One More Little Birthday

The day before Olivia's birthday, Bruce and I got to see Olivia perform in the xmas show, not actually sure what they called it. The title was Tinsel and Tea Towels (what the costumes were supposed to be made out of for an xmas show at a school, a story about a story...). She loved it, Bruce fell asleep as usual. Don't tell Olivia.


Just let me start by saying that Olivia had decided that she would like to have a birthday party at Grandma Barbara's and in Corvallis, and would just have cupcakes in her class on her birthday. Of course, I figured we'd have a family birthday dinner at home (where Olivia likes it) on the day. Then we decided to invite the neighbor kids, Kiana and Lucas to join us, and that we would, since I had rented a car for our final week in England, try to go bowling.

So we spent the 30 - 45 minutes driving about three miles in traffic to get to the bowling alley to find out that here in England, at least on a Friday afternoon, the lanes are booked well in advance through 11pm. We played a couple of games of airhockey purely because Olivia could not stand, emotionally, to turn around and get in the car. Lucas (one year younger than Olivia) was a very enthusiastic participant.


We considered staying and seeing the Bee Movie, until I figured out it would cost about $75, and Kiana happened to know where a copy of it was sitting around her house (a friend had leant it to her). She was kind enough to bring it over to the house while I prepared the requested spaghetti dinner.


Olivia was pleased to learn that I was able to find a chocolate cake for dessert (I baked the cupcakes the night before, six at a time). And her sisters had suggested a present each so we managed to have a fair version of a birthday. We thought about trying bowling again the next afternoon when lanes were free (meaning available), but decided we could figure out a better way to spend $75.



So we spent an afternoon trying to decide what our final souvenir from England might be. Olivia spent Sunday dealing with a stomach bug. Then we got to attend an actual social event, cocktail/xmas party that night before the arrival of our final guests. Never a dull moment.


Lucas doesn't sit for pictures. I managed to get his face.