Change in Plans

Brandi and the girls were supposed to come up here but she had a change in work schedule and could not get the day off. No matter, I took a few days off from work since I'm a bit low on clients and David double timed it a bit. It was Brandi's birthday this weekend and weirdly while I was going through things last week I found a couple of my old baking pans from my decorating days. The girls are four now and at the age where they LOVE to participate in any arts and crafts projects so I asked Brandi what kind of cake she liked and informed her she would celebrating with her very own doll cake. Do you remember those? The skirt is the cake and you stick a half doll on a pick in it, a perfect little girl project. We have not seen them since the middle of February so we were more than ready! We brought Rueben along after going back and forth about it, he's very well behaved and it's a bit soon for him to go to the kennel so he packed his bags too. 

It went well, right before the ferry we stopped at the Bayview Restaurant that we like, David stuck his head in the door to ask about take out thinking we'd eat in the car but surprise! There's a small outside patio with a gate, dogs allowed, dinner was wonderful eating outside overlooking the bay. With limited opening we had the whole patio to ourselves - it was so nice. Rueben got walked on the beach after - the only thing is we had to use Dog Poo Bags the entire time but not as bad as I thought it would be. The girls screamed when we got there, big hugs and kisses - it's so good to see all three of them again! Friday Brandi had to work so we babysat for the day. The playgrounds remain closed on base but we found other things to do. Everyone enjoyed walking Rueben with Nana and Papa - I made hamburgers and mac and cheese which Chloe did not want

C: I don't like that

Me: It's what for dinner

C: Mommy said not to eat that

Me: she did not

C: you fight me?

I'm sure I could have taken her but I declined  and told her that  we were not going to fight on it. Fortunately Brandi came home and settled everything 

Saturday was Mommy's birthday so we sent her out to be alone and got started on the cake. They actually wanted to start the cake at 7 am - No. Twins are fun but they are also at the same stage so everything has to be equal. If one adds something, the other has to too, if one stirs the other must too. I put the cake in and 5 minutes later was excitedly told it was done! No. 10 minutes later It's Done! Nope. Rueben got walked again. I did the initial icing and then gave them each a tube of decorating icing and sprinkles of which they ingested about 50% of. Poppop supervised present wrapping, balloon inflation and distribution of the party hats. They both sang the Happy Birthday song everytime they heard the word Birthday. Then they wanted to unwrap the presents and we discussed it was not thier birthday but Mommy's. They sang again and announced they would be "helping" to unwrap the gifts, blow out the candles and make birthday wishes. Hmm. 

We ended up having the cake at 3 since no one could wait and Brandi had been sung to about 50 times by then. They ran out the presents first, let her see them and then proceeded to unwrap them for her. They plopped a birthday crown on her, showed the cake, sang again, hat on Rueben, more singing and everyone blew out the candles together, the whole business was very exciting. And it was - no one appreciates the hoopla more than four to ten crowd, especially the planning and cake making part.  Brandi enjoyed the alone time, since she's essentially raising them alone having time to just go do what she wants is far and few between. When we go to visit we always make sure she gets to go out on her own and do whatever. Sunday was quiet, we did a couple dog walks, played in the yard, Brandi took a couple of hours to go shopping, we ordered a pizza and watched a movie. It was nice to spend time with family. 

This morning we headed home, Rueben did so well over the weekend. He was a bit nervous at first and we had to keep reminding the girls to keep thier faces away from his - not that Rueben would ever do  anything but it's a good rule for them to learn for ALL dogs. And they were supervised with him  to make sure they were nice to him, after all they are only four - I HATE people that allow kids to do whatever and then get upset when the dog finally retaliates. Years ago David had a short lived friendship, this guy and his son came over to visit. I caught the son beating my dog with a plastic sword and took it away, the father made some comment on how the DOG should behave!! Guess who never came over my house again - jackass and jackass jr. Yep, still mad about it. But it was fun and Rueben is invited back anytime. And they were good with him, we had to occasionally limit the petting as they would both pet him to pieces but over all it was a mutual admiration society. So, we are back home, the wash is washing and the cat is glad to see me, it was a very good weekend.