a birthday celebration

yesterday we helped ben celebrate his 2nd birthday (though his official birthday is not until next friday). there was a lot of food involved...which is always a good thing. and the cake was colorful (as evidenced by emma's multi-color lips) and very frostirific (is that a real word? probably not).













i think emma thought the birthday cake was for her, until we explained to her that it was for ben. a new concept: other people have birthdays too. then she went from singing "happy birthday to emma" to "happy birthday to benjamin."













one of the gifts we gave ben was a striped blue shirt with some custom embroidery. we also gave his baby brother (a.k.a. spud) an outfit with the same matching appliqued pattern. i can't wait to see both of them on together. i think it will look very cute.