Happy 27th Birthday Paul!

My first attempt at making a rocket cake was prompted by Alex's father's day gift to Paul. He got him a rocket kit for father's day and Paul and Alex love to shoot them off together. It was a fun cake to make.

Blowing out 27 candles went off without a hitch, I guess Paul isn't getting too old yet. Of course, he did have the help of two little boys...so maybe not. :)
Alex was really, really, really excited about his daddy's "happy cake" as he calls it. He helped decorate it, which resulted in surprise skittles in every bite---he jammed them in as far as they would go!
Alex and Dominic did all the work for Paul in opening presents. They loved it, and Paul (and all of us) loved watching them.
Alex had helped me wrap them that morning, so he was especially excited to open them because he knew there were rockets and balloons hidden in some of them.
Here they are opening the professional sculpting balloons. Paul also got a pump and a how-to book. We went on a date to the movies and Red Robin a couple of weeks before his B-dy, and there was this balloon man there making really cool balloons for all the kids. Paul thought it would be really fun to learn how to do that himself, so I surprised him with a kit for his b-day.
He also got spray paint...yippee! OK, so he got a couple of model rockets as well, and he needed the paint to, you know, paint them.
Paul and Ben spent at least an hour making balloon creations. Here they are working on hats.
Paul is now attaching a dog to the end of his balloon hat...hmmmm..It looks like an intense process.

Voila! Not bad for a first attempt.

Dominic was keeping us all in line.

Alex enjoyed modeling Ben's hat.

Making Swords

Ta-Da!
Ben had a hard time figuring the swords out (his is the orange one).

And, this is Paul's latest latest creation--a MONKEY.

He made it just yesterday at John's B-day party. His skills at balloon making are really taking off...he has already advanced from the book I bought him (i guess it was too easy). So, now he just needs to learn to ride his unicycle while making balloon animals. :) Happy Birthday Paul!