Happy Third Birthday and Saint Patrick's Day!

Better late than never, right!  So I was determined to make this year's birthday super special for my kid.  Partially because 3 is just such a fun age. Everything is magical and exciting and wonderful when you're 3.  Partially because last year's birthday pretty much sucked.  The weeks leading up to it were, no exaggeration, the worst of my life.  So this year we went all out.  She woke up to a house decorated with streamers and balloons:

And presents!!!!!  I love the look on her face in the second one:

This kid loves dress up.  So her big gift was a Beauty and the Beast skirt that I made her.  I threw it together last minute but I think it turned out pretty good.  I just couldn't justify spending $50 on a licensed costume.  I scored the mask discounted after mardi gras.  I would have LOVED a mask like that as a kid. 

After that my parents came over to help us take the whole family downtown for the parade:

We assessed pretty quickly that the RTA situation was a bad one:

Taken from the bridge to get to the platform.  So Many People!!!

But even the hour and a half wait for at train and the insane clusterfuck that was the platform and the complete, epic failure that was the RTA's preparedness for the crowds didn't damper our fun.  When you're 3 everything is an adventure and a picnic on a train platform is pretty awesome.  All in the phrasing, right?  We did eventually make it onto a train:

Everyone's wearing green for my birthday!!!!

I don't care where I am or what's going on as long as you keep those pretzels coming.

The train ride had everyone pretty DONE with the crowds and the heat and all of it. And one look at this mass of humanity:

Headed up from the trains in Tower City.  SOMANYPEOPLE

and I knew we had to get out of the crowds for awhile. Luckily my parents' friend had a hotel room at the Renaissance downtown. Perfect place to rest a bit before the parade. And I never knew they had such an amazing atrium:

It was so hot on the train that the Dude lost his pants.  Even w/o pants he was still classier than about 90% of what we saw.  When did St. Pat's become a dress like a slut holiday

We did eventually make it out to Public Square and the Parade:

And my kid LOVED the people watching. However when the parade was over and we saw the mass of humanity headed back to tower city and the trains:




We thought it best to just hang out in Public Square for awhile.


Again, with kids everything is an adventure. She had a ball.


And we even got to meet up with my brother and his wife:

Group shot!  Great pic of the whole family.  Even if one of us isn't wearing pants.

Eventually we tried to get back to the trains.  But I took one look at the huge, hot, frustrated, angry crowd and said "No way I'm taking my kids down into that."  We attempted to take a bus but apparently the 75 and the 55 no longer run on weekends.  Seriously, RTA?  You aren't running all of your buses when there are 500,000 people downtown?  NO WONDER THE TRAINS ARE AN ANGRY MOB!  Morons.

PUNCH.

At least my kid had fun with all the wandering:


We eventually found a 26 bus to my parents' house.

Hot, tired, done with wandering around downtown.  But at least humanity isn't all bad.  Someone did give up their seat for me.  Although I think with a sleeping baby strapped to me and a tired toddler clinging to me I was the very definition of the person you should give up your seat too.

 Which wasn't where our cars were.  Or where we needed to be.  But we dealt:


And eventually did make it home before bedtime.   Overall the day was pretty insane.  We were way past tired, dealing with insane crowds, hungry kids, and a whole lot of frustration.  But we still had fun.  And I think that's about the best thing that I can teach my kids.  That it's worth putting up with a certain level of discomfort in the name of adventure. 

This kid has a great sense of adventure.