Leo is seven

Leo blowing out his seven candles

Last night I went to my friend Leo's birthday party. As hard as it is to believe, he is now seven years old, reads books, and is almost too old to consider playing with me any more. We now are developing a new relationship with one another, since he's got new interests. His parents allow him to decide what kind of birthday cake he wants, and this one was chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. Here's a closeup.

Cake with dinosaur eggs on top

The dinosaur eggs were filled with creme and quite tasty, but nowhere near as tasty as the cake itself. He also wanted calamari to decorate the top (that's squid) but his mom talked him into serving it separately, and it was perfect that way (whew!). Mixing calamari with chocolate would have been tough to take. Although come to think of it, everything ends up in the same place anyway.

John reading Leo's new book

Leo received this present, "The Dangerous Book for Boys," and John said he wished they had made books like this one when he was a kid. It was fun to look through it, even though I've never been a boy myself. I bought Leo a book about birds of the Puget Sound region.

The birthday boy

And here's Leo mugging for the camera, with two finger snakes in his hair. He told me he received over one hundred dollars in gift certificates, which will give him plenty of fun in the stores once he gets to them. I enjoyed myself but am still a  bit in shock at how much my friend has grown in the past year!
:-)