Birthday Evening

 Clearly I need a personal photographer to attend my family's events, because when I host, I don't seem to pull out the camera enough! For David's birthday dinner, we invited over some of our favorite people--Joshua and Shasta Petersen and Amy Russell. They showered our boy with love and gifts on his big day. How on earth did I let the evening pass us up without getting David in a photo with each of them? Oh, how we love the people in our lives that love our boy so well.

The menu was vaguely familiar from previous years . . . Tortelini (plain for David, with Pesto for the rest of us), peas, and ice cream salad.

For his cake, David requested a chocolate train cake. I'm currently teaching cake decorating at our homeschool coop. I know how to make beautiful cakes. Somehow my kids still settle for the simple. They don't seem to mind, but maybe one of these years I'll plan ahead enough to make an amazing cake for my kids' birthdays.

It officially takes two hands . . . this boy is growing up!

David had been anticipating his presents all day, and I kept telling him that he would open them after we ate dinner. The second he finished his serving of plain Tortellini, David walked over to the present pile and helped himself. Some of the adults were still serving up their plates for dinner, and he was already opening gifts. I let him go with the momentum, then the next day I explained the courtesies of waiting to be given gifts, not just helping yourself. But a the time, it was innocent enough--and the birthday boy was very grateful for his new toys!

He didn't waste any time getting those boxes opened and trying a few things out. The straw set with all the connector pieces was really fun, and provided some of the funniest laughs of the evening. By the next morning, it was designated as a bath toy only since David had more fun blowing water out of the straws than he had sucking it in. That kind of fun belongs in the bath tub, not at the dinner table. But it sure gave us some good laughs for the evening!

One of the connector pieces was a "T", which meant 2 people could suck out of the same straw at the same time. I was the brave soul that humored my boy. Let's just say that David's mouth was closer to me than the cup of water, so I lost my appetite for the fun when I realized the route of the water through the straw. Funny? Absolutely? Disgusting? Yep, that too.

While the adults continued to chat, David broke out one toy at a time. He didn't waste any time on opening up the wood building kit from Nana and Pappy.

We also took some time to sit David down and interview him on camera.

David loved the attention of having the spotlight on him--with all the adults and the camera watching him, he really hammed it up. I'll have to go back and watch the interview to capture a few of his answers in a blog post sometime.

Happy Birthday, David! We love you, and we love having you in our family!