Birthday Musings

Yesterday we celebrated the 7th birthday of our middle child, who we sometimes refer to as the Smaller Animal.  It was a double party, the other half being the younger daughter of our Sister Family.  I’ve mentioned them before, and it’s perhaps occurred to you to wonder why we refer to them that way.  A brief summary then:

The Mother and their matriarch are best friends.  Our elder son and their elder son are best friends.  Our younger son and their younger daughter are best friends, and also only ten days apart in age (which explains the double birthday party).  The father and I are both programmers.  Their children and our children are all homeschooled, and currently both attending the same charter school program.  We have three cats, a guinea pig, some fish, and a ball python.  They have a dog, some frogs, and a bearded dragon, and their elder daughter raises ball pythons.  We share similar tastes in music, movies, and books.  We have similar outlooks on politics, institutions, housecleaning, and punctuality.  We are, as they say, simpatico.

So, you know, when your two families both have children turning 7 within 10 days of each other, and they’re best friends, it only makes sense to have a double birthday party, right?  We chose a local children’s museum as the venue; our Sister Family’s elder daughter works there and got us a sweet discount.  It’s a pretty awesome place for a birthday party, especially for kids at about that age.  There were cupcake cakes (if you don’t know what that is, here’s a picture of one that’s very similar to one we had yesterday), and snacks, and presents, and the kids all got to pet bunnies and bearded dragons and starfish.

All of which is mostly a long-winded way to say that I’m not going to do a longer post this week.  Or you could look at it as a recommendation for a cool place to take your kids, if you happen to live near me.  Or you could look at it as my finally explaining what the hell I mean when I say “Sister Family,” and giving me a post to link that phrase to forevermore.  Or you could look at it as yet another proof that you really shouldn’t be reading this blog.