Forty Foot Road: Yesterday was my youngest child's birthday!

Iain turned 10 yesterday. No more single digits in our family. We were blessed in that our realtor (yes, the realtor that has given us a lot of grief in the past, for those in the know) had a client appreciation day yesterday. Their office rented the Mustang Drive-In in it's entirety and ran two family movies, had a barbeque, with cotton candy, castle, the playground and the whole nine yards. Best of all there were things our family could eat; they bought locally, which meant incredible 100% beef burgers from the butcher in Picton. (This is the same butcher who, not too long ago, begged me to supply him with lamb ASAP. Man, the market I have, without the space to produce it :-(. I have four legs of lamb in my freezer; he said his retail price for them depending on weight would be $40-$50. Each. Wowza.

Anyway, I digress. We were able to have a very fun family time which was great. Another indication that Iain is growing up; he doesn't really want anything for this birthday! This is a huge step for him, the collector of all things lego and Playmobile and aquarium-related. One thing we are definitely going to do: Kev will take him to a Belleville Bulls hockey game sometime soon :).

We're having his birthday dinner today, and we will be breaking out Bill Stearman's chicken for it. Birthday tradition in our family involves the birthday child having their choice of supper. We've done this ever since the kids were really little. Apparently Iain has had his eye on this chicken for a while :-).

Iain is definitely growing up; but in many ways he is still the same. Still a very hard worker, he made sure he was the one who planted our newly acquired mock orange bush yesterday, despite the fact that "birthday day" is the one day per year that our children are excused from chores completely. He did it because it was fun! He loves gardening, science, building things, designing and inventing machines, and playing computer games. He also loves singing and has written some songs of his own. He would like to learn to play the guitar, bass guitar, the saxophone or the trumpet. He loves nature; exploring and identifying animals and their tracks, plants, rocks, or whatever. He is keenly observant and is the one of us who will notice the tiniest baby turtle at the side of the road, then gently carry it across to the marshy area it was aiming for. His self-control is growing by leaps and bounds (school is giving him many opportunities to practise this!). We were discussing with our kids last night which parent they most strongly identified with; Iain truthfully said he was both a mom AND dad's boy ;D.

Happy Birthday, Iain! May this be a year that you gain new understanding about your faith. Step by step, Little Man! We love you.

Photographs ...
Here is the cake that Claire made; when our children were younger, I made all the cakes, however they now take turns making cakes for each other! I help as need dictates. This cake is supposed to be a cup o' joe, and the brown icing is mocha flavour. Iain has LOVED coffee, weirdly, since he snaffooed his first sip at 18 months old. At 8, we finally started allowing him to have the occasional weekend cup (bad parents!).