" through church. Youth from the church and youth from the Youth Center that is affiliated with the church went out to do good deeds for the less fortunate folks of Minneapolis. All in all a good thing. The girls spent some time doing some heavy lifting for people who couldn't do it for themselves. The week of service wrapped up with a camping expedition. KyKy and The Madster camped out with their fellow good deed doers on Friday and Saturday night. Since Saturday was TOYH's birthday, they missed that day. Not to be outdone, 'Nika had a birthday party to go to on Saturday afternoon. This was for an old friend (well as old as a friend can get whey you're all of 9 years) who had moved away from Mpls, and has moved back again. So she was tied up for the afternoon. I myself was fretting over the fact that I was 65 miles short of my 600 mile a month goal of biking. Saturday was the last day of the month, so in the morning I left on a journey to Stillwater to make my goal. This was actually o.k. with TOYH because she could spend some time with 'Nika at our favorite greasy breakfast joint, Sunny Side Up Cafe. (The biscuts and gravy are to die for. Eat the whole thing, and you'll spend the rest of the day on the crapper cuz they're so greasy. Is it worth it? Absolutely.) Anyway, all the kids are gone for the afternoon. TOYH and I were waiting for 'Nika to get home from her birthday party, so we could grill up a few brats and have a relaxing evening. Did it work out? No. 'Nika was late and Stupid, a.k.a Grover the dog, ate two of the brats. We watched some movies from Lackluster Video and called it a night.

Sunday turned out a bit better. I went on another morning ride to Eden Prairie to make it an even 100 miles for the weekend. KyKy and The Madster got home from camp about noonish - very, very tired. While everyone was at home, we had a quick clean-up-the-crap around the house session (which is the best present TOYH could ask for), and then we dashed off to Roseville to The Evil Grandmother and Dreadful Man's house for some cake. I was under the impression that it would be just our family there. Not so. Kent and Ann, Jon and Clary and all the kids, plus one extra, were there. It was a typical Kedl get together. The kids were giggling and playing while the adults laughed and jawed at each other. Very nice. On the way home, we stopped at Brainblow Foods to stock up on essentials and get some special birthday treats for TOYH. We picked up some fruit and some meat to throw on the grill. As we left the grocery store, I was refering to myself as "Mighty Hunter," since we were picking up sustenance for our very survival (read: meat that I can grill). I feel I need assert myself, as the only male in the household, as a provider. Interestingly enough, nobody took me seriously as "Mighty Hunter," TYOH just laughed at me, and the girls ignored me. I can't figure that one out. Anyway, we get home, I grill up the meat that we bagged at the grocery store, and we had a pleasant meal in our craptastic back yard. TOYH seemed pleased.