Orion's Birthday

Orion's classroom where he had a birthday celebration. He lucked out that his birthday fell on a school day!

Soleo enjoying birthday festivities.

It was a beautiful and warm day, so after the birthday ice-cream treat, all the kids ran around outside.
The crown was a special treat that he got to make that day.

Grandma Linda and Grandpa Larry had sent me some money to choose Orion a birthday gift. I wasn't able to swing by the toy store until the morning of his birthday. We literally JUST made it in the door from school when he saw the presents and tore into them. He got dinosaur bingo (very popular!) and Tiddledy Winks (surprisingly challenging - I'd forgotten!)

You can see how sweaty he is under that crown from all the running!

After his nap, he put the crown back on and helped bake his birthday cake. He had requested a strawberry cake, but I knew he wouldn't actually eat it, so I "cheated" and got a box mix along with premade "Funfetti" frosting that came with the sprinkles. He loved getting to decorate his cake and put the candles in it!

Grandpa LarBear and Grandma Liz came for dinner that night, as did Casey and Liesl.

Here he is checking out his new digital camera. He is quite the photographer, but not super careful, so this rough and tumble, just-for-kids one is great. It even has a double viewfinder, so kids look with both eyes to frame the shot. Very cool!

Orion showing Pops the photo he took of his new Hess truck. Boy howdy, I never could have predicted how popular the light up truck/airplane combo would be! Orion is super lucky to have such an awesome Pops, who not only knew that Orion would LOVE the truck, but managed to get it for him (his first attempt at buying on Ebay...). Each of O's cousins will also be getting a Hess truck. They are made by the Hess gasoline company (I'm sure I'll get corrected on this if I'm mistaken), and Pops and his brothers each had one when they were kids. They were such precious toys that none of the Hess boys have let their own sons play with their childhood toys. So Brian found a set of them on Ebay and got one for each boy. Even Soleo has one waiting for when he's bigger! :)

"Happy Birthday"

And that's a lot of candles to blow out!!!