The day of the Birthday

Ryland's 5th Birthday started out with a bagel breakfast with Dad and getting to have his milk from the special birthday 'goblet'.

Ryland also got to help frost and decorate his own cake - he is getting to be such a responsible boy with 5 birthdays under his belt now!

He did a great job and I enjoy the whole birthday cake process so much more now that I have abandoned my perfectionistic ways.

Ryland is really fascinated with knights, dragons, swords and castles these days, so of course he asked for a castle cake! He wanted to save his cake for this coming Saturday, though, when he will celebrate his birthday with friends. I'm still trying to convince him that roasting marshmallows over the flame of a fire-breathing dragon would be way more fun. {And easier on his momma, but. . .he's five. He has his own ideas.}

Ryland had special friends drop by to wish him a happy birthday.

Getting ready for some present unwrapping action. . .

A bathrobe made to his very own specifications by Gramma Carol. Can you sense the excitement?

A whole package of copy paper for drawing out his battle scenes. If you could only see the floors of my home each day to know what a great gift this was for him - he draws *literally* hundreds, yes hundreds, of pictures of battles each.and.every.day and they litter the floors of our home. If only I could auction some of the scenes off to be used for wallpaper. Any takers?

And of course, each picture is "my most precious" so we have had a very hard time getting them into the recycling bin.

Popular Mechanics from Granpa Bill {see Braden waiting in the wings to get his hands on it. . .}

And an *outdoor* stomp rocket from Granpa. Any guesses on how many times I've reminded them that this cool toy is for the great outdoors? Amazingly nothing has been broken yet, but we have had some near misses.

The birthday boy and his best friends.

And finally getting to enjoy a slice of castle cake at the end of a very full and fun day.

We are ready to party this weekend! You can bet we'll have some pictures coming soon.