Dalin Rope #7

Dalin Rope Dog turned 7!  I can't believe how big he is.  I get such mixed emotions about it.  Sad that he's not my little baby anymore, but excited that he's big enough to do things like vacuum my floors and play basketball with me, and talk to me in a more grown up way.  I love our conversations.  I also get excited when he comes to me and says he's ready to read chapter books and then brings home chapter books from school and has no problem reading them.  I'm moving into the realm of books with no pictures.  But, all that is a tangent.  The real reason I'm writing this post is for his birthday celebration.  This year he is really into Star Wars.  I mean, REALLY into Star Wars.  All he's wanted since Braden's birthday is a Darth Vader birthday cake.  So here is my rendition.  I just winged it and made a regular rectangle cake and then cut the corners and edges off to make the shape of the head.  Not too shabby for not having any kind of template to follow.  The only problem was it was kind of crumbly so when I tried to cut it, it would crumble everywhere and I had to patch it back together with frosting.  Any ideas on why my cake was so crumbly?  Maybe I didn't let it cool enough? 

Backwards number seven pancakes for the birthday boy.  Can you tell I had just woken him up? 

After school he couldn't wait to check out his cake.  He loved it and wanted to eat it right away.

Getting ready to open presents. 

Everything Star Wars.  It's all he wanted. He likes Darth Vader because he is just so cool and he likes Darth Maul because he has a double red light saber.

Star Wars Legos.  He loves Legos and he loves Star Wars so this was the thing to have.

So excited after spending hours putting it together.  It had so many little tiny parts, but he loved it.

When I put the cake in front of him he said "whoa, there's so many candles it's burning my face".

It was a challenge to blow out that many candles.

My baby is all grown up.  Dalin is such a great big brother and is always willing to help me with Landon.  He really knows what to do if Landon is sad or bored.  He really enjoys playing Star Wars on the Wii or playing with all the neighborhood kids.  He is very friendly to everyone he meets and isn't afraid to talk to anyone.  He loves to read and create things and he's very good at math.  He likes to build all kinds of things with Legos, blocks, wood and nails, dirt, or whatever else he can get his hands on.  He is a dirty, crazy, happy boy through and through.  He told me he was going to marry his little friend Presley and when I asked him why he wanted to marry her he said "Presley wants to get married, so I guess we'll get married" and then he let out a sigh.  Love this kid to pieces.