Happy Birthday Laurent

March 1, 2010

We celebrated Laurent's birthday last Friday in a cozy, family-focused, take the day easy kind of way. Much needed after the busy pace of the last week and month. Waffles for breakfast, some time spent with Nana & Papa (on the last day of their visit), a few gifts, pizza and card games and cakes baked by Nana.

Laurent is a real social kid and when we asked him if we could host another pizza and beer night on the day of his birthday he loved the idea. Laurent loves people. Period. Their age is irrelevant to him. So we hosted Damien's co-workers (which include some family friends), my parents and of course our own crew of five. The kids drank too much soda, ate too much cake and stayed up far too late finally hitting their pillows at 11 pm. What's a birthday without a bit of excess?

There is a story behind this waffle maker. Waffles are our kid's birthday breakfast tradition. In choosing their special foods for the day they always ask for waffles topped with whipped cream, berry sauce and maple syrup for breakfast. (Remember, birthday's are definitely not vegan around here, we consider these treat days in our normally plant based diet).

</span>

Problem with waffles for breakfast is that we don't own a waffle maker, and I don't intend to buy one. Instead we borrow one from various folks as necessary. I like borrowing tools. I like sharing tools. I firmly believe that we don't all need to own lawnmowers, waffle irons and clothes dryers. We just need to be willing to share what we do have and be willing to ask for what we need.

So we borrow a waffle iron three times a year for kiddo's birthday breakfasts. This time around I got an appliance that is probably fifty years old, and is still going strong. The buzzing sound it made as the element heated up gave me a little scare and the first 2 waffles I scraped out had me muttering under my breath but after that it worked like a charm. Many thanks to one of Damien's co-workers for lending it to us.

One of the sweetest gifts Laurent received was a doggy care set made by Celine. The day before she was designing and stitching; locked away in our sewing/guest room and then up till 10pm the night before busy on the sewing machine. She created a dog bed, collar, leash and food bowl all out of scraps from our fabric and notion supply. The little sweater you see on the dog was sewn by Laurent for his special dog, Gray Fur.