The Best Birthday of Dallin's Whole Life!

Dallin turned 5 years old today! The day began at 6:30 am, with Dallin appearing at our bedside and saying, in a very casual voice, "So, I just remembered that today is my birthday." And so it was. 

Dallin had a fun, happy day. We opened presents in the morning and then baked a volcano birthday cake. We had a visit at Great-Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house, and then received visits from Grandpa Smith (Grandma Smith was still away at a family wedding), Great-Grandpa Regehr, and Grandpa & Grandma Bissett. Dallin declared that it was "the best birthday of my entire life!" We're not too sure how many other birthdays he remembers so far, but it's good to know that they're getting better! Dallin is such a fun little character and we love him very much. We're so glad he's in our family.

Dallin, full of anticipation for present-opening!

A plush woolly mammoth that Dallin had long wished for, but hadn't actually ever seen anywhere. He was just sure his idea must exist somewhere, and it became his mother's job to find it (which I did!). He immediately named it Tuskers, a name he had picked out long ago.

This is a book all about prehistoric Sea Monsters and is based on Dallin's favourite National Geographic documentary. He learned about Tylosaurs from this show and has become fascinated with them. Another of his gifts was a small, plastic Tylosaur replica.

Our Little Wolf Pack

Taylor and Caleb received brother presents on Dallin's birthday so that they would all have matching wolf T-shirts and binoculars. The boys have decided that the binoculars provide "scent vision" for when they play wolf pack together. That is, the binoculars allow them to "see" smells, in order to locate prey, other pack members, and enemies. Daddy is usually the enemy bear and they all howl to warn each other when the bear is approaching. They play some variation of this great game almost every evening. Now we have "scent vision" to add to it!

The best part of making a birthday cake, is licking the bowl clean!

Messy Hands!

Mardi made a volcano cake for Dallin, since he has long been fascinated with mountains that spew fire. Daddy brought home some dry ice and we placed it in a hollowed out spot in the top in order to make the volcano smoke. It was such great fun!

I love the look on everyone's face here. As we added more dry ice, the whole table became covered in mist. Dallin and Taylor are just loving it, but Caleb looks as though he's a little nervous about it touching him! Dallin's new Tylosaur can be seen beside the volcano cake.

Caleb did get into the spirit of things as soon as he realized the dry ice didn't actually do any damage. We've never had so much fun with a birthday cake before! We spent a long time just playing with it! Easy to make, cheap, and a big hit.

We put several sparklers around the top to make an "eruption".

Blowing Out the Candles

Dallin, with a little toy fish aquarium from Grandpa and Grandma Bissett, and showing off those beautiful eyes.