First there was Auntie Heather’s birthday at the beginning of the month, then daddy’s, and still coming up, Grandpa Mike’s! We have been busy celebrating!! This picture is from Auntie Heather’s celebration at Mobo Sushi.
Quite a while back (at least 6 months), Dylan’s friend Hanalee gave him a pair of adorable learning chopsticks which he uses every now and then. But, at the restaurant, they just had the usual chopsticks tied together with a rubber band and, what do you know, Dylan was able to use them quite effectively! That evening, he and Taliana also rolled their own sushi and pigged out on edamame.
We finished dinner too late that evening to have an effective cake/gift opening portion of the celebration, so we had to continue celebrating the following weekend. Of course, nobody dislikes cupcake time. Look at those enthusiastic faces?? We were impressed they could wait to be served!
Then, there was the annual soup party for Tom’s birthday. This is the biggest party we host where we spend the most time and energy than any other event in the year. This year was no exception. Tom took a week off and we set to work preparing nine soups (Carmelized onion soup with rosemary toast, Cashew Chili soup with Cheddar Corn Bread, Liquid Chocolate with Cinnamon Foam and Kahlua, Apricot-Brandied Pumpkin Panna-cotta soup, Asparagus-Leek soup with Bell peppers and Corn, Asian Noodle soup with Spinach and Corn), several dips (creamy cashew dip, olive and sun-dried tomato hummus and classic hummus), cupcakes (cookies ‘n’ cream, gluten-free chocolate, and gingerbread with lemon buttercream) and cookies (nut and seed butter cookies) and even lavash crackers (he did soups and soup toppings, I did the cornbread, dips, cookies and cupcakes — we’re also very grateful to Heather for watching Dylan on Saturday so we could finish off the preparations!).
This year, we had a special treat: a good friend had brought his saxophone to play and when he discovered it was Tom’s birthday, he led us all in singing “Happy Birthday”! The kids just loved it and wanted him to play more. It turns out that we were celebrating on our friend Brian’s actual birthday, too, so we sang to him as well! Overall, it was a very fun party and, as always, it was awesome to share good food with good friends and family. The kids really had a great time and we’re glad that Dylan’s fever disappeared just in time for the event. More pictures are on flickr.
