David is Five!

Say it ain't so!!  My sweet little Buddy... my baby... the bambino, HE'S FIVE!  WHAT?!  How did this happen?! 

This was YESTERDAY, right?! 

Look at that basketball belly!!

Feeling Pretty Perky

Feeling Pretty Pukey!

Never gets old does it?!  Seeing a newborn baby - Mine or anyone elses for that matter - Always makes me choke up!

Proud Parents



Two days after he was born!  9lbs2oz of TOTAL CUTENESS!!

Bet you didn't know you could fit that many bodies on a hospital bed, did ya?!



Well, it all seems like yesterday but in reality - That was FIVE STINKIN' YEARS AGO!  (Get over it, I know.)  So anyhooooo!!  We woke up to a beautiful day in Bangalore.  I'm pretty sure it was God's gift to David so that he would have a GREAT outdoor party that day!

 Great Weather For Dave-O on his birffday!

Birthday Blessing

Blue Raspberry Jell-O

The party is HERE!

I gotta say - Finding party decorations in India proved to be quite interesting.  The biggest "flop" was the balloons.  Those things were soooo lame.  I recruited Rachel and Erica to help me blow them up. 

Problem #1 - There was no lip on the balloon!?  It was some sort of deformed non-ridge balloon!?  We discovered that the reason that little blip is on the tip of the balloon is so that you have something to lock your lips around and allowing air to enter the balloon.  As the girls would blow air into the balloon it would go flying out of their mouth!  So, when and if you got any air to enter the balloon you were considered successful.  Problem #2 - Cheapest, pieces of JUNK ever!  They were so thin!  The first balloon I blew up popped before I even tied it.  Rachel's popped in her face and Erica's just fizzled and flopped as the air squeaked out a little hole in the side of the balloon.  Grrrr!  SOOOOO!  Our balloon garland on the trees was a HUGE undertaking and a labour of love b/c that was NOT easy!  (Note to self - Buy balloons when I'm back in the US this summer!

While the kids went for a swim, Matt and our gardener, Happy, (As we call him b/c he's always smiling) worked all morning to get the safety net installed around the trampoline b/c we knew we'd have a slew of kids wanting to jump on it at the party.  We've had the trampoline ever since we arrived in India but the safety net, well, that didn't come with the trampoline.  We ended up having to order it from the US and have it shipped to India but when it arrived it was simply "a net" with no poles.  Dilemma.  Matt and Happy put their heads together and were able to create a very nice and safe perimeter around the edges of the tramp.  With that checked off the list it was time for party guests to start arriving. 

The first to arrive were our good friends from Holland, Jet, Elise & Bart-Jan.  Would you believe that within minutes of their arrival and just moments of playing on the newly fortified, protected and sound trampoline barrier....We have our FIRST casualty.  The irony!  I suppose if we had left the edges exposed with no safeguard - Everyone would have been fine!?   WHAM!!  Elise smacks her face and knocks out her FRONT TOOTH!  

Attention!  Attention!  May I have your attention!?  We have a missing tooth!!  Last seen in Little Elise's Mouth!  Now lost in the grassy abyss!!!

Rachel "Hawk Eyes" Weimann looking for the missing tooth.

Unfortunately, we never did find Elise's tooth.  I told her that I thought everything would be okay because we leave notes for our Tooth Fairy all the time explaining extenuating circumstances.  Sometimes we ask her to leave the tooth behind, sometimes we feel like asking what her name is or how many siblings she has etc.  She's really good about writing back, although, sometimes she's a little bit forgetful and doesn't come on the day we lose a tooth.  (Despite her scatterbrained tendencies - I think our Tooth Fairy is Lovely!!! Wink Wink!)  Luckily, Rachel, Erica, Michael and David understand that sometimes "Pearl"  might be a day or two late but she always shows up and never forgets to write us back and answers all our questions. 

As more kids started to arrive, Rachel and Erica helped out by doing tattoos and face painting.  The tattoos were a huge hit although I think the face painting kind of flopped after the children saw the first victims cheek!  (Best leave the face painting to the truly talented folk!).  From there on out most of the guests politely declined having anything painted onto them.

Tattoo Time!

Did the best I could with the materials I scrounged up and we had a make shift "pin the tail on the donkey" type game.  Everyone cheated.  Matt's two black socks I tied together proved to leak like a sieve so although everyone "claimed" they couldn't see - Everyone hit the bulls eye star in the middle!  The older and wiser ones tried to stray a little bit from the center so as not to appear so obvious that they were totally trying to bamboozle me!  In my attempt to salvage the game, I tried to spin the remaining participants a few extra times to see if that would blur their vision a bit but to no avail.  So, that game pretty much STUNK! ;0)

So what does one do when the children are a bunch of scam artists and I've been duped by a bunch of elementary schoolers!?!  You simply yell, "WHO WANTS CAKE AND ICE CREAM!!?!?"  Viola!  Party Saved!



Ghetto Games!

 All suped up on punch, chips, cake, candy and ice cream!

Aw!  Look at the Birthday Baby - I mean BOY eating his cake.  (Actually, he told me the cake was "gwoss" and opted to pig out on ice cream instead!)

I had made him a blue raspberry poke cake.  Apparently, he wasn't a fan.  Ya win some ya lose some, My Dear!  He did however eat his fill of the various ice cream options:  Cotton Candy, Butterscotch Swirl, Alfonso Gold and Cookies and Cream!  (Did I mention we LOVE Baskin' Robbins!!)

Presentation of Zee Presents!

Joan giving David a hand with his new Nerf gun! (Which I got pelted with NUMEROUS times throughout the course of the day!  Because it's your birthday...I'll let it slide!)

Mikey, Daddy and Derek's turn.

Nice, Mikey!  A direct hit!

We prolonged the fun for one more day and I went into the school on Monday (the day after his birthday) and he presented all of his classmates with a special birthday treat.  Something very American - Hint!?

"Oh. Oh. Oh. Whose that kid with the _______?"

OREOS!!!

Standing by his teacher, Ms. Zainab, as his friends sing "Happy Birthday"

I thought it was really interesting that in a country such as India where there are soooo many gods that are adored and worshipped that it makes my head spin - That after they sang the traditional rendition of Happy Birthday they continued on into a second verse.  Same Tune.  Different Words.  "May God Bless You, May God Bless You....."  I LOVE it!  I think we shall add this Indian 2nd verse onto our Birthday song from now on. 

The party ended on a high note.  Everyone had a grand time.  Even poor toothless, Elise.  Maybe if I offer Happy a nice Rupee Reward he might be able to find her tooth!?  I told Elise she might have a hard time explaining to her Dad what kind of crazy American party she was at?!  Comes home missing a tooth and tattooed head to toe! ;0) 

GOD BLESS YOU my sweet baby...BIG BOY...David!  We are so thankful that God gave you to our family.  What would our lives be without Davey-Doodle... Dave-o the Shmave-o...Daver....Dee Dee....Davey-Jamie.....Doodlebop....Deebs.....Yep, I've got a little bit of a nickname problem!  ;0)

Whatever we might call you at the moment - We want to wish you the HAPPIEST Birthday!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!