Happy birthday to Silas and Cooper! Most years, we celebrate by inviting a friend or two to come along for an activity of the birthday boy’s choosing.

Silas chose a Lord of the Rings theme with a cake decorated as the Eye of Sauron. He and his friends were hoping for rollerblading, but they ended up roller skating since the rink was repairing all of their in-line skates. Since Silas is an adventurous eater, we usually have something fun for his birthday meal of choice. This year we ordered gyros from a Greek place!

At school, Silas brought in 5 things for show-and-tell on his birthday. I loved seeing what he picked and hearing his thoughts about them. He had trouble narrowing it down to 5.

1. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring–favorite book
2. Deck of cards–he’s very into learning all the card magic tricks he can find, and he’s pretty good at them too
3. Picture of a pocket knife–(since he couldn’t take the actual knife to school) a family heirloom passed down from my aunt’s father
4. Colts football gloves–obviously
5. Moody family crest–thanks to my brother-in-law, I found out this summer that Stephen is a descendant of Edmund Moody who rescued King Henry VIII from drowning in a clay bog. Edmund was rewarded with a pension and a coat of arms. I hung a print of the crest on our wall, and Silas was captivated with it and the story.

Silas is gifted in math, and wants to do math for NASA when he grows up. He’d also like to be the first man on Mars.

Cooper’s birthday is around Thanksgiving, and this year he had the day off school for his special day.

He did bring in a favorite book, The Giving Tree, for read aloud in his class the day before.

With the day off, he and two friends from school went to the arcade and indoor Jungle Maze at the bowling alley. It was surprisingly empty, so the kids had the run of the place. I baked him a Pac-Man cake, and we had his favorite 3 Musketeers candy bars and Fanta orange soda.

Coop is a selective eater, but he actually has several favorite meals in our normal rotation. I made fish tacos, spaghetti and meatballs, & chicken tarragon with rice during his birthday week. We also took him to Red Robin for the hamburger meal he wanted.

Cooper always has an invention in his head. He’s constantly building his own legos with underwater features, rocket boosters, power adapters, and imaginative permutations. He’d like to be an inventor someday.

These guys keep life interesting, constantly moving, and full of happy!