Now Rowan is five...

And his birthday could not have arrived soon enough. Rowan's been waiting just a bit impatiently these last several days. I've heard the refrain, "how many days until my birthday?" a lot. Well finally the day is here! Yippee!

Early in the day we looked at old photo albums and I recounted the story of his original birth day and what he was like as a baby. He really liked listening, which made me wish I had recorded even more memories in his baby book. Later on, we baked an almond-orange cake with chocolate glaze, which incidentally was the same cake I made while waiting for my labor to kick in just before his birth. Oooo...I do love this nearly vegan cake, but don't make it very often. I think it's perfect for winter birthdays and holidays, though. Funny that this was his requested cake...even funnier that he didn't eat a bite (chocolate ice cream stood in quite nicely).

Now before Rowan even left his bed this morning, he did get to open a few gifts which sweet Ava brought up. He was supposed to wait to open the rest until after dad got home, but he "Couldn't Wait." With dad's phone call of approval he opened a few more after Ava returned home from school...


In the evening we met Eddie downtown at Alphabet Soup (the favorite toy store on the commons) so Rowan could shop with some of his birthday money. Lea and Kevin also joined us and helped to spoil our birthday boy. After a little pizza dinner, we headed home for cake. Poor Ava wasn't feeling well and had to go to bed early, but Lea and Kevin were still able to join us for our family celebration.


Showing five with his hand....and a Playmobile strewn table:


Blowing out the candles to the cake he decided not to eat...



Sandwiched by his parents...


Happy Birthday Beautiful Boy! We love you.

And thank you all for the birthday wishes, cards and gifts.