Eleven

Philip's birthday is today! He shares the date with good people. We had a fairly typical day, except that piano lessons were today rather than yesterday, thanks to all the ice. After we ate tacos (Philip's choice), the brothers entertained with a series of bad jokes. We opened presents (John Mark is dying to get his hands on Philip's new Spiderwick Chronicles boxed set), and Philip was thrilled with the 3-D hologram nightlight that Becca bought him Gatlinburg. We ate chocolate cake and Spumoni (MOM!! There's something inside my ice cream!!) and then Grandma and Grandpa called to sing "Happy Birthday." The conversation from Philip's side went something like this:

Hi Grandma!......... No, not really (sigh). I had piano, homework, and got grounded (he got grounded for spitting off the second balcony at Annie two days ago).....Hey, did you see the lunar eclipse??........... I'm going to work for NASA......HUSH!!!.... Not you, Grandma, I was talking to Nathanael.... and after that, there was a lot of giggling- Grandma must have been pretty funny. Here's his birthday cake:

He's not 56. His sister couldn't find two "ones" in the cake miscellany box, but she found a five and a six (5+6=11, right?) but she decided that was confusing, so she found 11 regular candles too. Happy Birthday, Philip! I'm sorry that you have such a strange family, but we love you!