It’s officially birthday month around here! Not only is Emma Vance’s birthday coming up, but it seems like all her friends have summer birthdays too, which means we are in full-on party-going mode lately. I decided that since we had to soooo many birthday celebrations in June I wouldn’t mess much with going photo-crazy and instead enjoy chasing my littles around, but today’s party had ANIMALS! Like real, live ANIMALS! It was fascinating and fun (well, except for Cricket, who apparently was nonplussed about touching reptiles, haha), and everyone had a great time. E.V. was a good listener, took the instructions on how to touch the animals very seriously, and made all sorts of ridiculous comments for my enjoyment. The zoologist himself cracked me up the most, though, because pretty much every time he pulled out an animal, he began with, “Well now this one is REALLY venomous…” Um, let’s all take a step back, kids! ;) After a good hand washing, there was cake with black frosting, which ended up, well, everywhere — as is to be expected! (Emma Vance looked like a coal miner’s daughter by the last bite!) The girls had a fabulous time and haven’t stopped talking about it all day, so happy birthday, Sawyer!!!