Birthday Season

As I said the other day, we're in the midst of Birthday Season here.  Today is Pippo's birthday.  AKA The Pipster.  I can't believe that he's 13 years old today!  He's not the boy you might envision when you think "13? Ugh!"  He's fresh-faced and sweet; funny and adventurous.  I love having him around!

 He's wearing his new Dalek hat that I knitted from this pattern.   It doesn't fit very well, and I eliminated the Tardises from the top of the pattern in the interest of time.  I promised I would knit him another one (now that I don't have to hide it!) that fits better.  I'll use the directions from another toque pattern that works much better.

Making a wish--probably for snow--because we already celebrated last night.  The boys have Boy Scouts tonight and he didn't want to be gypped out of his celebration.  His cake is frosted with caramel frosting from the Cake Doctor cookbook, in case you were wondering. Then he dusted it with powdered sugar.

Successfully blew out all the candles!

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Here's a picture of Tom receiving another present, the day after his birthday, from the Amazon man.  It's a book of piano music by a composer he likes.  He read my blog on his big day, looking for a birthday post, and was slightly mortified by my comment about the number of birthdays in January.  Lol.  And I didn't even talk about how great he is.  Bad Mom!

Let me tell you:  he is great.  He's smart and funny, sensitive and easy-going.  I love having him around, too.

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My children are such a blessing.  I never in my life imagined having 6 children.  I never imagined having 4 boys---they were such a foreign concept to me!  I can't imagine my life without a single one of them.  My daughter got mad at me (I think she was kidding) for calling Tom "the best" on his FB page, but I didn't mean it in the respect that he's the best of my children, just that he's the best Tom.  They're all the best!  It's weird to say that I love them all equally, because I don't think you can quantify love, but I love them all in different ways for their different qualities and personalities.  

Even though I was young and inexperienced and not very wise when I had 2 children, I could see that the Catholic Church's respect for Life was very important.  I think that's the single biggest thing that drew me into the Church; I wanted to be in a place that accepted my children as the gifts they are.