Day 1417 - Happy Early Birthday

Today, we had an early birthday party for Emma and Andrew at Grandma Ichinaga's house.  It is funny when you compare Lisa's family to my family because it is like comparing China to Palau.  At my parent's home, a family get-together is probably about ten or twelve people; at Lisa's mom's home it is more like twenty-four people.  The major difference is that my family includes aunt and uncles whereas Lisa's count just includes her brothers, sisters, and niece and nephews.  I tell ya...those Ichinagas are horny lil' rabbits, ain't they?

Lisa decided upon a magic themed party.  Auntie Susan made these cool-looking wizard hat cupcakes, so all Lisa and I had to do was provide the rest of the food and some goodie bags.  Since Lisa was going to do the cooking, I decided to shop around Santa Clara.  How hard could that be?

First, I went to Party City to purchase some decorations.  Well, guess what?  They had NO magic themed decorations or favors.  Not even a Harry Potter section!  Weirdly, they had a Doug Henning section way in the back, but that part of that store was too dark and scared me. 

Since that was a bust, I thought I would swing by Target to see if they had any decorations and or party favors.  Again, guess what?  It was another bust!  The only thing that was remotely magic were these things:

I finally found some card trick gift boxes at Barnes & Nobles, so I purchased a handful of them as the party favors.

The last errand of the day would be a quick trip to the grocery store.  In my advancing age, I find myself getting increasingly lost in the parking lot.  I'm so focused on what to buy, I completely forget where the car is.  And this happened to me at the grocery store.

I swore I parked near the entrance, but I parked several aisles over.  So I pushed the cart to the end of the aisle and proceeded to push the cart to the car.  Strangely, I couldn't move the cart.  I checked the wheels to see if I ran over something like a soda can or an albino dwarf, but there was nothing.  My frustration was growing by the second because it was hot, I was tired, and I still wasn't sure where the car.

As I turned my head, I noticed a sign at the end of the aisle.  It warned that these shopping carts were installed with a theft deterrent.  If the cart rolled over a yellow line, the wheels would lock.  Guess what?  I went over the yellow line!  But sacre bleu (excuse my French), who the hell would paint the yellow line at the end of the aisle of the grocery store parking lot?  Get me David Horowitz on the phone!

I muttered every French work I could spew as I did wheelies with the shopping cart across the parking lot.  I'm not too sure how foolish I looked like, but I'm sure I looked like a contestant on Wipeout.  When I found my car, I quickly packed the trunk and foolishly in my anger, I tried to shove the damn cart out of my sight.  But I forgot that the wheels were locked, and I ended up bruising my hands.  Sacre crap.

But when everything was done, all of this nonsense was worth it for the kids' birthday party.  Now that the kids are older, they get excited to see their aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Emma and Andrew are still several years younger than their youngest cousin, but as the years go by, they will have a small window of opportunity to play equally before their older cousins get moody, grow facial hair, and wreck their parents cars.

Here are a few pictures from the birthday party!