Birthday Fun!

Yesterday was Dominic's 7th birthday. He woke up incredibly excited. You would have thought we'd promised him the world the way he bounced and smiled the entire day. During the children's story at church he heard the word thankful and raised his hand. Poor boy wasn't paying a bit of attention to the question. He was just so thankful that it was his birthday that he had to tell someone. So his answer to a question about dogs was that he was "thankful that today is my 7th birthday". The entire church had a great laugh. Then about half way through the sermon it dawned on him that he was going to receive a present when he got home. The rest of the morning was lost. He could barely sit still and couldn't stop asking me questions about it. He tried so hard, but his enthusiasm just spilled out everywhere.

He was under the impression that he should choose the meal and dessert, even though he was having a party the next day. So we had macaroni & cheese with green beans. 

And we had manna* for dessert.

Playing outside with the neighbor kids.

He chose IHOP as his restaurant of choice for supper.

He ordered a stack of chocolate pancakes and attacked it. He rolled up those pancakes and ate them plain like a piece of bread. When finished he started in on my eggs. Guess he's growing again.

(Can you see the food in his hair? I love this boy!)

Caitlin was happy about his choice of restaurant too.

Today was his party. 

It was incredibly low key and stress free (well, almost).

We filled up the pools, put down the slip-n-slide, and turned on the sprinklers. We also had water guns and water balloons. The kids played for hours, while the adults just sat and talked. 

It was nice to take a break and relax with friends.

"diving" into the pool

 Some sort of water balloon game they made up

 Getting ready to cut the cake

 The wind kept blowing out the candles. So one of the kids held up his towel so Jon could get them lit. Then we sang really fast while Dominic blew them out.

 Opening presents. His friends know him well. Every single present sent him into orbit. He was having a really hard time trying to decide what to play with first.

He has thanked Jon and I multiple times for giving him such a great party.

Just goes to show that it isn't the looks and money that go into a party, it's the fun that they really care about. And these kids had tons of fun. When we put them to bed they fell asleep almost immediately.

*the name our family has given a heavenly dessert.