Birthday Party Guest - Marbles Museum

Mara was invited to her first birthday party for a classmate this Saturday at Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh. We've only heard good reviews and decided it was the perfect excuse to check out the place. Mara made herself quite at home. She said her obligatory hello's (which she's quite good at now).

She checked out the party room. She chose her seat.

She selected her party favour.

 And got down to the REAL reason she came.

Food. Chicken nuggets from Chick Filet. Mommy went later and added some fruit to this plate.

In the meantime, the party continued on... Riley (who turned 2) opened some presents, blew out the candles on his Toy Story themed cake, opened some more presents... all while our daughter did this.

And since that chicken greased, slicked back hair look isn't for everyone, Daddy helped out.

And just to make sure she washes it down really well...

And then... some more of this...

And check out her rat-tail (Liz calls it a mullet...)

When she wasn't feeding herself, she was getting her servants to do it for her...

and holding her in her seat so she didn't break it with the excessive weight...

Presents being opened and all the other kids flock to the commotion?

Here's our daughter.

She spent practically the entire hour eating. Yes. Eating 9 nuggets, some strawberries, and a bite of cake.

She was the last one at the table.

It's like we starve our child and this was the first access she had to food in days. Notice how the room has pretty much cleared out? Everyone else went to play.

Then Mara hunted for more food.

Finally, Daddy convinced her that there was a world outside of the party room.

"Huh, there is? Hmm. Does it have food, too?"

 

No, Mo... but it does have your second favorite thing... WATER!

Now we're talking!

Mara had so much fun playing in the museum. Whether it was in a little treehouse:

Or at the train station:

Or in the world of plastic balls which she loved throwing and putting in all the various slots that sucked them up (like a bank teller tube) or dropped them into mazes. This is the best shot I got of her doing anything with them... Sorry. Yes, she has it in her right hand... but was throwing most items with her left.

She then ended the day in a familiar place... it's the only reason I can think of that she gravitated towards this.

Look similar to home? Either that, or she thought she'd found more food.

It wasn't until I was viewing these pictures that I realized I think she was dividing the dog food for her two dogs, since Arson's "big" bowl had all of the goodies.

So she made sure to give some to Endo's bowl. She also brushed the big fake dogs, and was literally the tiniest person running around this giant museum and made people do double takes as she waddled on by.

Zack actually had to drag her out, kicking and screaming. She didn't like waiting in the hallway for Mommy to use the restroom and the museum prepared to shut down. She got down out of Daddy's arms and started prancing her way back excitedly to the exhibits. I never would have imagined that in a million years, especially at this age.

She laughed and giggled and squealed and ran around throwing her arms up in the air so much... it was a JOY to witness. She had an amazing birthday party, and it wasn't even her own!