Birthdays

Last August, we were at the beach for my niece Kathleen's first birthday. We made cupcakes and had a few presents in honor of the occasion, and Kathleen seemed pretty excited about all of the commotion. When presented with her birthday cupcake with a candle on it, however, things went downhill. Kathleen was terrified of the burning candle and not only refused to eat the cupcake, but she started to cry. Even after the offending candle was removed, she would not touch the cupcake.

So, we were a little worried about Nathan's response to his birthday cupcake, having seen what could happen. We should have remembered that Nathan is a future Boy Scout, and thus a future pyromaniac. He was fascinated by the candle, so much so that he reached out to grab the still-burning cupcake and put it out with his chubby little fist. The burn wasn't too bad, and Nathan's tears dried up as he started to eat the frosting on his cupcake. Yum! He ate off all the frosting from both cupcakes and then downed the cake itself. Chocolate makes everything better.

The following day was Chad's birthday, and we celebrated with sushi and a ten-layer cake from Mike's Farm, a local restaurant on a farm. The cake was delicious and finished in a scarily short period of time. We did have friends over to help with the cake, plus Chad's parents came in for a long weekend to see the sights of Jacksonville and to celebrate two generations of Reese birthdays. All in all, an enjoyable and successful birthday weekend, and it really has taken me a week to recover. Yikes! Speaking of which, it's time for a nap...