Birthdays, Medieval Times and Crabs

On Friday afternoon Elena had her first birthday party, and invited several girls from her class over to celebrate. One of the games involved trying to drink from a cup like Lena. It was pretty funny!

On Saturday evening Inga went out with a couple of friends in her class to Medieval Times, a castle near Washington, D.C. built into the Arundel Mills Mall complex that hosts people for a medieval meal. While you eat they put on a show for you with a story line involving kings and kingdoms and amazing horsemanship. There was a lot of sword fighting and jousting involved, and each section had a particular knight to cheer for. Ours was the yellow knight, and when he won the competition he received a white carnation from the princess which he threw to Inga's friend. Inga insists that he looked at her when he threw it, but he missed.

On Sunday evening Dan and I went to a crabhouse and ate crabs steamed in Old Bay seasoning. It was quite the experience; a lot of work for a little bit of food, but great fun with friends. We saw some other people we knew there, too. Amazing that we have lived here this long and haven't done this yet. We are told we need to introduce our kids to this sooner rather than later, or they might get grossed out by the crabs. I can understand that...it was a little much like biology lab! Afterward we went over to our friends' house and introduced them to Dr. Horrible, which they appreciated appropriately.

I played in church this morning for the first time in a long while. I guess I should do that more often...