Europa!

The first time I ever celebrated John's birthday with him, back in 2008, he didn't want a party. So instead, we had a little dinner, and I tried to make up for a lack of decorations by going for broke on the cake. I hadn't known John very long at that point, but I knew that when people would ask his name, he would often reply, "John Paul, like the pope." So a pope theme it was. Unfortunately, in my attempt to recreate Bernini's Piazza San Pietro out of marshmellows, graham crackers, and army figures, things kind of just turned into a mess.

Don't judge me.

So this year for John's birthday, we decided to go see the real thing. And to help us celebrate, we took along some party lambs.

Our first stop was in Spain, where the party lambs were often lost, didn't always know what was going on around them, and sometimes worried that they had ended up in a bad part of town.

Next, we went to Rome...

and to the Vatican City, where everyone got to see the real version of the Piazza.

From there we went to Florence...

 and made a quick stop in Pisa, on our way to...

Venice!

Where the party lambs had a bad run in with some pigeons.

As did John. (That was so gross.)

We then took an all-night train to Germany, where even the utility vans are made by Mercedes-Benz.

We may or may not have gotten stuck in Germany for five days trying to get onto a military flight back to the U.S., during which time we decided we're never leaving the country again.

But it was all worth it because if we had never gone, we never would have stumbled across this amazing impromptu dinner party some Venetians were throwing with just a table, some chairs, and a string of lights between two lamp posts. Magic.