Most of the day was spent in preparation for Owen’s birthday party. We’re having it tomorrow instead of his birthday because it was the closest we could come to matching folks’ schedules, and his grandma was in Sweden on his actual birthday (Tuesday). Can’t have his first birthday party without Grandma. His friend Jack came over this morning with his mom, and they helped bake a cake and played with Owen a bit. All in all, not a bad day.

Hopefully no one will notice until it’s too late that we scheduled the party to start at the same time as kickoff for the Vikings game. We are most decidedly not football fans, so didn’t know about the conflict until it was too late. Kiara’s brother already noticed, since he’s flying out to San Diego for the game. Rats.

And now we’re off to Mahtomedi for Kiara’s big band concert. She joined the band when we joined the church a number of years back, and even though we are no longer members (thank god), she still plays with the band because it is kick-ass. No, really. It’s a bunch of long-time musicians, many of whom played with the people who wrote the music. They know what they’re doing. The band plays at the church twice a year, plus a gig or two around town, so the concert’s a special event for everyone. In fact, Kiara played in last year’s fall concert only days before giving birth to Owen. :) We think that’s why he likes jazz and swing so much.