Gary's Hapt Birthday

Gary recently had a major-milestone birthday, so I wanted to try to celebrate in a milestone-type way. Obviously the first step to festivity was letting Josh pick out a bunch of stuff for the party, since he really knows what he's doing. He picked out a card about golfing (Gary doesn't golf), a banner, some Spiderman plates, and some party blower thingies (you know, where the paper inflates and blows out). As soon as we got home from the store Josh started searching the sacks for the stuff, but my secrets were safe because Gary didn't understand a thing he was saying. (Imagine a distraught 2-year-old asking over and over, "Mom, where da bwow-ons (blow-ons)? Bwow-ons, mom, where dey?")

Luckily Gary's birthday was on a Sunday, so we got to have birthday breakfast as an everyone's-awake-family. Noah had his first pancakes, and absolutely scarfed them. Gary and Josh apparently liked them, too. Here is the banner Josh chose for Gary. I thought it was pretty great, and it hung there festively for a couple of hours before Gary's brother Taylor asked, "Is there any reason why Gary is having a hapt birthday?" Sure enough, the birthday was hapt. It was made in China exclusively for Wal-Mart, so it screams quality. No, I'm not taking it back and getting a new one. I enjoyed Gary's Hapt Birthday quite a lot.

We had a grand birthday buffet (that was the intent, so don't tell me if it wasn't), and then our favorite chocolate cake. Woo-hoo, Gary's getting a lot of candles these days! (Nephews looking on.)

Don't worry, though, photographic evidence shows he didn't have to blow out the candles alone. Michael and Dereck are shown here, but Josh was doing the same thing from across the table.
Then it was time for Giant Boggle. (The red paper has a Boggle grid on it.) Three of Gary's brothers and one of his sisters came with their families, and so did one of my sisters, so we had a full house. You would think playing Boggle wouldn't work in these circumstances, but we had a great time. I wasn't getting any original words, but for some reason Gary and his brothers are really good at it. But where is Gary?

He's in the back, quietly beating everyone.

Noah loved having people around to pay attention to him. I know Martha's closing her eyes here, but she's still beautiful.

Then it was pinata time! The pinata was giant lips, if that's not apparent. Josh and Michael took the first surprisingly hard whacks at it. This was right down their alley.

Here's the shot I got of Gary's turn.

When the pinata finally broke, low-fat granola bars and Tootsie Rolls (one item befitting Gary's age, and one item for the kids) came spilling out. Noah was taking advantage of the situation as much as anyone. A couple minutes later I retrieved a piece of Tootsie Roll from his mouth. It was so much fun having everyone together, I wish we had some darling group shot, but alas, there is none. Wait, the Boggle shot is darling in a studious way . . . regardless, I have no conclusion because I don't know exactly what Gary thought. I hope you had a happy birthday . . . I love you, hope you have a very Hapt year!