New cowboy boots.

Pinata refresher with Matt as the demo. Just like last year, C&D refused to wear a bandana. Why make it harder?

And it was hard. My mom picked up the pinata at the grocery. The post-mortem revealed it was built like an octagonal cardboard box with a cardboard cross beam in the middle of it. The pinata was held together by packing tape and staples. What happened to bent bamboo skeletons wrapped up with newspaper? Yeah, you could poke your eye out, but at least you wouldn’t need the arms of the Incredible Hulk to break it open and send the candy flying into the lens of your uncle’s new video camera. (Yet another way yard candy is hazardous.)

After expending all those calories getting the pinata open (Mommy got to help, hurray), we were ready for cake.

One day in November C&D spied a pretty display of candy canes at Whole Foods.  They asked for one.  I said I would buy them each one, but keep it for later; we could eat it during Christmastime.  As we pushed our basket past the candy canes and into the bakery, C&D spied a chocolate cake with a big icing rainbow.  “Can we buy this now and keep it for our birthday?” asked David.  Our friend behind the counter came around and promised Carmen and David that she would decorate a rainbow cake for him come January.  Two months later C&D were ready for their a rainbow cake, decorated with two butterflies.

A few neighbors came over:  Bob and Sonya and Gordon and Monroe with our doggie-friend Louie.  We sang Happy Birthday and after blowing out the candles (ten, five candles for each) we dug in with three kinds of gelato on the side. 

Not a bad way to celebrate 5.