Azael's Birthday

Azael celebrated a birthday recently - the BIG NINE! Azael requested we have a bonfire, so we invited a few of his (and our) friends and roasted hotdogs and made s'mores. Then Azael had his first sleepover with his friend Kyle. All our boys are in the same room, so essentially they ALL enjoyed the sleepover. Here they are:

While the boys made a ruckus, I worked on Azael's requested birthday cake: Super Mario Bros. And when I was done, I swore to myself and everyone listening: "I'm never doing a cake request again." But I will. I always do. Here is the cake-and I was so so relieved when Azael seemed to like it (he had a very specific image in his head).

For Azael's actual birthday, 3 school friends from Madison came out. Mystery Man made a treasure hunt for them, complete with a computer-generated map of our 1 acre property. They spent an hour running back and forth across the woods finding the "broken bike" and the "rusted washing machine" and the "old metal post," each leading to the next clue and ultimately, the TREASURE (bazooka gum, starburst, and CardJitzu Club Penguin Cards). Here they are in the woods on the hunt.

Then everyone enjoyed the Mario cake with ice cream. Azael is posing in front of the giant birthday card Ephraim made for him.

Nine years old!

Silas holds up the giant card he made for Azael. (a big cake with candles)

Ephraim explains his card (a big cake on the back of a swimming dragon)

Happy 9th Birthday, Azael! Hope it was as fun as you dreamt it would be!

a bit about Azael: creative, opinionated, always thinking, way into "fair/unfair" right now, responsible, smart, silly, cool, organized (-ish), funny, a leader, a great big brother... and on and on. We're glad Azael is in our family. He is quite a leader - I think he will do some great things in life! We love you, buddy!