Maia's Birthday and Tour Eve

We got a chance to celebrate Maia's 2nd birthday today with all of the grandparents, Rena's family and Hal, Martha and John. We had originally planned on it being a pool party at McKennan Park, but when it was 57 degrees with 20 mph winds and a chance of rain, Amy decided a venue change was needed.

We wound up at the church, boiled hot dogs and broiled burgers in the cafe and stayed warm and dry. I wound up a little preoccupied with the food prep and didn't get to visit as much as I would have liked, but it was fun anyway. Maia hit about the midway point in the presents and got a really soft, fluffy, kitty purse that she loved and needed an intermission to enjoy her newly acquired treasure. We took the opportunity to do cake and ice cream.

Maia was all about the cake (a Hello Kitty face that Amy made) and had two pieces gone in no time. She couldn't waste any room on the ice cream, so I ate hers (since I didn't bother to get any of my own). We hit the final stretch of presents and Maia now has a fairly full wardrobe for the summer. She also has a few new toys and the full 2nd season of Spongebob (courtesy of a 9:30 Wal-Mart run last night).

The only downside of the birthday was a meltdown at supper. Maia saw the cake before supper was ready and wanted to pick up where she had left off. There was just enough cake for four small pieces (one for each of us), so I had the bright idea to eat our cake first, figuring that once it was gone, Maia would be able to move onto something else. It backfired in the biggest way. When Maia's cake was gone, she wanted more. None of us had any left and it was all gone. She has not quite developed the reasoning skills to comprehend that once it's gone, it's gone. She cried for cake for the next ten minutes.

We managed to get her a little distracted watching some of her newfound, DVD bounty, but it wasn't too long before she was hungry again. We tried to sit her down for some supper, but she didn't want anything that we tried to give her, because it wasn't cake. She had to spend a little "Maia time" in jail (her crib) while we ate and was fairly well settled by the time we were finished eating.

A little more Spongebob while I packed the van and we were ready to head to Yankton for the start of the Tour de Kota.