Birthday Shenanigans

The last of my sons

is now 16 years old.

When Jake was a little boy we called him

"The Little Prince"

because he reminded us of, well,

the Little Prince

in the way

he thought about things

and did things

and his blondish curls

and because he was

our littlest prince.

The last son.

And he is now 16.

Working on becoming a man.

When we lived in Virginia

I came up with a tradition involving

what I called

The Birthday Bunnies.

I cross-stitched some bunnies

and made a banner with them

and would make a card for the birthday person

and hang it on the banner.

(Abbie's card this year)

When Nick was going to turn 16 I started a new tradition

with the Birthday Bunnies

along the lines of the

12 Days of Christmas.

Only this was the 16 Days of 16.

So every day leading up to the 16th birthday

the Birthday Bunnies would bring something:

16 oz. of hair gel

15 oz. bag of potato chips

2 tee shirts for 14 dollars.

You get the idea.

It is kind of hard work coming up with things.

And can get expensive if I'm not careful.

Sometimes I have to be

quite creative

and really stretch the connection.

But its always good

for a laugh.

The First Day of 16,

which is the actual birthday,

is always

1 Money Tree

with lots smalls bills rolled up

and tied to the tree.

It has been a fun thing

for Nick, Sam, Fred,

and now Jake.

This year Abbie made a card

(yipee! a daughter I can pass

the card-making torch to!)

about how money doesn't grow on trees

-except on your 16th birthday...

Jake's birthday

dinner-of-choice

was home made pizza

(I made 5)

and he ate it delicately

for the picture

I tried my hand at making this cake

except with chocolate frosting

(more on this later).

And Jake made his wish

and blew out his candles

but most of us were too full

of pizza

to eat cake last night! 

We played a few rounds of "Pounce"

and had a few laughs

and enjoyed our

Jakester-Meister.

It was a good celebration

for our

not-so-little

Prince of a Son!