HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to

CHAY CHAY

This year Chay gave me options for a cake...a Sprite can, a sneaker or an Ipod.

Sneakers and an Ipod are two of his favorite things that he is never without, so I decided on a sneaker. I didn't want to do a PAIR because that would just be TWICE the work...

I didn't put the actually sneaker in any of the pictures because that would just give a reference point...and who really needs that?

Whenever we go shopping, Chay looks for sneakers and if he could, he would a buy a pair ever time.

No Spring Break this week and so Chay was at school for his birthday. When Dave got home from work we took pictures with the cake, and then went out to eat. Chay really liked his free burger when we went to Red Robin last week and decided that he wanted to go there again. It was a good meal but somehow it seemed so much better with the free meals...

What made me happy is that we actually ordered more fries with the "bottomless steak fries" that came with some of the meals. "Bottomless" food offers are a private joke with me because the kids get excited when they see that IHOP (remember in the olden days when it was The International House of Pancakes? Not such a cool looking name.) has an ad for an "endless" stack of pancakes (they love pancakes) and the one time we went for that, NONE of them ordered meals with pancakes...go figure.

Such a happy birthday boy.

What looked cool in reality was that you could read "Chay" on Chay's chest from the shadow's of the candles. You can kind of see it.

Chay making his Birthday Wish.

(serious business)

Chay's reaction when Blade blew out his birthday candles.

With a younger sibling, it's almost impossible to blow out your own candles.

(This time the delay between pushing the button and the time a picture actually took worked out well and I captured Chay's expression)

Chay's card from Grandma (and Grandpa) arrived in time and Chay was not disappointed when he looked behind the picture.

Grandpa actually called himself and wished Chay a Happy Birthday. When Chay answered the phone and realized it was Grandpa he smiled at Nicole and made some kind of verbal sound (equivalent to the meaning of Na Na --Na Na Na). Grandma wished Chay a Happy Birthday later.

This was all in response to Nicole's comment last week after Grandpa called Blade for his birthday and Nicole said "I think Blade is Grandpa's favorite...he hasn't called anyone else on their birthdays".

Wow, 14 years old. In Canada he would be old enough to get a Learner's Permit, and he likes that idea! What are the requirements to take that test other than being a 14 year old Canadian?

Chay would like to know because, we care coming up there in June.

Chay gave me a big long hug at the end of the day and I felt so small (not use to that feeling) as my little Chay Chay is many inches taller than me.

He's growing up nicely. Straight A student, funny, pretty laid back, helpful, a style sense I agree with, nice hair....

How was your Easter?

We had a relaxing one as we waited until Dave got home from work and so preparing Easter supper was not a hassle as we had a lot of time after Church (and it was easy - warm up a Costco ham, funeral potatoes, corn, open a bag of Costco salad).

We tried a different kind of Easter Egg Hunt this year.

It seemed like too much work to find places to hide specific eggs for each child in challenge appropriate places and so the kids were blindfolded and eggs placed on the main floor within arms length when they were on their hands and knees. They had to be on their hands and knees because it would just be toooooo dangerous if they WEREN'T.

(it's not her butt crack)

Chay and Nicole were on their bellies army style for a while at the beginning. Numerous times Nicole was paralyzed with laughter, like in the picture above. Chay said that it was amazing how large the house seemed when he was blindfolded. I'm thinking that in the future, I will blindfold everyone that comes to the house. Chay thinks that Dave and I should be blindfolded and crawl around the house so we can feel how big it feels...I'm thinking...NO.

AND I did relate the hunt to the reason we celebrate Easter.

When Jesus died, there were three days of darkness, hence the blindfolds.

Things were disastrous, wicked people died and loved ones were scattered. Their jobs were to find their loved ones, eggs.

There was a lot of laughter and immediately afterwards, Blade wanted to do it again. I think that we'll be doing this type of Easter Egg hunt from now on.