The Magnificent Seven

Before the sun was even over the horizon and valiantly trying to break through the still leaden sky, our kids were up and bouncing around in excitement at the coming few hours.  Balloons!  Banners!  Presents!  Cake!!!  The excitement, though it comes around four to six times a year, is never diminished.  Neither is the fervour with which they attack the balloons, which means there is at least one loud bang, usually followed by one shrill cry, within the first ten minutes of waking.  Every.  Single.  Time.

This morning however, it's Saturday, which means no need to wait for the usual Kaffee-und-Kuchen-time of present opening (which is 4pm), and instead it was now? now? NOW?!

More interested in his craved morning OJ
than in posing with his siblings.

The birthday breakfast of waffles...

...and birthday cake of course!

Actually, with the Don flying off to Abu Dhabi tomorrow and the real possibility of not being able to see him again till we move over at Christmas, poor Toots's birthday has been, well, kinda in the back of the mind.  In fact, it wasn't until Thursday morning that I suddenly realised she needed some sort of birthday treat to take in to school the next day to celebrate with her class.  Bummer!  I was quite impressed that in between Ladies Bibles Study, nap time, swim lessons, school pick up and dinner out with the Don's work colleagues, we managed to find some marshmallows and make those classic British birthday top hats (which actually never seem to 'set' in this heat).

The seven-secret-ingredient birthday cake itself was only thrown together yesterday when the Don, thankfully, picked up the girls from school and took them back to his office so he could clear it out (they love going to Daddy's work).  Just as well Lightning is a star helper, baker and washer-uper, and that Joey slept for 3.5 hours solid.  And by the time the girls came home there wasn't a single sign in the kitchen of the previous two frantic hours.

You gotta teach 'em young.

Ah the joy of birthdays... But what a magnificent seven years we've had with our Toots :)