Monday. Blergh.

I am really not feeling Monday today, people.  We had such a busy weekend that I think I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.  

On Friday we celebrated my nephew's 12th birthday with a big family BBQ.  The Hubby has four siblings, all of whom have multiple children, so I think at last count there are 11 offspring amongst the group.  The age range is pretty incredible, as my oldest niece just left for college and Noah, the youngest, is only seven months old.  I know that many of you are under the mistaken impression that the Muffin Man always smiles for photographs, but I offer the above shot as proof of this misconception.  I guess he was none to pleased that he had to share the spotlight with nine other kids.

Saturday night the Hubby and I ditched the Muffin Man and enjoyed margaritas and adult conversation at a birthday dinner for a dear friend of mine.  Shockingly, Chris was able to take the night off and be my date, which was an unexpected treat.  I'm pretty sure some people think I have an imaginary husband because they've never actually seen him in the flesh.

The big event of our weekend was a trip to the Natural History Museum to visit the Butterfly Pavilion. Neither of us had ever been to the NHM, and I have to say that we were pleasantly surprised.  It's certainly not anything like the Holy Grail of the one in New York, but the building is beautiful and they do have some pretty cool exhibits.  I'm actually thinking of buying a membership because it's close to our house, I can take the subway to get there, and Exposition Park has lots of shady spots perfect for picnics.  

Noah loves butterflies.  This is going to sound super hippie-dippy, but when I was pregnant with him I got visited by Monarch butterflies.  Whenever I would work in the garden, or go to my Mom's house, Monarchs would flock to me.  I'd never had this effect on butterflies before (or men, let's be honest), but they seemed to be very interested in me once I got pregnant (the butterflies, not the men).  Now that Noah is out and about in the world, the Monarchs are still drawn to him.  Every time we are out walking, we see them, and we even have a couple living in our back garden.  Noah loves watching them flutter around, so I figured a trip to the butterfly pavilion was in order.  Well, it was a big hit, my friends.  He was absolutely entranced by all the fluttering butterflies.  I don't think he'd ever seen so many different kind of butterflies in one place.  It was really, really wonderful and I'm so glad we went.  

We had to buy Noah a souvenir, since they made us Exit Through the Gift Shop...

How gorgeous is my niece, Violet?!

Sunday afternoon I left the Muffin Man in the capable hands of Mr. Chris and took myself to the American Girl Cafe for my niece's birthday tea party.  Here's the thing you need to know about our family: it's a boys club.  Everybody gives birth to boys.  Of the eleven offspring, only two are girls, so I don't get to do a whole lot of shopping for pink clothing or dolls or makeup.  Violet's birthday party was as girly as one can get: we drank pink lemonade, ate tea sandwiches, and finished up with a pink birthday cake.  I'm pretty sure she was in little girl heaven.  I, on the other hand, after seeing the price of American Girl dolls, am terribly relieved to have given birth to a son.