Birthday Celebrations

We have impeccable timing in Odd. Three of our five children are born within one week of each other and Christmas (12/23, 12/27, 12/30), and the other two are separated by a mere three weeks, being born 13 months apart (6/10 and 7/26). So we tend to do group birthdays, and get the celebratin' done with a bang. Add to this Christopher's bday on 7/23 and mine of 8/15 and you can see the need for a collaborative event. So a huge BBQ was the plan a couple years back - encompassing both parents, two children, and satisfying our urge for a party for the other three, when Christmas functions make them hard to come by. But alas, our inaugural Randall BBQ was cancelled due to a plague-like sickness sweeping our entire family. Nothing like a little vomit to ruin your plans. This year was to be different. We secured the park months ago and settled in to wait for Saturday, July 22nd. But with the death of our grandmother the desire to plan, carry off, and enjoy an epic sized to-do was not in me. I cancelled the reservation, never sent invitations, and called it a year.

But we still had two little people with birthday #3 and #2 worth noticing. Not to mention my poor hubby *wink* at #34. So, we had Nana and Papa over for a dinner of fresh fish (a family favorite) and presents. What a great time! Leah received a pair of her very own dress-up shoes and a baby doll. What more could she ask for? She immediately put on her shoes, undressed the baby and strutted around like a miniature mama with attitude.

Caleb got a full fireman's outfit, complete with hat. We are taking him to the firehouse this weekend for the finale to this gift. He was SO excited about his uniform, but after getting the whole thing buckled he had a case of the jitters, and insisted we remove it immediately. He doesn't want to have anything to do with the outfit (even though he slept with the hat that first night). We will see how things change after we get to see the real engines tomorrow (along with a REAL firefighter)

Christopher received items off his wish list and some greenbacks for buying hiking paraphernalia. He showed me his purchases last night (pants, gaiters, ambient weather gauges, parkas...). He is extremely excited! And then we also surprised him a few nights later (on his actual birthday) with a cheesecake topped with blue frosting! The girls came to me several weeks before and told me they thought a blue cheesecake would be a perfect gift for Daddy. Perfect? I couldn't use a better word to describe their inspiration. Christopher LOVES cheesecake, and blue is his favorite color. What a great idea! But making the cheesecake became a challenge so store bought came to the rescue. However, I couldn't leave out the blue part. White frosting and blue food coloring worked wonders, and thanks to our friends the Proctors, and Hannah's keen memory for the food coloring, we still pulled it together. Christopher was delighted, and amazed, at the work we all put in to making this year special.

So, we have another year under our belt. I wonder what the next 365 days will bring. Stuff I can't even imagine, I am sure!