Charlotte is Five!

For Charlotte's birthday I gave the kids two bowls of icing (chocolate and Pink) and the box of sprinkles and told them to go wild. They were very proud of the result -- although George is putting on his Serious Face here so you can't quite tell.


He was the official Card Reader.


"Oh," she exclaimed, "just what I wanted!"

She loves, loves, loves this outfit from Grandma and Grandpa and has worn it about four times in one week. (Sorry it is too early for me to figure out why this has reverted to un-rotated.)

It was a lovely day. Next ... her party!

Birthdays

We celebrate the birthdays of our distant family members (yours!) as a way of feeling a little closer to them. I think this is a great idea but it would work better if the birthdays were a little more spread out. We celebrate 22 birthdays, and five of them occur in one week, 8 in less than a month:

Clarinda: Sept. 28th
Aunt Kathy: Oct. 2
Grandma H.: Oct. 3
Aunt Jing: Oct. 6
Patrick: Oct. 7
Amy: Oct. 9
Aunt Nancy: Oct. 20
(and of course Charlotte's on the 24th, but that's the next post)

Sometimes we decorate a cake, sometimes we stick a candle in a bowl of ice cream. We tell stories about the birthday person, and sometimes we call and sing Happy Birthday. We wish we were closer to everyone, although since you live all over the country, that's not possible.

Happy Birthday, everyone!