To celebrate...

the boy's birthday.

We celebrated a week early. He didn't mind. It's supposed to be all about him, but he didn't eat and when his momma asked him why, after he so carefully chose all those special foods, his reply was, "I picked it for them." He meant his guests, those of us who came to help him celebrate his day. How sweet...how like him.




I made him a crazy, zany sort of alien card because he's a crazy, zany sort of kid. The idea for the card is not my original idea. I copied a very similar image I found online, but hey, isn't that why we have the internet?


I wanted to give him a special gift (no toys) and this one is straight from my heart. Last year, I took a series of photos of him launching himself off that big tire when we were on the beach in Grand Marais. He was so full of joy as he sailed through the air and I wanted his gift to capture that joy. Besides, who doesn't like to see pictures of themself? I used an exacto knife to cut the images of him from the photos, I collaged the water and sand from the photos onto the paper and placed his images so it would imply motion. When he opened his gift, his words were, "that's me!" Then he looked at me and said, "this is awesome!" Exactly what I hoped for while making his gift.


Oh, and there was cake, of course there was cake. And of course he ate his cake.

Happy birthday, darlin'!