seven

Kiddo's birthday was last week.  He's seven.  Seven!

Last time I blinked, he was this big (with a tired, tired, tired mommy):

And now he is this big.

So big that, in this picture, I am actually wearing his spare hat.  And I am not nearly as tired as I was back then.

He is not my snuggly little peanut anymore.  Well, he is still snuggly (I am savoring every moment while I can!), but not so little.

I briefly posted about the crazy day that was his birthday.  The weather was unpredictable, with very poor timing.  The snow had just started coming down that morning, so there was no delay for school.  I drove Kiddo to school through the increasingly heavy snow, took some pictures on my way home...

...and shoveled the driveway.

Schools all over the area started closing even before noon, so I headed back out to pick up Kiddo.  He was a little discombobulated by the utter lack of routine, but once home, he eagerly helped with his birthday cake.

We used Meg's rainbow cake recipe.  Easy-peasy.  And from a box.  We heart Betty Crocker.

Only, Meg has five kids and used two boxes of cake mix.  I have one kid, so we used half a box of cake mix.  Itty bitty cake, but that's all we need.

While the cake was cooling, we were getting cool, too.

When our cheeks were nice and rosy (and our mittens were soggy), we came back in to decorate the cake.  Kiddo was in charge.

We will not win any awards, but Kiddo was tickled by, and proud of, his creation.

(Erm...  Need to work on candle-blowing-picture-taking skills)

Pretty cake.  I did not get layers like Meg.  I got swirls.  Which are still cool.

It was a cars and Legos birthday.

And, oh by the way, check out his momma who was stylin' while he unwrapped his gifts: 

I was more focused on being warm than on fashion, apparently.  Ouch.

It was a quiet, but good day.  We are not a big birthday bash family.  We try to make each other feel special on birthdays, but there are no big piles of presents, no parties with swarms of kids.  We are, however, having cake and ice cream with cousins and uncles and aunts and grandparents this weekend.  We will need more than half a box of cake mix.