Preparations for the bash celebrating Coop’s 4th birthday are moving ahead crisply. One consolation of being so old that the baby of the family is turning four: we now roll with a whole inventory of lightly used birthday attractions. At this point, I can pretty much set up a sponsor-enhanced (thanks, One Step Ahead) carnival in the front yard and let it unfold. No additional cost.

The attractions in the Daddy Clay Midway:

-Small Bounce House (via SIL, thanks kendallg)
-Mega Wading Pool, seen in Ep. 321
-Playscape (ho,hum)
-Plastic Sheeting Homemade Slip’n’Slide

The one addition not in stock demanded by birthday boy: Baby Goats. So we’ll pay the lady some ridiculous fee to bring cabrito on the hoof, along with a couple of damn baby rabbits or whatever. A chicken or some damn thing. Seems like the whole thing should be an response to this forum thread.

Mommy Kimmy is pulling out the kitchen stops: fancy sandwich fixin’s with artisinal bread and whatnot. Cold soups. Ceasar. You know, the usual kid stuff. The cooler is full. Lots of juice boxes. I’ve made the seasonal red/white shift to buying heavily on the Chardonnay side.

And I’m busting out the Margarator! Pretty excited about that (update: now nervous having read crappy Amazon user reviews). Christmas gift to the wife that I’m finally taking the wrapping paper off. I do feel a little guilty that I’m not home squeezing fresh limes right now. I’m going with the factory made, cornstarch-based mix, and if you complain about it, I’ll cut you off after three.

For his birthday, the boy gets his first pedal bike. Because of the amazing success of the Skuut bike, he’ll be getting his new rig training-wheels-free. The cake will have a shark on it, leading to the classic man-bites-dog scenario.

I’ll post some photos to the community over the weekend. If I remember to charge the digital camera.