Vander's Birthday Party

My brother Steven came for Vander's birthday--what a treat!  He enjoys making cakes and takes a lot of time making them awesome.  This is a drum, since Vander's favorite book for the last month had been "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb".  (A book with monkeys that like to drum.  They're cool.)  We had some hang-ups with the cake when the first one didn't rise and he had to make a second and then one of the layers fell apart and then we almost ran out of frosting and the decorative frosting was a tad...expired, and had the consistancy of licorice.... well, Steven managed a miracle anyhow.

If you're not family, you may find the videos boring so feel free to skip.  But I'm posting them so the family that couldn't be there but wanted to be can see.

Vander was so excited about the candles that he blew them out as soon as they were lit, before we'd sung to him!  Steven moved his chair back a little while we lit them again and sang, but then when it was time to blow them out he was sitting down (not kneeling like before) and his breath just wasn't hitting them.  When Daddy raised him up the candles went out, but it wasn't until I watched this video just now that I noticed that Sister was helping!


Sure, he can feed himself, but why would he waste the attention?

When he started opening his first gift he looked at me first and said, "Rip it?" to see if it was really okay.  It was the same "Rip it?" that he gives me right after ripping a page out of a book, Turkey!  He was sure excited to do it legitimately for once.

He wasn't sure what it was for, but the money sure looked cool!

We will be finding him a fun toy with it.

His last gift, from us, was a battery-powered bubble gun.  After a long search through the house for AAA batteries (of course I had plenty AA) we finally got it together and turned it on, with the kids dancing wildly around. 



And it didn't work.

Talk about a bummer!  Nathan blew regular bubbles for them to ease the disappointment.  I took it back to the store a few days later and bought a different brand.  That one works perfectly and we are having lots of fun!  (And Mommy doesn't run out of breath!)

Happy Birthday, Little Man!