sunday, january 6th

well, last week flew by and i am now just getting back to posting on john's birthday.

we had his party on saturday, so we were able to really enjoy the day with the birthday boy.

we all slept in and then gave john his birthday present...

the darth maul double light saber he has been wanting.

love those morning faces and that morning hair...

then, we got ready to go to breakfast with all the grandparents.

the boys all got the idea of wearing mustaches and hats - 

john had be gifted a set of mustaches from his godparents.  they looked pretty cute...

they were a bit nervous to walk thru the entire restaurant like this.

of course, they sat us in the back room so they literally did walk thru the whole place.

they got lots of smiles and sweet remarks.

we went to mass at the church nearby, where chris and i were married.

then walked across the street to the coffee house we go to every year on john's birthday.

since it was a sunday, all his siblings were able to join him this year.

they tried some italian sodas - it was really warm in there and really cold outside.

they've added a bar outside so we went out there since it was so hot inside.

we watched the trains go by as we have done for years on john's birthday.

then we came home and had a nice warm fire.

we helped john build some of his new legos and played candy land by the fire.

this was his reaction to barely beating me at candy land.

i love that smiling face...

we took down our tree and all the ornaments and lights,

and had planned on getting take out to eat by the fire.

but john wanted to actually go to pei wei, you know that great soda machine they have?

he wore his new shirt from nani and new shoes from uncle matt and almost aunt fallon...

we came home and the kids ran around out back with the light sabers for a long time.

we finally had to call them in since it was back to school the next morning.

the birthday boy lit his own candle as he had done the day before at his party.

and we were entertained by him as we sang to him, he was sure happy.

it was a wonderful day, and a fun weekend.

i have spent many a kids birthday getting ready for a party - rushing, busy to get ready.

and the kids are always so excited for their party but it was so nice to be able to spend the actual day with the birthday boy himself- not cleaning, decorating, baking, for a party.

i had done all that in the days before his birthday-
we had 30 kids here for his party, a fun celebration for him-
glad i decided not to have it on his real birthday though.

he's already asking if he'll be six soon...don't rush it, son:)