Aunt Christine's Birthday Party

After spending a lovely afternoon outside, the kiddos and I headed out to help celebrate Christine's birthday.  We grabbed a delicious dinner at Carrabba's then went back to my parents' house for presents, cake, and ice cream.

Of course, my dad was at a meeting for work, so we waited for him to get home before we started most of the festivities.  Mom and Christine kept Baylor preoccupied by playing "match game" (a.k.a., Memory).

He got pretty excited when he'd find a match.

Like an adorable little vulture, though, he circled around her presents like he was stalking his prey.  Apparently he was certain she'd let him help open them.

Mollie kept busy by carrying around my husband's shoes.

She even went over and gave Bryson an impromptu hug and some of her time.

Baylor was pretty excited to see my dad come home; in part because he loves him and wants to spend time with him, and in part because he knew that we could now start opening presents.

He waited patiently for her to open the first card.  Mollie helped illustrate just who the birthday girl was.

Then they decided to invade Aunt Christine's space.  Lucky for them, she's an amazing aunt and took it in stride.

Mollie thought the whole thing was hilarious.

Then she decided to go in for the snuggle.

The slightly overreaching snuggle, as it turns out.

Baylor appropriated Aunt Christine's new muffin tin as his own and filled it with the faux lemons in Oma's coffee table centerpiece.

Later he used the pot holders we gave her as a reason to put the pan of lemons in the "oven".

Mollie kept busy checking out the bag o' tissue Mom had made.

Baylor lost himself in gift-opening concentration ... just look at that chin tilt!

Christine got an adorable apron!

And an awesome clock ... that Baylor took upon himself to open without permission.

Before opening each gift, Baylor would ask Aunt Christine what it was.  As she pointed out time and time again, "That's the whole point of the gift opening exercise!"

While Aunt Christine chatted on the phone with Aunt Cynthia, ...

... Baylor went to work putting candles in her cake.

He wanted nine total and it just so happened that that's all Oma had!

She got the sweetest gift of all from Baylor: a smile while we sang her "Happy Birthday".  As you'll recall, he usually cries through that song, so this was a vast improvement!

Then he helped her blow out her candles.

Mollie seemed to enjoy the cake ...

... but only when I would feed it to her.

Baylor, on the other hand, had no trouble diving directly in and enjoying every last morsel of his cake.

And here we all are (sans Dad, who is taking the picture)!

We had a great time helping Christine celebrate!  Thank you, dear sister, for letting us help you celebrate and for being such a fantastic sister and aunt!  We love you so much!