Us, Poppet, and the Little Boy Wonder: Party, Party, Party

We're on yet another snow day (shoot me!). It was a fun packed weekend, though poor old Raf was sent home with a very high fever on Friday afternoon, which meant that he missed both his swimming class and his school's Valentine's family dance party. Very sad, indeed. Rich and I, though, were due to attend a 40th birthday party and good ol' Nana very kindly agreed to watch the boys, including a poorly Raf. It was a very, very fun evening with dinner and drinks (Mr. Poppet may have had a drink too many), and we returned home very late (for us). Charlie was asleep on the couch and poor old Raf, who'd been asleep, was up watching cartoons after a very sad evening alternating vomiting and sleeping :(

Unfortunately Charlie failed to note that mummy had gone to bed after 1am and was up at his usual time...! Poor old Rich was left to take Chas swimming (which mustn't have been fun for Rich, though Charlie said, 'I had a nice time swimming, Daddy'!). Raf stayed at home with his nana, again, and Rich and I ran a few chores with Charlie, including going to Home Depot, which Charlie thoroughly enjoyed. "I had fun shopping, Mummy" (apparently quite easy to please). Raf was feeling so much better when we returned home, but Charlie had a party to attend so off Chas and I went to celebrate the 2nd birthday of our friend Liam.

Charlie was so excited... he declared, "gonna wear my party shirt"!

He had a lovely time playing with Liam and the other little kiddos - and was anticipating the cake for quite some while. He was also very anxious to take a piece home for his brother.

Charlie was slightly confused that this wasn't his party... !

Especially when it came to Liam opening the present Charlie had brought with him. He managed to withstand opening the gift (which he walked around with for much of the party) until literally seconds before Liam was about to unwrap it. Charlie ripped it open and said, 'ta da!' And then cried when he realized that he'd actually have to gift permanently to Liam. Bless little Liam, who let him hold on to it for a while, which gave me a few minutes to explain to Chas that the "Charlie Train" we had gotten his friend was to stay behind. He held it together well as the news seeped in....!

Thank goodness Raf was feeling back to himself by Sunday. He'd sadly missed his other swim class and gym class on Saturday morning so he was ready for some excitement! Gideon, Raf's best kindergarten friend, was turning 6 and was scheduled to have a bounce zone party! The snow started to come down but thankfully the roads were fairly clear. On his way out of the door, he consoled his little brother with a promise to bring back some cake, and Chas gave him a big hug. I had said to Raf that a shirt might not be practical for jumping, but my boys do like to wear their 'party shirts'... So he went looking very smart, indeed.

Raf and the birthday boy... They were so exhausted!

And both were ready for cake! It was a ninja turtle themed cake and each time he saw someone with a red mask on, he'd announce, 'that's Raphael... that's my name'. Everyone had gotten the message by the end of the party! After the case the boys went downstairs for a final bounce before the center closed. All of a sudden, though, they weren't there and Gideon's mum and I spotted them upstairs gatecrashing another party! I think they thought it was their party... When I went up to tell Raf that the party was actually over he was utterly devastated. As we walked out, crying (just him), he lamented that he wished the party had been 3 hours long instead of 2!