May 23rd, R's Birthday!

We were headed to Paris during R's 7th birthday, so we let him open his gift early. If you know him very well, you'll be able to guess what it was.

He loves Legos! They are such a great gift because he's actually following directions while he's making a toy. As a former teacher, I love this kind of gift!!

During his recent trip to the states, K had picked up a card that played the Imperial March (Darth Vader's theme song). You can tell he enjoyed it by his reaction. Don't you love genuine smiles caught on camera instead of the posed ones?

Wow - what a sunny day in Belgium it was!
There are those eyeballs again...it must be a boy thing.
He was a little disappointed because for your birthday, you don't quite get the star treatment in Paris restaurants like you do in Indiana! He quickly got over that though when he tasted his ice cream for dessert.

Just like last year, I made him a cookie cake to take to school for the celebration. I had purchased the ingredients before we moved to Belgium in December just in case I couldn't find them here. I was shocked when it turned out great! You never know with the ovens here if your recipe is going to actually come out the way you remember it tasting back home or completely different. Of course when I dropped it off at school and whipped out the camera to get a picture, I was out of batteries. He reported that it was delicious, but we didn't get a bite even though there were extra pieces I had cut. There happened to be a substitute teacher in his classroom that day and he told me she had 3 pieces...Hmmm.