Happy Sam Day!

Our little guy turned three years old! He's been looking forward to his birthday for, oh, about a year. So his birthday was an especially exciting day.

We let Sam dictate the decorations and events of his special day. He picked the balloons, decorations, games, and dinner menu (macaroni and cheese). He even specified the type of birthday cake (Rainbow Chip, with star sprinkles and vanilla frosting). He also told me that he wanted the cake to be "round," like the toy cake from his dinosaur birthday parties. We happily obliged every request.

The day was a big success, even though I came down with a nasty, nasty cold the day before. I didn't feel well enough to join in on all of the festivities (much to my sincere disappointment), but J made sure that Sam had a fantastic time. And I participated whenever I could. Here are some pictures from the day:

As could be expected, Sam woke up especially early on his birthday morning. Here he is at 5:45 am, wide awake and ready to open his first present.

Excited about his knight costume, which included a shield (foreground), helmet, sword, sheath, and breastplate.

We've started a mini-tradition of buying a large mylar (somewhat cheesy) balloon for the birthday person in our family. We let Sam pick out his own balloon: a large T-Rex.

Here Sam is wearing part of his new knight costume while reading a book on castles (another present) with Gram. Note the "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" game in the background. Sam also insisted that we play that game (although he had never played it before - I think he had heard of the game in a book). It was cute to see Sam try to pin his donkey tail, especially since he didn't really understand the concept of "no peeking" from under the blindfold.

The cake! Sam helped me put on the sprinkles and candles.

Happy birthday, Sam!

flowery yard

We have been happily surprised to discover how many flowering bushes are located in the yard of our new house. So far we've enjoyed brilliant red, pink, purple, and yellow flowers - several of them being rhododendrons. It's fun because each bush has flowered at different times, so we constantly have different colors in our yard.

We also have a lilac bush on the side of the house; the flowers smell really nice. The bush reminds me of my mom, since she liked lilacs so much. The rose bush that climbs the trellis near our front door has just started to sport yellow blooms, and we've just seen some purple irises open in our back yard. Our purple rhododendron bush is just about to open its flowery buds as well.

Although there are plenty of flowers already in our yard, I still wanted to grow some of my own. A few weeks ago I planted some foxglove, columbine and daisies (among other smaller flowers) in a little circular area underneath our lamppost. This is the first year that I've been able to grow a happy foxglove plant - hooray for mild Northwest weather!

This is the bush that is outside the window of our dining area.