a golden birthday

Nick celebrated his "golden birthday" this year ~ he turned 13 on Friday the 13th!  Even though he had to go to school, he still had a happy day. :)  It had (FINALLY) snowed the day before, so after school Nick and Ben went out to play in it:

That evening, the five of us drove over to the Rainforest Cafe for a birthday supper.  Here we are, at our table:

Checking out some of the fish:

 And under the restaurant sign:

Then we went home for a family party.   I like this cute photo of the two brothers!

 Opening gifts:

A mandrill!  (From Ben.  Emmalie gave him a meerkat, and both siblings gave him a small bag of magnetite rock, which Nick had really liked when he saw it at the Rainforest Cafe.)

George and I gave Nick this shirt, and we also bought him another Wild Encounter at Brookfield Zoo, which he will attend in March.

George and Nick:

The birthday boy with his yummy cake!  Nick had read about peanut butter pound cake in a book and requested one for his birthday.  I found a recipe that used chocolate chips along with peanut butter, and we decided to use that one.  It was delicious! :)

Since it was his golden birthday, I put up yellow streamers and bought yellow balloons.  (And, since Nick's favorite color is yellow, anyway, it worked out well!)

Happy Birthday, Nick!  Hope you have a wonderful time being 13!!