Jen is 30

Last Saturday we celebrated Jen's birthday party. Believe it or not, she is now a bona fide 30 year old!

We had a nice get together on the Minneapolis Queen paddle boat and a picnic at Boom Island Park afterwards. The weather cooperated perfectly. It wasn't a surprise party, as Jen knew the basic parameters, but I had kept her in the dark on most of the details. At one point during the festivities when we were trying to figure out some small detail Jen exclaimed to me, "You haven't told me enough for me to be helpful!"

The biggest surprise was the arrival of Jen's brother and sister-in-law, David and Olga, from Tulsa. (She was wondering why I had gotten so much steak and corn on the cob for Friday's dinner.) I suspected that it was going to be a worthwhile surprise when she lamented a week before how she had been hoping her brother would call her to tell her they could make it for her birthday.

We also had cake from Jen's favorite bakery, the Franklin Street Bakery. A couple of days after I had ordered the cake, Jen asked if she could count on some cake on her birthday. I said, "Oh, oh, sure. It'll be taken care of. You like chocolate?" The response reportedly did not put her at ease. Latter, she followed up and made helpful suggestions where some good cake could be procured. I simply told her "not to worry about it," which put her at even less ease. Note to readers: It's generally not a good idea to just tell Jen not to worry about anything. Actually, it's probably good not to say that to people in general--and definitely not to Jen.

It probably didn't help a couple days before that I said to her that I'd get around to figuring out some food for her birthday.

In the end, we all had a fun time. Meredith loved running around with her friends at Jen's birthday party. Elaine got lots of good grandparent attention over the weekend and is getting ever more comfortable with people who aren't her mom and dad.

On Sunday, we had a relaxing rainy day. The most exciting thing was Sadie catching a squirrel in the neighbor's front yard at the end of the walk. The dumb animal actually fell out of the tree after successfully getting away from Sadie the first time. Meredith saw the whole thing and wasn't too traumatized. I don't know if I could say the same thing for all of the adults present. Now there are two former squirrels buried in our garden. Here's hoping for a couple more before next spring's planting season!

PICTURES!