It was a rager of a party that brought us both back to the really wild days in our apartment 4. The only real difference was it ended earlier, there were not people left sleeping on the floor, and the cops weren’t called. Other then that it was livelier then all the other ones put together. We had seven children from 9 months to 3 years old, I don’t know how many parents, and a Birthday Fairy. And that was just for the party in the evening.

The day began with a trip to the Lawrence Hall of Science with friends Sophia, Lucus, and Eden. They enjoyed the great space for running around, engaging hands on activities that are great fun even if the physics or natural science explanations is lost on the two year old set, and a great little kids play space with massive foam blocks for stacking and climbing, magic mirrors to look in, and fun things to do with balls. However, those are not even the best things about the LHS on a rainy day, the best thing was the wall to wall view that as Maureen would say, “is to die for”. We ate peanut butter sandwiches and cupcakes while watching dramatic storm clouds blow in across the Golden Gate. It was so clear we could even see the Farallon Islands in the distance. I forgot to bring the candles so Magnolia blew out carrot sticks quite happily. 

We left at about a quarter till melt down and managed to get Magnolia and Sophia to nap through the excitement with the tale of the "Birthday Fairy" who only comes when children are asleep. The good girls were worn out enough to take a long enough nap for all the Birthday Fairies to clean the house, order the pizza's, make the "mac and cheese and noodles" that Magnolia loves so much, assemble gift bags, blow up balloons, decorate the cake, and even dress up the Birthday Fairy. As it turns out, Birthdays are a lot of work! When Magnolia woke up the party began. Children began to arrive and gifts were exchanged. It is amazing how quickly the house fills up when there are adults on all the seats and children in constant motion all over the floor. Just when the child energy was reaching a peak and meltdowns were imminent, we brought the parade of children to the downstairs apartment that was empty except for balloons all over the floor and ceiling. The children were happy again. This was the pace of the evening until we gathered for the cake. Magnolia has been talking about "blowing out the candles" since Birthday came into the vocabulary. However, as parents we knew that she is wisely fearful of candles and probably wouldn't do it. In hindsight she might have, if there had been one candle with the number 2 or even just two candles, but instead there was her whole name, Magnolia, in individual little flaming letters. Wisely, Matt said, "let's all blow out the candles together and make wishes for Magnolia's birthday. I wished for more gatherings of such great friends and family and all the candles went out. The evening went on however, the balloons on the floor of the downstairs were replaced by the little riding toys and strollers and other things with wheels that made a great ruckus that could be heard down the street. Finally, we read some stories and the families took their rapidly melting children away with balloons and gift bags. It was a lovely day. Magnolia was wonderful she never got fussy or bossy or possessive of her toys. Matt say's she held herself like a queen. And now she is two and the newest song goes, Magnolia's age is two, she is very, very, very, very two, achoo, achoo, achoo, Magnolia's age is TWOOOOO.