Twas the night before a birthday

Joel has been keeping the countdown for over 2 months now, keeping track of the days till his birthday. Tonight, he said he was in a hurry for bedtime to come, because then his birthday would be here when he woke up. Smart thinking! Needless to say, when bedtime rolled around, we heard no whining or complaining. (Actually, we rarely hear any from him... he's usually fairly ready for bed by then.)

In a little while, we'll pull out the gifts from hiding and get them wrapped. He's having a Pirates of the Caribbean kind of birthday, with the majority of his gifts being related to that movie (some PoTC jigsaw puzzles and Jack Sparrow dress-up clothes/sword). He's also getting a Star Wars LEGO game for the GameCube. Brian also went to Raley's earlier this afternoon to order a PoTC cake for tomorrow. I think Joel will be pretty happy with his birthday.

Tomorrow is also the day Emily returns from her 2-night retreat with her school. I'm looking forward to hearing how it was. I'm sure she will have plenty of stories to tell!