"I'm playing backsitball, I'm two!"

Daniel's birthdays have seemed to be more festive than most, possibly because it's also a national holiday. We have lots of fun!

Daniel is old enough now to be interested in opening presents:



He's very excited about all the stuff that he got! Joshua loves to share the new toys; what else are brothers for? He especially likes the construct-your-own marble run:



Daniel, who let us know a while ago that he wanted a basketball hoop and a pinata for his birthday, has a blast shooting baskets:



After lunch and a nap, Daniel was ready for more action, so we went outside to beat up the pinata:



We were glad our neighbors could join us, and the kids all got to whack the pinata as much as they wanted to. Fortunately it lasted a while, because they lost interest as soon as the candy fell out:



Silly me -- I thought the point was to have fun hitting the pinata.

Later on, we made our second attempt at making ice cream on a birthday. The boys picked up the ice I chipped off and added it to the bucket:



We were so relieved our creamy rocky road turned out! Last year on Joshua's birthday we tried cookies and cream with crushed Oreos, and after the ice cream maker had been churning for over and hour we figured something was wrong. We discovered that the mixture hadn't gotten any firmer than when we started, so we scrapped it and admitted defeat. Hooray for our victory this year! Hooray for an excessive amount of rock salt!

After the ice cream got going, we gave the boys cupcakes to decorate:



They're easier to manage than a whole cake, plus the boys love decorating them. Joshua was quite proud of his "clown hat":



Finally, we put two candles in Daniel's cupcake and sang happy birthday to him. Then it was time for him to make a wish before blowing out the candles:



Joshua was happy to tell Daniel what he should wish for, but Daniel insisted he knew what he wanted: a cupcake. One of the two got their wish, and the other one -- well, it wasn't his birthday anyway.