It’s funny how it worked about. But Mira has 2 friends who have birthdays this month just like her. So, she was lucky enough to get invited to two parties the past 2 weeks.

The first one was for our neighbor Wyatt, who was turning 6. Wyatt has a younger sister, Macy, who is the same age as Mira. All three run around the yards and play whenever they can. It was a low-key gig over at our local bowling alley, where they had one of those dark, fluorescent lighted dancey themes. Which basically means that a bunch of the kids get to bowl in the dark to loud music and eat terrible food.

Our party was no different and Erika made a b-line to the snack shop where she ordered fancy, healthy offerings like grilled cheeses, french fries and orange soda. I’m not sure what it is about kids and orange soda. But they love it. That stuff is like crack I swear. We had to drag Mira away from the orange soda several times just to get her to bowl. And a few times she just plain refused to leave the orange soda.

In case you were wondering, yes Mira did bowl. Yes the ball got stopped halfway down the alley. Yes we pushed the ball with her after that. No I didn’t keep track of her score. I’m not even sure if she bowled all of her frames. The bowling at the bowling alley party really isn’t the main attraction. It’s the orange soda. Here a pic we snuck of all the kids before we left. Notice all the orange mustaches. Awesome!

Orange soda anyone?

We’ve been getting a healthy dose of snow lately and I thought it would be fun to build a snow fort in the front yard. However, the snow was really cooperating and I don’t have days to prepare snow forts like I did when I was young. With Mira, I’ve got about 4 minutes to impress her outside or she’s checked out.

So, I converted the snow fort into a hill for her to sled on. That she liked. It’s small enough that she can walk herself and it’s not to hard for me to carry her if necessary. But more importantly, she can have fun and feel safe to test her boundaries. Like lay on her stomach, or her back or fall off or whatever. She digs the little hill in the front yard. Erika grabbed a shot of us at the top of the hill, notice our Spartan flag in the background. I like it!

Are you ready!

And of course, Luna is doing great. Sleeping pretty much through the night now. She’s smiling on a regular basis and even attempting to talk when we take the pacifier out of her mouth long enough. She’s a wonderful little girl. Here’s Luna in her candy stripes.

What's up!!

There was another birthday party that Mira also attended for one of her friends from school, Audrey. They are in the same class and they actually have their birthdays on the same day. Audrey’s party was at one of those gym places. Mira was all about the teacher on the way there. As soon as she arrived she grabbed the first teenager she saw and was pretty much glued to her for the rest of the visit. It’s amazing how she gravitates towards older girls. Here’s Mira with Kelly from the gym place:

Just hanging out!

Oh yeah, I forgot about that hat. We actually have two, Luna’s originally had the pink flower. But as soon as Mira saw the pink flower, we were changing the flowers around. That girl loves pink. I snapped another shot of Audrey’s mom, Susan, holding Mira on the balance beam. Don’t tell Mira, but her grandpa made her one of these for her birthday. Shhhh!

Steady!

And what party wouldn’t be complete without the picture of the birthday girl. Here’s Audrey in the Hello Kitty shirt and Mira on the right.

Happy Birthday Audrey!

So, Mira’s party is about 36 hours away. Erika’s family is already here and mine will be arriving tomorrow. Our back porch is flooded (more on that later) and we’ve got a ton of prep work todo. Can’t wait, it’s gonna be great!