Smile, it's Chris's 26th Birthday!

Decorating the "Happy Room"

With Sarah and Sarah as hosts and Robert and I as decorating helpers, we turned the dining room into the "Happy Room" and left the living room free of smiley faces as a respite from the fun. Chris didn't know the theme of the party ahead of time, but he was all smiles when he entered. Actually, Karen and Debbie got there before him, and they were really our ideal guests in terms of "Wow!"s and enthusiasm. Chris had a lot to live up to, after them.

Watching the Jets Win

When Debbie and the other real sports fans arrived, they gathered in Miriam's room, turning it into a cheering football shrine for the remainder of the game. Go, Jets! They were amazing. Notice that these "real men" sports fans are all wearing the obligatory smiley face antennae, one even on top of his Red Sox cap. Now, that's bifocal enthusiasm if I've ever seen it before.

Eating Children's Birthday Party Party Food

The menu consisted of a balanced diet of dinosaur-shaped processed chicken nuggets with dipping sauces, mozzerella sticks, squeezable peanut butter, good (Coke) and bad (Moxie) sodas, beer (wait, how is that a child's birthday party party food?), inverse-smiley cupcakes in Chris's requested cake-frosting combination, an ice cream cake with a photo of Chris (smiling, of course) on the top, a giant bowl of Jelly Bellys, a giant bowl of assorted candy, a giant bowl of cheesy Chex mix, and several giant bowls of cheesy Goldfish (the snack that smiles back). Although the secondary themes here were clearly cheese and candy, the Goldfish also picked up on the tie-dye theme by coming in two bizarre tie-dye-your-tongue colors.

Tie-Dyeing in the Basement

We quietly, carefully, neatly, thoughtfully, and quietly tied and dyed in buckets on a tarp in the basement. Although some people were more adept at this than others (Chris dropped his entire shirt in the blue bucket by mistake), and some people sat on the sidelines refusing to join in, most people had an acceptable time. (Um, I'm being told that dry humor and sarcasm is not an appropriate tone for a page detailing a smiley-face birthday party. Deal with it.) Ideal guests Debbie and Karen, however, loved everything.

Destroying the Happy Face Pinata

That smiley pinata wasn't going to be around for very long, not when Chris got his blindfolded hands on Sarah's giant wooden kitchen spoon. Okay, actually it seemed that the pinata was going to outlast the party, so we just gave it to Chris on a blue tarp and had him go at it on the floor. Sad smiley. Look at it spill its smiling guts at last.

Going a Little Crazy from Happiness

Toward the end of the evening, not too surprisingly for people who want to start http://www.be-bitter.com, everyone was starting to overdose on the smiles. So, see if you can guess--What makes these three things so funny: