Nine Years Old!!!

Today was Max's first birthday in America. Phew! Am I glad that is over!!! Just kidding! (sort of)

Max has talked of nothing else for the past month. "My Bootday soon, yes?" "27 my bootday, yes?" etc...
He has spent the last three days carrying around a composition notebook and writing lists of 27 random things, mostly our names, and asking me how to spell them all! I can promise you that I was about as ready for the big day as he was!!!

His favorite color is pink. It's funny because that is also my dad's favorite color. He wanted a pink cake but decided to opt for a dinosaur cake instead. I ended up making a volcano with rubber dinos prancing about all over it. They didn't seem to mind the hot lava one bit! A purple mountain and red lava icing, bridge mix boulders and one of those packages of sugar letters that say "happy birthday" that Max saw and asked for, a package of cheep-o dinosaurs and we had a fancy looking cake to make any first birthday party a fun one!

Three blows to blow out all the candles.
It's alright; he's had a lot of wishes come true for him this year.

It was hard to get pictures of the gifts because everyone
would crowd in just as we snapped the shots!
What fun!

Annette's gift to Max...Oh look! just what she always wanted!

Misha picked out the perfect gift. A gun that lights up
and--Heaven help us--Makes rapid fire shooting sounds.

Pra Dedushka and Misha.
(That's Great-Grandpa to us English-speakers.)

Hannah read the card she wrote to Max.

The Birthday Boy

All tuckered out.

Melissa