Saturday August 25th

Happy Birthday Dale, part 2! :)

Greg and I got an early start to Dale's unofficial birthday - Alan was up at 5:30! Thankfully that is not an every-morning thing like it was for a while.

When Dale emerged from his room all sleepy-eyed at 7:30, his first words of the day were, "I'm so excited - it's my birthday!" Sure thing, little buddy!
It is a tradition in my family that whatever you are eating for breakfast on your birthday always has a candle in it. Pancakes work best, but bagels and toast are fair game. Cereal is not recommended (which means, according to our super-scientific Devine Family Blog poll that the majority of us would have to veer from our usual breakfast habits to participate in the birthday candle breakfast tradition). Anyway, I got super fancy this year and tried a new trick I read in a magazine recently - pancake batter in a washed-out mustard bottle! FUN!! We'll be doing that again and spelling all kinds of things. For this day, it was great for 4's.

Spent the morning getting things ready for the party. At 12:00 Dale sat down at the set table and said, "I'm just going to sit here until the party starts." (The party was scheduled for 1:00.) Dale sat for about 2 minutes.
He played with the "Singing Monster" (sings a happy bday song). "Singing Monster" was on loan from Kristin - Dale loves it! He was a suprise (and very welcome) guest for Dale at the party.

He rearranged the Car characters around the cake. "Mama, Mater's tow cable got stuck in the cake!"

Finally it was 1:00. Presents first. Everybody gave Dale something to wear and a little something fun. Works great for us - his wardrobe is greatly expanded and he is not overloaded with lots of new toys! :) He loved everything. I love a kid who can be enthusiastic about opening item after item of clothing. Better enjoy that while it lasts!