A new year for Kieran

Kieran rang in the new year with his best buddies, birthday cake and plenty of balloon dancing. We invited all of Kieran's closest friends and some of our own and partied like animals...until about 8pm. Here are a few of the highlights. Lola always seems to find her way onto the back of Kieran's bike.

After a brief "warm up" period and a little snacking it was time to party. There were several dance sessions, each one more enthusiastic than the last.

These kids know how to boogie!

This picture says it all...Kieran likes nothing more than a good party.

Everyone settled down for a few minutes to sing happy birthday. I think there was a lot of anticipation leading up to this moment. Kieran was speachless when we turned off the lights and he saw his cake with the lit candles coming toward him.

He has been practicing blowing out candles at friends' birthday parties, always taking over when the birthday boy or girl doesn't know what to do. This was a pretty big moment for him!

Then it was time for opening presents, of course. All the kids wanted a piece of this Play Doh play table set from Rachel. It has been very popular in our house ever since.

This was a surprise to both Kieran and me...Max secretly picked up a pair of down hill skis at a ski swap earlier in the winter. Kieran has since decided that down hill skiing is way more fun than cross country and he can ski down the driveway by himself pretty confidently now, as long has he has a "catcher" at the bottom waiting for him. Next year we'll have to teach him how to stop.

After presents it was time to bring out the Elmo pinata - hand made by Auntie Rachel. Everyone got a turn...whack!

Here goes Kieran's buddy Chayce. Whack whack!

Success!

Then it was time for more dancing...hop hop hippity hop hop a hippity...

And then, CRASH! You know it's been a good party when...

After Max kicked all the guests out of the house at 7:50 we hurried over to campus to watch the fireworks from the roof of our office building. You can see we weren't alone. It was a cold night but a good show.

Here's the view south towards town. Traffic was stopped on every road in the picture for the duration of the show.

Kieran and Auntie Rachel, post fireworks and just about ready for bed.

One last dance...happy birthday Kieran!