Photos courtesy of Ryan Prouty

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Birthday revelry

We made it a fun Monday in honor of Riley's birthday and he declared it the "best day ever"! It is amazing how little it takes to please them! We went for a bike tour of our neighboring neighborhood to find a shortcut to the bike trail to keep us off the busy Laurel road, found the short cut, rode the trail a bit (it was hot and they were tired from our long short cut), then went to the park just off the trail (I have referred to it in a previous post, the park with all the spinning rides and multiple swing/slide/climbing sets). We played there for a long time playing king of the mountain on the spinning wheel and trying to send each other flying off first. By God's grace, no one got hurt and we had a blast. We also did a small physiology experiment when the kids were asking about being dizzy. I allowed myself to be the guinea pig, sat in the spinny seat and spun around until I was dizzy then had them stop me and opened my eyes wide while they observed them. They got a huge kick out of my twitching eyes and I got to explain the anatomy/physiology behind the response! They all thought it was cool...I may have a medical person in the family after all!! Anyway, when we were ready, we headed back home as fast as we could to work up a good sweat, then jumped straight into the pool when we got home (we wore our swimsuits under our clothes so we would be ready!) and I even got my hair wet and played and splashed in the pool with them (that was about when the announcement about the best day ever came--what is it about me getting my hair wet that makes the day so fabulous??? I do not know, but it is very important to them!), then let them watch a movie that Riley picked out (Pirates of the Caribbean). THEN, I went and picked up Chinese food (just for Riley, the rest of us had pork chops and sweet potatoes) and we had supper and Riley made his own birthday cookie (his request) and shared it with us! The mailman came late today :( and we thought we had no mail, but we rechecked after dinner and sure enough, there were 2 packages and several cards (Thanks Aunt JoJo, you saved the day!).

Making cookies

The big cookie and a birthday wish!

Two of his gifts: a new watch and rechargeable batteries (can you ever have enough of those??)

The watch again :) Thanks Grammy Sharon and Papa Marv

A light saber that actually lights up!! Thanks Grammy Mary Lee!!

Alayna's birthday interpretive dance just for Riley!

Happy day Riley, we love you!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love the dance...ha! Joy and Nichole were watching and giggling with me. You need to spell check this blog post, hate to say... :) Great work keeping us up to date. I am so relieved to know that the package got there in time. What did you think of the spice things? I thought the one would be a nice alternative to cinnamon toast. Know that you are ever in my thoughts and prayers. Give me a date for when I could make a hair appointment with Brandy for you while you are in town; will you be in the 6th do you think? I will pay. Just thought we might better set one up for you before it gets too late and she gets booked up.