Party!

We went to a birthday party this afternoon, though I need to explain a little bit, first! :) Ever since I was planning our wedding, I would go onto TheKnot.com and participate in the message boards there. I got lots of great ideas, and enjoyed chatting with all the other ladies who were planning their weddings, too! After the wedding, I went to log in and was automatically redirected to the new spinoff site, TheNest.com. And when I got pregnant, I looked to the message boards there for advice and comraderie with other pregnant women. Soon after Nikos was born, a few of the girls on there got tired of some of the mean spirit that had overtaken the discussion boards, and decided to spin off and form their own, more private, discussion forum, and I went with them. Several generations later, I am still an active participant in the forum (which is basically an online mommy group), and really enjoy talking to the other moms there.

Anyway... The people on the discussion board live all over the world, but a small handful of them live near us. I had never met any of them before, but had "friended" a few on Facebook. As it turned out, I discovered that I shared a mutual friend with one of them (in real life!), and so we got to chatting. And a few weeks ago, she invited us to her daughter's second birthday party today. I was hesitant at first, thinking it was a little weird to meet my "internet friend," but soon decided that it would be okay.

And it was great!! The party was very small, and at a local place that was basically an indoor playground. There were tons of little buildings to go in (the fire station, doctor's office, school, etc.) and lots of toys to play with. I showed Nikos the website this morning, and he talked about it all day long! I was worried that he would get totally shy when we got there, but the opposite happened. He ran around and had a FANTASTIC time! He played with the two little girls (Isabelle and Shay), and was happy as can be. He sang "Happy Birthday" to Isabelle, and devoured most of a chocolate cupcake. It was pretty darn cute! And I think I might have a new mommy-friend, which is really nice. She also has a little baby girl named Maya, so that was fun, too!

Anyhow, here are some pictures... I am stealing these from Facebook, but they were taken by Isabelle's grandma this afternoon:

Nikos and the birthday girl

Another one of Nikos and Isabelle

The two Mayas! hehe!

Nikos and Shay

Just Nikos and his firetruck (his favorite part, of course!)