The "Fake" Birthday

There are some major advantages to a delayed birthday party, especially when you are turning 4 years old. Dad had to be in Omaha for school on John's "real" birthday, so we decided to celebrate on the Monday following. On his "real" birthday he opened his present from Mom, watched a movie, ate ice cream, went to the library and thought a great deal about his "fake" birthday on Monday when he would get the rest of his presents. Oh, and his birthday food.

The birthday breakfast consisted of waffles, sausage and apple juice. We all applauded John's brilliance in food selection. He was pleased as well, as you can see.

Before digging into his breakfast though, there were presents to open. Lots of presents...

Looootttss of presents....

For lunch John requested hot dogs and beans, cooked in the traditional "cook-out" fashion. It was an interesting cook-out, mainly because the area had recently been inhabited by the sheep. They had left lovely little suprises all over the place, which we became most skillful at dodging. Most of the time.

Leah guarding the food. A very important job...


In which everyone gathers around the food, and prepares to roast their hot dogs. We have the best roasting sticks ever, these super long welding rods which enable us to be quite a distance away from the fire and still get a well roasted hot dog.

Apparently not quite far enough away from the fire.

This was a rather eccentric fire. It blazed too high some of the time, and insisted on smoking everyone at the most unopportune moments. I was still getting my first dog on the wire when I heard the following complaint, "I burned my hand, I burned my hot dog, and then it fell off the wire into a sheep poop!!"

Sitting on our dear old elephant's grave, a.k.a. sheep poop hill. Like I said before, we got pretty skilled at avoiding the stuff.

John requested steak, rice, jello and corn for his birthday supper, plus a chocolate cake with frosting and sprinkles. There is something magical about watching your birthday candles being lit when you are little... After he was full to the gills, John came and laid on my lap and sighed an enormous sigh, "I had a great day.... I got so many presents, I thought I was going to die." :D He has already started the countdown until he turns 5.