Today is the the Cupcakes third birthday. I’m not certain how much of the significance of the day they actually understood, but they were quite happy to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to themselves. And Papa. And Mama. And the color pink. And the cow. Repeatedly. For a good chunk of the morning.

After a too-short Skype call to Oma and Opa we took the girls up to Gasworks Park to let them run off some of their birthday energy. It’s a lovely and unique park on the site of a former coal gasification plant. I realize that that description doesn’t sound terribly appealing, but the park is really cool. Take a look here and see for yourself.

The girls enjoyed running around and carrying rocks from the path down to the railing to be thrown into the water, but eventually the thrill of the wide open spaces wore thin and it became clear that what they really, really needed was a play structure. Stat. So I stole an idea from M3 and we played a round of “GPS Park Roulette“.

I am pleased to report that M3 and our GPS system are geniuses; the random park we went to was a huge hit. The park in question is Rogers Playground. The name sort of hinted to us that there would like be a play structure, but when we arrived we found not one, but three different and very cool play structures plus a large set of swings. The Cupcakes were in hog heaven.

After Round 2 of Party-in-the-Park we corralled the girls back into the maxivan and headed off to Red Robin for lunch. Not the fanciest place in the world to celebrate, but they were more than happy with the double wonders of an ice cream sundae and a balloon.

Once we got back to the hotel Dirk took over Cupcake duty and I snuck off to see my TV boyfriend live and in person. The seminar ended up lasting nearly 3 1/2 hours, far longer than I’d expected. And it was really terrific. Afterwards, thanks to my wonderful husband (again), I got to go the the VIP meet-and-greet to meet and greet and hug Cesar. And I have two very blurry cell phone pictures to prove it. I am happy to report that Mr. Millan is just as, um, appealing in person as he is on his TV show. Sigh…

And, as if that weren’t enough wonderfulness for one evening, after the meet-and-greet I hopped in a cab and rode off to meet D and the Cupcakes at Chiang’s Gourmet where they were waiting with our friends Jim and Vivian. The food and the company were both outstanding. We kept the Cupcakes up waaay past their bedtimes, but I don’t think they minded at all.

Happy Birthday, Baby Girls!!!

Love, Mama