You say it's your birthday, ba da na na. It's my birthday too, yeah, ba da na na

Well, we had Ethan's birthday party last Saturday, and it was a big success. The house was packed full. Probably because we were serving delicious pizza. Megan had come the day before, and was ready and willing to help out. This was a relief to me because I am not really one for baking, or offering advice on baking. Challene has decided to make it a tradition to bake a cake for our little ones on their days, which I commend and support whole-heartedly. I just know so little of the subject that I'm not very much help and then frustration takes over. Lucky for me, Megan was there to give well placed advice. I think Challene's cake skills have grown three-fold in the last year. Yes, three-fold. She found a "ball" cake mold in Michael's and decided to give it a go. She made Ethan a baseball cake. The very second he saw it he gasped, hurriedly pointed his finger and said, "ball, ball!" Gosh that kid likes balls. That reaction made the whole thing worth it in Challene's opinion.

The Birthday Cake

The instructions recommended icing the cake in this fashion to save any frustration for not having an equi-smooth cake. I feel that recommendation was very wise. Kudos to the vendor.

Ethan just loves to blow out candles, blow on hot food, blow in your face, anything. So he was ready and waiting to blow that thing out. He didn't even want to wait for 'Happy Birthday' to be sung. He was blowing before we moved it to a reachable place.

Ethan blowing out his candles

Notice the well pursed lips and the ne'er blinking eyes. He's got great form, that one.

After dinner and cake it was game time. Challene had purchased a cheap little "pin the tail on the donkey" game. "That's cheesy," I commented reminiscent of Dave. Cheesy or not, it was a huge hit. Each of the kids (and one dad -- not me) took a turn at pinning a tail to that ol' donkey. Actually, the tails were stickers. So they stuck a tail to the donkey. It accomplishes the same thing without having to give 2 year olds sharp objects. And that, I think, made it all worth it. It was during this game when it dawned on us that Ethan doesn't have any friends who are boys (note -- I did not say 'boy friends' that would have just been wrong). There are no boys his age in the ward. I take that back. There is one boy, but he's somewhat of a bully so we don't encourage play with him. He kicked Ethan in the crotch while pretending to pop some bubbles. Ethan doesn't really appreciate him anymore. So, he's learning at an early age how to handle the ladies. Liza Woolsey, Gwen Marshall, and Jessica Turner came. Plus their parents and an additional couple who are our friends but haven't any children yet.

Ethan takes his turn

Note - Gwen (just behind Ethan) is the one who got the tail in the perfect spot -- she cheated though! We kicked them straight out of our house. We have a zero tolerance policy on cheating!

Gwen (curly hair) is right behind Ethan, and Jessica is right next to Gwen

After each of the other children finished "pinning" their tails, they took off the blindfold and ran back to their respective parents. Ethan, though, turned around and began walking with the blindfold on. He didn't seem to care that he couldn't see anything. He nearly walked into the table. We all had a good chuckle.

As reward for stalwart efforts in pinning donkey tails we gave everyone a bouncy balloon (the ones with the elastic attached). Beyond the game, beyond the food, beyond the presents, this by far was the greates hit of the evening. They went absolutely nuts! Running in circles, screaming at the tops of their lungs chasing each other trying to bounce the balloon off of the head of the nearest person... oh, the kids liked them too! But seriously, you've never seen competition until you've seen grown men attempt to bounce a balloon closest to anothers nose from four feet away.

The Madness

If you're wondering where Joshua is during all this, he slept through the entire party. I think he may be the only one on the entire block that was able to sleep during that time.

We kindly thanked everyone for ditching the adult session of stake conference for our little party and sent them on their way.