Happy Birthday to You!

It may be his birthday today, but the kids wanted to celebrate it when we were all together a couple of weeks ago, (except for the newlyweds who were on their honeymoon), so that means the pictures are all ready to post now.

We started the celebrating with a delicious, yet very simple, dinner of salad, pork roast, baked potatoes, green beans and my brother-in-law's yummy homemade bread and jam.

Then it was time to for the party! According to David, it's not a party without hats. He liked the idea so well he wore two; Wayne said one was too much, and that it was choking him. I'm glad he was a good sport and wore it long enough to get a picture.

Then the gift appeared!

As you can see, the little kids enjoyed his humongous present as much as, if not more than, he did.

Inside the giant refrigerator box was a doll-house refrigerator.

One of our running family jokes is that every present is a refrigerator. The kids figured it would be nice to have that actually be the gift this year, with the understanding that it's also a symbol of the father's role to provide. We're grateful Wayne's fulfilled this role so admirably.

The balloons will be popped and thrown away, and the box will return to being a children's toy until it disintegrates, but the loving thoughts (along with the letters and pictures that were also underneath the balloons) will last forever. And so will the memory of the laughter and fun surrounding the opening of this great gift.

Lighting the candles was a multi-person effort, but it was managed without burning down the house.

And they all got blown out in one try!

Happy Birthday to You! We love you!!

Not everyone stayed still long enough to get a picture! I guess that means they were having a good time.