Penblwydd Hapus, Papa!

The earth went around the sun once more since the last time we marked this day.

Ana made a tiny little candle-holder/pen-holder using her new Pottery Wheel Apparatus she got as Xmas present. The contraption is easy enough to operate, however, coaxing the clay is not really as easy as professional potters make it look. The clay simply refused to get in shape! Well, in the shape we were trying to get it into at least :)



But, Ana had fun with it. For a short time. Then got frustrated as the clay kept jumping off the center and falling off. Of course, it was her first time using it. I didn't do any better either. Papa really loved the end result, naturally! And designated it the official candle-holder for meal times.



We have established a neat little Wish-list system which has been working for us for about a decade now. One of the items in D's wish list was an iPod armband. Of course, for as little as 3$ or so, I could've gotten him a decent one and be done with it. But, chronic DIY-ers as we sometimes are, I ended up sewing him one using some scrap corduroy I had.



Not as sporty, elegant and snazzy as these, but, it works.

Of course, it is not a birthday in kids' view unless we have some sort of cake and candles and such. So, Ana helped me make some cupcakes, much like the marbled cupcakes from last year. We went with simple cream cheese frosting, nothing fancy. Ana smeared the frosting and added some sprinkles. Oggie sang the Happy Birthday song in his loudest, most bubbly voice first thing in the morning, eyes transfixed on the cupcakes at the table.



Oh, and, since I penny-pinched on the iPod armband, I splurged on another item in D's wish list - viz., The Glengarry Hat, no feather hackles, just plain black/white dicing. Determining the hat size was the hard part, but, his Bavarian hat brought back from the vacation ages ago came in handy.

"Did you have a good birthday, Papa?" she asked that night.
"Hm. I guess so..." he responded in his characteristically ambiguous way.