Birthday Celebrations

The Saturday before his birthday, Garion celebrated with some of his friends from school. This was the first time that I've actually thrown a party for him with just friends. I am a complete slacker mom, but you knew that already. Embracing my slacker-ness, I opted for a party in the park, which conveniently meant I didn't have to plan activities or games because the park thoughtfully provides playground equipment. This was a bit of a gamble, considering it had snowed the week before, but I thought the payoff of possibly not having to plan activities for kindergartners was worth taking the chance of freezing our buns off in the snow at the park. The weather turned out to be beautiful and we had a great time. Unfortunately, I did not capture of any of the great time on film (I guess film doesn't really apply to digital cameras, but I don't know what the digital synonym of "film" is). I brought my camera. I just forgot to use it. Maybe next year. I also forgot to have everyone sing "happy birthday." Next year for that too! In my defense, the cupcakes were pretty much devoured before I even finished passing them out, so it's not like there was a lot of time to remember candles and singing. I did manage to capture the party aftermath though (above left)--visual evidence of another good reason to have a party at the park!
I think I mentioned in an earlier post that in my family, we have four November birthdays within one week of each other (my brother, grandpa, Garion, and me). We frequently have one big family party to celebrate all of the birthdays, and now that we live in Flagstaff this became a lot easier to do this year. On November 16th. (Still catching-up; good thing I don't write a current events blog.) Each of the birthday people get to pick something that they want for the birthday meal: my brother and Garion picked fried chicken; my grandpa chose jello salad; and I chose apple pie for dessert. We also had mashed potatoes and corn. Being the slacker that I am, I neglected to take photos during the traditional birthday moments, such as opening presents, but managed a few later in the afternoon. Up to the right is Garion on his new scooter about to run me over. After he opened it he said, "thank you for the scooter! Next year will you buy me a skateboard?" At least he remembered to say "thank you."
My Mom's birthday was in October, and as I understand it, my brother's present to her was fixing her mail box and moving it to a more convenient location. Moses, not relishing sitting around and visiting any more than my brother does, helped out. My mom, apparently seeking entertainment, set herself up to watch the show:

The show was so good that soon the audience quadrupled from one to five.
Or is that quintupled? I think that at one point they were literally watching paint dry.
We had a really nice afternoon and scrumptious meal. Especially the apple pie. Mmmmmm.