The actual day

This is a long post with lots of pictures. But you've come to expect that from me, haven't you?

In my family it's a tradition for the whole family to wake the birthday person up by singing Happy Birthday to them. As usual, Sam breaks the mold. He is always the first one up. Usually he just tottles around, entertaining himself. But when I heard him on his birthday morning, I put him in bed with daddy and I was going to wake up the other kids to bring them in to sing, but I just couldn't wake those little sleeping angels (that's the ONLY time they're angels). So I brought him out to the couch to watch Toy Story 2 until the others came to life. Once Thomas and Penny came out, they went in to our bed and then we sang to Sam. He loved it.

We've been trying to downsize everything lately. I'll admit that I tend to go overboard on birthdays (or Christmas) and get way too many presents. So poor Sam only got to open three things: a very cute homemade card from brother and sis, cars from daddy, and a farm truck from mummy.

One of Sam's favorite breakfasts is banana milkshake. Unfortunately for him, he's a very messy kid, so he's always had his shake in a sippy cup. So for his birthday he got an 'open' cup. That's a big deal, he knew it, and he loved every second of it.

Sam was SO excited that he got his very own letter-- just for him in the mail. Of course it was from the two Greats-- Grandpa and Grandma Hatch. He was just thrilled with his $5 and his little poem from Grandma.













I was a bit worried that our day wouldn't be as fun because it was quite windy when we got to the beach. I made and brought cupcakes with us, thinking we'd have a little party there on the beach-- but we just ended up eating them right outside of our car. Good enough.

You can see the view of the beach from our car, and further down you can see the view of the beach on our drive home.

Penny was being a nut head at the beach. She was flopping around like a fish out of water. I happened to get a pose of her doing that. Then, just a few minutes later she didn't want me to even take her picture. Moody little girl. Must get that from her mother. Poor thing.

You can see in some pictures that Thomas is learning how to catch a wave. He's getting pretty good at it.





















ZONKED!


Nan bought Sam a birthday cake with dinosaur lollies on it. He loved it. Foolish mummy left it on the table that night (covered of course). So guess who found it the next morning as he was tottling around?