Birthdays: Ephraim 10, Sean 55

   Sean's birthday follows Ephraim's by one week exactly.  July definately feels like a party around here every year.  

    This year, Ephraim wanted to have his first "lots-of-friends" party. I was so grateful that this was possible because we made a LOT of really great friends this past year.   The kids went swimming at the high school pool, then came back to our house for a waterballoon - squirt gun fight, and cake and custard.

  We were SO glad to have Asher come down for the day!  He made the cake (Ephraim had requested carrot cake with cream cheese frosting) and brought down his ice cream machine to make custard with his little brother.  He offered gifts of of his time and talents that were much appreciated.

I should've taken a picture of the cake before I started to cut it up! 

Sean came up from work to help serve the custard at just the right time!

Sylvia got Ephraim a Bluey shirt to match Sean's (which they got him for Father's Day last month). These guys keep life fun around here.

I loved his excited expression as he opened our gift (a set of seven books in a series he has been reading lately).

Sylvia is tempted to start reading his books. she got him started on the "Poppy" series by Avi.

Asher, Sean and Ephraim went to play tennis together while I got dinner ready. I'm so glad Asher made the effort to connect with his brother who is 15 years younger. I used to worry a lot about the older kids being separate from the younger ones, but it seems to be working out.

Sean's birthday was today. On our family video chat last week he mentioned what he thought his perfect birthday would look like: some outside art time, getting a new board game, and playing it (something like Scythe),  and grilling brats.

So, that's how we rolled today. He took the day off work, and was up early to go oil paint at the park above the river.  We got him Scythe for his gift, so he spent a large chunk of the day learning the rules and setting the game up. We enjoyed playing it with him in the evening.  Which led to grilling brats, and video chattting with the older kids.   A good day all around.  (And cheesecake!  Lots of cheesecake!)

 Sylvia did a creative job of wrapping, since we ran out of wrapping paper. Luckily, she has a lot of sheet music printed out that she doesn't need anymore!

    We enjoyed cheesecake with Door County Cherry pie filling on top for breakast, and an afternoon snack. That's the benefit of starting the celebration early in the day.

Grill buddies. Ephraim supposedly helps keep the grill cooled to the right temperature with squirt guns.  Not sure if that's how the professionals do it, but it seemed to work, the brats were perfectly done!