Mommy's Birthday and Junior's Party

Last year, we celebrated Mommy's birthday at El Mansour with Moroccan food and belly dancing while the A's were playing a Divisional Playoff game.  This year we planned to repeat, but with the Giants in the post-season this time, but Mommy ended up with a pretty bad cold the week before and the thought of indulging in communal dining and sharing the germs out to everyone else did not seem like a good idea.  So we left Grandma in charge of finding an appropriately kid-friendly restaurant and we piled into the car to head over to Junior's birthday party.

There were a bunch of kids in the backyard indulging in the jumpy house and getting their faces painted while I hid in the relative cool of the living room and watched the beginning of the Giants playoff game against the Washington Nationals.

Caroline got a "bat-girl" painted on her face

The boys played with Junior's inside toys while I watched the game

 At cake time, I was honored, along with a host of other October/September birthday folks, with a special cake just for me - spice cake!  yummy...  And then it was time for Junior to blow out his candles and everyone to dig in!

When cake was over, and shade had covered the back yard, the kids went back to playing while the adults set up for a poker game.  We were just getting ready to leave when the Giants tied the game up.  Exciting!

So off we headed back across the Bay and up to Fisherman's Wharf, where Grandma had made us reservations at...wait for it...the Rainforest Cafe!  If you've never been, this is a multi-story restaurant featuring fake foliage and animatronic jungle critters and a thunder and lightning storm every half hour.  At first, Daniel was a little frightened, but by the time the second thunderstorm rolled around, he and the others were really into it.  We took a couple of exploration walks around to see what animals were hiding in other parts of the restaurant.  And there was even a balloon artist who made sculptures for the kids.  

And to top it all off, the Giants ended up winning the game in the 18th inning while we were sitting at the table!