Birthday Cake Retrospective - Obsessions through the Ages

People have been commenting on Facebook or the comments of the blog or in person about the Trampoline cake. I agree with every comment - the cake is wonderful and I love that Rachel is committed to always making the kids's cakes. Here's a review of the cakes so far:

Asher's one year old cake was a model of his favorite toy at the time, a castle shape sorter (the link is Wal mart just because they had the best picture, not because I encourage you to shop there):



Asher's second cake reveals his obsession with letters and the letter blocks. He chose what letters should be on each block on the cake.


Asher's third birthday cake showed his interest in calendars. Note that his birthday is circled.



Asher's fourth birthday (I guess this retrospective could be called "obsessions through the years") was a map of the world:



Asher's fifth birthday was the trampoline with a kid playing. This is the only one that I don't think represents an obsession although he does love the trampoline.



And the first of Chiara's cakes was her first birthday - a puppy cake based on her love for both puppies and the word puppy.

Asher's Birthday Party

We had Asher's birthday party on Saturday. We planned a small guest list, letting Ash choose the invitees (he chose just the "big kids" (each of whom has a baby sibling) and cousins). Unfortunately, if you only have 6 kids and 3 babies coming to a party and one family gets sick removing 2 kids and a baby, that is a very small party. Of course, Asher being Asher small is fine with him although he was sad that Molly and Leah couldn't come.

For months Asher has said that he wanted his cake to be a portrait of himself which I think was a little daunting to Rachel. Then a few weeks ago he decided he wanted a trampoline cake and here it is:


Asher requested singing and cake early so we complied. I like Avelyn's bow. No really, it's a bow off a present.


Chiara apparently wanted to pose for pictures near the food (spanakopita, baba ganoush, hummus, pita, grapes, oranges, cheese, & crackers). Note how she's letting Joey hold her without screaming:


Ash opened presents and one of them was a fruit clock which Joey, Asher, and Owen got working.


It was a great party and we can't believe our little boy is five already.

Look at the Clock!

What more is there to say? Bush's last day is under 18 hours now!

Asher is Five!

Asher turned Five on Saturday. We are having his party next weekend so Saturday was just our family. We went out to lunch (his choice) and then let him pick his present (a family tradition) at Toy Joy. We also gave him the neat watch you see in the pictures and Chiara gave him two Muppet movie DVDs. It was a very good day.

Chiara walking and More

Chiara is definitely walking now. She loves nothing more than to walk around carrying shoes and hand things back and forth with anyone who will play that game. She also really loves playing along with anyone playing Wii.





Here she is playing Hula Hoop along with me.

Early January pictures

I guess we haven't taken as many pictures in the last few weeks as usual. Chiara has become a water fiend. She will take a water bottle from anyone and drink (or try to) from it. This little sippy has no gasket so she doesn't have to work at it.


Ash and Chiara were both playing really well together at the Little People Farm but I couldn't get the angle to show their faces. Trust me, it was very cute.



Nice hat!

Wake up Early

If you can't read Chiara's pajamas they say:

"Wake up Early

Cry Loud

Stay up Late

Wear Orange"