A Lola Birthday

My mom won't be with us for Anthony's birthday at the end of this week, but she brought his present with her this weekend. She also brought a present from my sister Melissa and her daughter Emily, (Emily even made a cute birthday card with her "trademark" on the back) so we had a separate birthday celebration so she and my dad could see him open his gifts.

Since we were gone to various activities yesterday and my mom stayed home with the little ones, she made a brownie cake and topped it with some chocolate pudding. Natalie is always ready to help in the kitchen and Eric always loves watching anything going on in the kitchen so they both "helped" their Lola decorate the cake.

The kids wanted to put sprinkles on the cake. Unfortunately, Natalie used the big hole and a large amount of sprinkles poured out all at once. She tried to redistribute the sprinkles, but would have been tedious. Instead they just put more sprinkles on the cake. It was cute to see her pour some sprinkles into Eric's hand and he would dump everything in his hand onto the cake.

We didn't get a chance to go to church on Saturday as per our usual, because of Anthony's soccer game, but we did go out to eat at El Mirasol, which was Anthony's choice. After dinner we came home to have some of Anthony's cake. He didn't mind the extra sprinkles at all.

Someone suggested using the birthday party hats that were left over from a previous party (I think they were even from one of Alex's parties a long time ago). Eric and Natalie both loved wearing the hats and everyone else was a good sport about it too. Anthony broke two straps trying to put the hat on himself so Patrick ended up putting the hat on him. He had to reach up quite a bit to be able to put the hat on his much taller son's head.

We sang "Happy Birthday" and then Anthony cut his own rather large piece of brownie cake. With all of the pictures I was taking, Mom asked if she and Dad could have a picture with Anthony. Of course I was willing to take a picture! Look at how much taller Anthony is.

Eric "helped" Anthony open his presents. Mom and Dad got him some shirts and shoes and a travel shaver--his first shaver ever. Melissa and Emily got him some nice shirts, with specific instructions to wear the T-shirts under the button-down shirts that were supposed to be worn unbuttoned. That's my sister--always looking out to make sure my family is fashionable and presentable. Thanks, sis!

My parents left this morning as the rest of us were heading off to church. I grew up wishing my grandparents lived in town like my friends' grandparents. They got to do fun stuff with their grandparents all the time. Because of all of the kids' activities, it's tough to try to visit my parents, and it's getting harder for my Dad to travel, so it's tough for them to visit us often too. I really cherish these times we do have together.