Eric's sister Molly and brother in law Trace left that Friday, so Saturday we just hung out around our flat and played in the garden. Mama and Brooks stop to smell roses...
This was also the morning of teaching Brooks to "head the ball" when he laughed and squealed with such delight (see the video below). Here, Brooks and Dada head over to the fragrance garden to check out all the rocks... When we say goodbye to London, I will really miss this garden being just steps from our front door.
That afternoon, Brooks went with his Dada to pick out his birthday present - a toddler bike seat and helmet for Brooks. Actually, I'm not sure who enjoys this present more, because with it - everyone wins! Dada gets to exercise with a really fun companion, Brooks gets wear a HAT and ride a BIKE - oh, the joy!!
and check out the world around him at a new height, and Mama gets a few minutes of quiet around the house. Win - win - win! Eric installed it immediately - which was a whole event in and of itself as Brooks got to go downstairs with Dada and see where the bike lives!
As soon as it was ready, they were off for their first ride. Mama was a little bit sad not to have her own bike to go with them... hopefully in the spring! According to his Dada's reports Brooks loved about the first 90%. By the end, he was saying "All Done" and "HOME!" quite a lot, but I do think he enjoyed it - check out the grin on his face when they got home!
That evening was the Auburn vs Tennesse game so we donned our orange and blue and walked over to BoDeans, an American BBQ restaurant with big flat screen TVs and the NASN (North American Sports Network) to cheer for the Tigers. We discovered the London Auburn Alumni club upstairs (it wasn't hard to pick them out!) and they gave us some shakers and various Auburn-y things. We had a great private booth table for the whole game but the volume was turned down on the nearby TV so during every great play, and a lot of near-misses, we scared the Brits nearby with our enthusiastic cheering. They were all understanding though when they saw all of us - including Brooks - absorbed in the game.
Brooks also discovered stickers during the second half when the game started losing it's novelty. I love this expression on this face...
We were glad to have food and toys to distract him, but he made it to the VERY end of the game.
We saw the whole broadcast, closed the place down, and headed home at midnight with another WIN for the Tigers (one of the only ones left for the year)! Thankfully we had planned ahead and given Brooks an extra nap that evening, so while tired, he wasn't a complete zombie. Or maybe he was...
Sunday was a good day as well, and we went to our favorite burger joint with the Grizzles, our dear friends and neighbors. The kids had a great time riding home on their father's shoulders.
We did group bath time - so fun! We decided this shot would be good for their rehearsal dinner! ;-)
We finished the night watching Wedding Crashers with them. You know when there's a movie that you're completely repulsed by the very thought of and then you finally watch it with the right group of people and it's actually quite amusing? Well, that was us and Wedding Crashers. Ben and Heather have most of the one-liners in that film memorized, so it was a hoot seeing it with them. We fell on the floor laughing several times. I recommend it - with a few caveats - when you're in the mood for something light and silly.
Eric's actual birthday fell on a Tuesday and we had home group that night, so I baked a cake to take along. Actually, there's a story here - Eric had said "No big party, please" so I took that to mean that he didn't want me to make a big deal out of his birthday with our pastorate. That afternoon, I saw an email from him to his mom, referencing the fact that he'd had a good mellow birthday and that he was looking forward to birthday cake at pastorate!! ACK! I haven't made a cake!! So what do I do when I need a yummy recipe fast?! I call my mom! Brooks and I had a lot of fun baking a scratch birthday cake that afternoon... Brooks learned about the sifter and the hand-mixer.
And once the cake was baking, he got to lick the bowl! :)
He loves hanging out in the kitchen...
While it doesn't look very good (the candles burned down too fast while I was trying to get them ALLLLLL lit, and melted into the buttery chocolate frosting!), it was pretty yummy, I must say. I think Eric's not so sure.
All in all, it was a good laid-back way to celebrate another year, and I'm glad we had so much time together over the birthday weekend. We love you, Eric/Dada!! :)
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