HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY

BLADE!!!!

My little boy is already 6 years old....where has the time gone?

It doesn't seem that long ago that I was pregnant with Blade and talking to Doug in the morning wishing him a Happy Birthday and saying "I guess I won't be having my baby on your birthday". And then hours later I was telling a friend, "Can you take care of my patient?...my water just broke".

I did NOT make Blade's cake this year. I took the easy way out. Blade wanted another dinosaur cake and I was looking online for a particular dinosaur that I had seen last year and discovered that it was discontinued and the cheapest price was $25 plus s&h (I hate s&h...). Well, a month ago, Blade and I were at a local grocery store and saw the dinosaur on display at the bakery! (Excitement on my part! And I suggested that we just order the cake from the bakery)

But wait, it gets even better....

When I went to pay for the cake, it was only $20 plus tax! CHEAPER than if I had ordered the piece and decorated the cake myself (and I still have the dinosaur to use on another cake, when I actually put together a party for Blade after Spring Break sometime).

The dinosaur is motion activated and pops out alittle, opens it's mouth and roars while it's eyes flash red...the flashing red eyes are Blade's favorite part.

The first time it activated, Blade was surprised and then he couldn't get enough of it. It was a pure joy to watch this boy playing with his dinosaur...the cake was a hit!

When Nicole got home from school, she walked past the cake and when she heard the roar, she was more startled than Blade was... I believe in one motion she stopped, dropped her jaw and turned.

The boys are on Spring Break right now and while we waited for Nicole to get home from school so we could do the "cake thing", Blade, Chay and I went to Red Robin so that they could get their free birthday meals (with their birthdays only 1 week apart, their coupons overlap). The trip only cost us 2 drinks and a tip.

( I was surprised and pleased that for the side order that came with the kid's meal, Blade chose melon slices...I was, and am, a french fry type of girl...and it shows...)

As a family we went to the Clark Planetarium at Gateway and watched "Born to be Wild" in 3D. It was about orphan elephants in Kenya and orangutans in Indonesia. I really enjoyed the film and was educated.

Nicole and Dave played around lighting up different watts of light.

Nicole took special interest in the swinging pendulum moving as the earth rotates and knocks over metal pegs. In this picture the peg just got knocked over. When we walked by the first time, she stated "that'll take hours". I responded, "No, it'll take about 2-3 minutes". And....what happened 2-3 minutes later? We heard a "ping".... Again, Nicole in one motion, stopped, dropped her jaw and turned.

Blade loves this "game". It's a donation thing but the first time we used it, Chay made it like a game to see whose coin (okay, penny) would take the longest to drop in, and now Blade thinks it's a game and always has to "play" it.

We spent the evening watching a couple of movies at home, relaxing as a family. It was a nice day.

The morning started out perfectly when Blade, who was sleeping in my bed because Dave was working nights, woke up, looked at me and said with a smile on his face AND in his voice, "Today's my birthday". It was the cutest thing.

Grandma's card arrived on Monday, in time as always and not only did Grandma call to wish Blade a happy birthday but, Grandpa himself called in the evening to wish Blade a happy birthday!

The evening ended perfectly when I asked Blade what the best part of the day was and he listed one by one everything we did today. The sweetest thing ever.... and I couldn't hug by birthday boy enough.

Earlier in the month I attempted to bake sugar cookies in our temperature challenged oven and they surprisingly turned out. So we baked and decorated cookies two days in a row.

Now, Chay tells me we need to do the Ukrainian eggs... we're running out of time. Maybe Saturday...