Happy Birthday, Tolly Boy!

 Above:  Ptolemy, age 5.  Below, Ptolemy age 6.  I love this kid.  He is way into Beanie Boos, going to Cherry Hill and the pool, and saying "seriously?"  He just suddenly learned how to swim, after failing at swimming lessons both with me in Miami and with Tommy at his pool.  Turns out, he can swim just fine.  I have always just been too lazy to watch him properly, so I just put him in his life jacket.  I just can't trust myself to watch both him and Tizzy.  I am afraid of kids drowning.  So now, no thanks to me, Ptolemy is free of his life jacket, which we finally jettisoned because it wore out and broke from overuse.  (Thanks, Jennie!  We got your money's worth out of that thing!)

 The morning of his birthday, this bright, happy face joined Scott and me on the back deck.  We like to hang out there in the early morning and admire the view.  We live in such a beautiful place!

Marlene and Bruce gave Ptolemy money for his birthday to go to Ant Man, the new 3-D movie.  (They also gave him some Dice Masters stuff so he could play with Freestone.)  Scott took Free, Ari and Ptolemy to the movie and to Zuppa's for lunch.  I kept Xanthe because 3-D with one eye is no fun, and we went shopping for Beanie Boos for Ptolemy.  

We had an informal party at Cherry Hill at 6, with pizza and day-old donuts.  We had had a blast picking out 4 dozen donuts at Bowman's the night before, when they're half price after 7 pm.  Ptolemy wanted a giant Texas donut instead of a cake, and I was happy to oblige, considering 1. that's easy and 2. it costs 75 cents.  Win, win!

 Freestone wanted to get his little bro his very own cup of fro-yo at the Pie Pantry for his birthday.  Thoughtful kid!

 Marlene managed to brush through Tziporah's hair with her fingers.  Evidently, Golda and Ruby are the ones who do Tizzy's hair, because it hasn't been done since they left.  OK, maybe a few times.  Once a week is good, right?

 The Moodys, our playmates.  Marianne, Cleo, Chris and Camden, who is in Ptolemy's dance class.

Nana said she would be "honored to come" to the party.  She and her famous hat were the stars of the show.  It wasn't too hot, and Cherry Hill is like 3 minutes from her place, so it was the perfect evening outing.  Plus, I don't know if Nana would admit this, but she LOVES Little Caesar's pizza. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for bringing Nana!

 I love our dads.  They are the best examples there are.  I am so proud of both of them, and so proud to belong to them.

 The Byingtons, Tolly's friend Connor's parents.

 Rolayne and Araceli, buddies.

 At Cherry Hill, you can buy a bag of sand with gemstones hidden in it, and you can "pan" for gold.  My kids don't know this.  They play in the water where the sand from these kits has fallen.  They pan, and find fingernail-sized gemstones left over from other kids' kits.  It's tragic, really, how excited they are about these scraps.  So for Ptolemy's birthday, we bought him a kit and let him pan for the stones.  He ended up with a bag full of quarter-sized rocks of all colors and types.  (Xanthe wasn't in the picture because she was struggling with jealousy and didn't want to.  Understandable!  It's hard when it's someone else's birthday.  She did a great job of being excited to give him the Beanie Boo she bought him earlier in the day, but by 10 pm, it's like, "Enough about Ptolemy!"  Lol).

 Yes, it was our 3rd annual Cherry Hill camping expedition.  The campground was chock full, and it was exciting to be in the action.  Also exciting is wearing your jammies and staying at Cherry Hill to golf and carouse after all the other kids go home.  I kinda love it.

 "Take a picture of me, Mommy!  I'm a princess!"

 And in Lansevillard, Val du Cenis...

 This is in Vire, in the Lavisierres' summer home.  I mean, their other summer home besides the one in the Alps.

 My pictures are all mixed up.

Throw back to last summer when the Fab 5 were here, and we took Ptolemy on our road trip to California.  Ruby posted this for Ptolemy's birthday.  This kid leads a charmed life. He is a joy, full of joy, exuding joy, bringing and spreading joy.  The first moment I found out I really was pregnant with Ptolemy, my whole soul was filled with overwhelming joy, and it has never left.  I am just so happy Ptolemy found a way to join our family, and to bring Tziporah with him.  He is a being of light.  I don't even know what that means, but I love this guy!