Charles recently celebrated his last birthday in the 20's. Why the pink cake? I know you are wondering. "I colored the cake pink, because... quite frankly I wanted to see a pink cake..." No, really, he CHOSE a strawberry cake with strawberry Frosting. I told him that next time I was going to dye the frosting black to try and "man it up" a bit. So he had to settle for what I had on hand. Just enough red, white and green to try and add a little "touch of Italian" to his Fairy Cake. But it was appropriate for his theme.
We celebrated at my parent's house the Sunday before his birthday. We started off with a feast. Salmon (at Charles' request) for the guys, and Turkey for everyone else. Then he opened up some presents...
Along with many thoughtful phone calls, texts and cards from his family, he also got a "promise to clean out and wash the filth that he drives in" from Jaden and Kaleb. They wanted to surprise him with a clean car, but unfortunately things didn't work out, so they are planning on doing it when we have a nice stretch of warm, dry weather. He also got some dinner and movie giftcards, (which include babysitting, right?... Right?)
And here he is opening my present. Nothing special. Just something I should have done about 8 years ago. I finally put all of his mission pictures into some albums. Now the boys can see their Daddy as a missionary.
Charles also received a long-coveted gift. He had been trying to convince me to get this for a long time--An Italian language-learning course.
You may be wondering why... if he served his mission in Italy... why would he ever need or want this language course. Well... 2 reasons:
1. "Use it or Lose it!" He feels like he is forgetting. He needs a refresher.
2. He really wants his family to learn the language. Happy birthday to all of us!
It is actually pretty sweet and I feel like I am catching on way faster than any foreign language class I ever took in High School or College. It is fun to learn with Charles and have something like this to do together.
Every once in a while we will catch Jaden saying, "La bambina mangia."
Or Kaleb saying, "Listen and repeat."
Hopefully they won't catch on too quick. It would be fun to have a "secret language" that the kids couldn't understand! Mwah-ha-ha!
Next we sang Happy Birthday and had cake and ice cream.
Jaden was pretty quick to "help" blow out the candles.
So of course the other boys wanted a turn too.
Well Charles, here's to being
"one year older and wiser too...
Haaaaaappy Birthday, to you!"
Yes, that includes baby-sitting.
ReplyDeleteP.S.It kind of looks like Bradley is holding a lighter in the first picture with everyone around the cake.
ReplyDeleteDon't hate on the cake. When I first saw the cake I thought "holy cow that looks like the tastiest cake I have ever seen" Pink things are usually yummy! Unless you are a weirdo and don't like fruit... :)
ReplyDeleteI agree and that cake was magically delicious.
ReplyDeleteSo I just saw this post...and I LOVE the cake!! It looks so good!! Whenever I get a choice of cake I too choose strawberry with strawberry frosting. For my 18th birthday, mom made me one with real strawberries on the top and Forrest and Brandon Smith drove up to Santa Cruz to drop it off.
ReplyDeleteI am learning Italian too, well I have the cds, I just have to start. My friend is learning French and my other is learning Italian with me, so hopefully we'll all be able to talk to each other in Italian one day...
Alli- Thank you! We will be requiring your services next weekend... maybe. And yeah, Bradley helped light the candles.
ReplyDeleteKare- What's fruit?
Amber- SWEET! We can have a secret language!