a birthday and two new family members

What a fun weekend! We had a fun birthday party for Mr. Alexander which was great since it could have been a bit disastrous. We were scheduled to have a party at the Jump'n Spot in Eden Prairie on Saturday. On Thursday, I had this weird feeling that I should call and confirm our spot. I pulled their webpage up, www.jumpnspot.com and retrieved their phone number. I dialed and my heart sunk when I heard the "do-dah-do...this number has been disconnected. Please check the number you dialed." *gulp* Did they go out of business? It couldn't be! I then drove over there and sure enough - the place was EMPTY and there was a sign up "For Lease" After several curses and expletives, I calmed myself down and called my Martha Stewart friend - Heather. She calmed me down and told me to call all of the Sam's Clubs in our area to find a jumper that had been clearanced. I attempted that as soon as I got home (thank you, Kyle, for pulling the list of phone numbers together), but no luck. They were all out of stock. I then pulled up inflatables on the internet and started calling. The first place that I called, USA Inflatables, he said, "Wow. This weekend is bad. I have turned away 20 people. BUT, I just had a cancel." I took it! They came to our house, setup the jumper AND the best part is that it cost less than going to the Jump'n Spot!!!

Here is a picture of Alexander blowing bubbles during his party with the jumper in the background. The kids had a great time and they were all great. Each year, the parties get a little easier as the kids become more independent.

The birthday fun started on Friday night when we took a family trip to PetSmart. Alexander has been asking for a cat for a long time now, but Kyle and I just weren't ready to make that commitment. I stopped by the Animal Shelter on my own that afternoon, but I still wasn't ready to make the jump to be a cat owner. So, we headed to PetSmart to see what types of critters they had. We spent about 2 hours there playing with the cats, playing with the chinchillas, but we still didn't feel a connection with any of the animals. Then, as we were walking out, we noticed signs above the small animal display that detailed out the temperament, whether the animal is diurnal or nocturnal, and what the minimum age that the human owner should be before owning one. That is when I noticed the Guinea Pig sign. Temperament: social, loves to cuddle; Diurnal (daytime); minimum human age: 8 (most were around 10+). We decided to give it one more try and that is when we met the great sales associate, Mackenzie. She stepped us through the process, helped us pick out things (yes, she was even good about telling us the difference between necessary items and items that were more fun for the humans to buy). That is the day that GEORGE entered our family.

Here is Alexander with his new friend, George:

Well, we did a little bit of reading (okay, Kyle did the reading, not "we") and found that the Guinea Pig lives in packs of 5-10 in the wild in South America. They are a hierarchal structured pack. This made us think that George might be lonely. Perhaps we should get him a friend? Yes, that is how HENRY joined our family. He was stored in the back at PetSmart while George was out front. He had been at PetSmart for 5 months or so and he hadn't sold. Poor little guy. He is more than double the size of George.

Here is Henry: