Highly recommend this class for kids birthday parties, and with drinks involved a fun adult bday activity, too! 

 Hmm...what to do for that first Birthday spent together?  Build robots of course!

I tend to be an over-thinker about just about every detail of daily life and decision maker.  I wish I wasn't, but I just can't help it.  So when it came down to planning something for J's birthday I had no idea what to do.  I toyed with the idea of a surprise party, but I only have contact information for 2 friends and his brother.  So I asked him, and got the "don't do anything extravagant," and "I don't know who I'd invite" responses that meant he didn't want to be a burden, but I couldn't do nothing.  I scoured the internet, and then went on howaboutwe and discovered this robot building class from Brooklyn Robot Foundry in TriBeCa.  Neither of us have a particular love of robotics, but you're encouraged to bring your own beverages, and it's something we've never done before so I booked it.

I think he enjoyed it.  I didn't tell him what we were doing leading up to it because I didn't want him to have a chance to start thinking about how boring it could be...I was already doing enough of that for both of us.  The experience was definitely helped by the mason jar of Wild Turkey we brought, and I think he really got into it towards the end.  We both enjoyed using the Glue Gun way more than we probably should have.

Afterwards we packed up our robots and had an amazing dinner at Jeanne & Gaston with a couple of his friends.  While not an every day affair, the Prix Fixe is incredible.  For $43 each you get an appetizer, entree, and dessert.  Everyone at the table got the Escargots for appetizers they were perfect in an herbed garlic butter sauce.  Next for the entree I ordered the Lamb Croustillant, Natural Jus.  Lamb isn't typically my go to, but I could eat this dish every day.  The flavor was spot on, and with the hint of buttery flaky croissant crust on it, mmmm.  Other dishes that received exclamations of perfection from the table were the Pork Belly, Steak Tartare, and Le Bourguignon.  Last but not least Dessert -- I got the Grand Marnier Souffle which was a touch too eggy for me.  I know that is essentially what a souffle is, but I guess I've never had a non-chocolate souffle before.  I can't remember what everyone else had but once again, all full of praise for the meal.

After dinner we parted ways with our friends and groggily made our way back to Brooklyn.  It was one of those great days so full of activity that you fall into bed and wake up in the morning not really remembering the process of falling asleep.

*By the way - this post would greatly be improved by pictures.  Will try to be better about that in future.