Stay Back, Paparazzi!

My niece turned seven this weekend, so we loaded up the car with the gift, the playpen (like napping would happen, seriously must have been deranged), stroller, a compost bin for my sister, and all kinds of other miscellania. We made it to St. Paul and the car started to act funny. After 172,000 miles, it's got a right, after all. Luckily we got it turned back towards home and coasted into the auto mechanic's just a couple of miles from our house. But by then (and after walking the two miles home from the mechanic) we were all hungry and stressed and had to move all the crap we loaded into one car into our other car. So it was not a great beginning to our day.

We've decided that if the car is kaput, we're okay with it. We really only need one car, and we could use the extra dough we spend on insurance. Still, I'm dreaming of a car with "butt warmers" and my husband's dreaming of a car with a tape player. Mini van, actually (I vetoed this).

The birthday party was fun, even the cat thought it was relaxing. The kids played till Grant shredded the knees of his pants and had to be sponged down to at least remove the top layer of grunge. Poor guy was so tuckered out! The gift I made went over well, the birthday girl got a kick out of the fact that I threw in the leftover fabric which she believes she can use to "make like 1000 barbie dresses!!"

The day was not as camera-happy as our last birthday (baby Pumpkin's), even though we now have three fancy digital SLRs amoung us. My parents and sister now use the Canon Rebel and I'm still loving my Nikon D40. Unfortunately that means that there isn't just one nerd at every party, there's a whole swarm of us, capturing every birthday candle, funny face, or goofy move. As demonstrated above. It's getting ridiculous!