Brookie's birthday!

Okay, yeah, so... it was over a week ago. Sorry sweetie! I'd better do the obligatory blog post to chronicle it for posterity (specifically, her). I would have been more on top of this one but Travis's birthday kind of wiped me out. I wanted to give him one last birthday hurrah before it becomes all Brooklyn, all the time, as it surely will on each successive birthday starting next year with 3.

First off, Travis went in to do some experiments early in the morning, but he came home with a huge bee balloon ("'Bee' for Brooklyn"!) and a little stuffed lion... because we were, of course, going to the zoo!I just love the National Zoo. I don't know if it's because it's free (probably that's why) or because I know my way around and can find all the animals, all the time. Although the previous week we were enjoying 90-degree weather, Brooklyn's birthday was the COLDEST day of the month! (But still ironically sunny) I wore two sweaters and still was a tiny bit miserable. Luckily the girls were good sports anyway.

Cool things about this trip to the zoo:

• There was a guy in the elephant... yard?... bribing the elephants to perform. Who knew an elephant can stand on only two feet? Now we know.
• In the farm section, they brought out a goat so the kids could pet it. As they were leading it out, Kate and Brooklyn ran after that thing like rabid hyenas. I was a little bit afraid for the goat. Travis of course got it all on video.
• We found a WHOLE BUILDING hidden at the end of the zoo we never knew existed, dedicated to animals of the Amazon (which was awesome because remember it is warm in the Amazon, so I had a chance to thaw.) We saw freshwater stingrays which can SHOOT stingers like darts, poisonous frogs, gigantic fish, and a sleeping snake.

(This stingray is trying to give Brooklyn a birthday kiss through the glass)

Oh and also, the prairie dogs. The girls are trying to imitate the prairie dog in the background, but I think it was so cold they were frozen in place...
That evening we went to dinner to celebrate both birthdays (Travis's and Brooklyn's) at our favorite Mexican restaurant at the Rio. (No pictures there. Just a lot of eating.) There was no cake that day (too tired)... so we stuck a "2" candle in one of Travis's cupcakes.

That's right... PRINCESS PANTIES!

The next day we had the REAL cake and the REAL presents! We aren't big cake people so I made half a cake, or rather, one layer, then cut off the corners and stuck them together to make a second layer, but smaller cake. Get it? Anyway I'm not much of a cake decorator either (you may recall Brooklyn's cake masterpiece from last year's birthday) so I just kept piling on more frosting until you couldn't see anymore crumbs. That is why it looks like... a big square mound of frosting. I still think it's an improvement from last year, which is all that matters.

She liked it anyway.
Oh wait, of course we did record the singing. In the dark. Sorry.

Travis the Prairie Dog.
Okay, have you seen this? Sidewalk chalk in 3-D??? It's so great.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, little B! I still can't believe it's been 2 years!
We love you SO MUCH!