Alexander is 7!

Today is Alexander's birthday. 

It's also Canadian Thanksgiving. 

And Indigenous People's Day in the United States.

Sometimes I feel bad for celebrating Thanksgiving on what was Columbus Day in the States (since both Canadian Thanksgiving and that holiday land on the second Monday in October) because that might look like I'm celebrating Columbus Day (which I'm not), which losing its footing to the counter-celebration of Indigenous People's Day (with good reason). 

Though Canadian Thanksgiving has a separate history from American Thanksgiving it's truly no less colonial in nature. And the selection of the second Monday in October—though claimed to be because it's often the last nice weekend of the season—is suspect. Canadian holidays often align with American holidays even if we're completely unaware of it.

Ever heard of Family Day? It's a holiday that celebrates families—you get a day off of school and work and there are discounts at family friendly venues and it's great fun! It's the third Monday in February...which just happens to be when they're celebrating Presidents' Day south of the 49th. 

Coincidence? 

I think not. I really think it's simply convenient for Canadian institutions to have these kinds of "bank holidays" on the same schedule that the American Superpowers have their bank holidays.

But that's just my theory. 

Anyway, we had Thanksgiving dinner for Alexander's birthday dinner and Andrew went all out because we aren't hosting Thanksgiving this year (for the first time in a long time)! 

Here's our little harvest of garden carrots that we had with our meal:

And here's a shot of the meal itself:

Andrew basically did everything. Miriam did the cranberry sauce. Benjamin did the mashed potatoes. I harvested carrots and rosemary...and helped the children through their homeschool lessons and did a lot of house cleaning. Rachel made a birthday cake.

Alexander wanted a Harry Potter cake and gave Rachel a detailed picture to follow for inspiration. I think she nailed it:

Turning Harry Potter's scar into a 7 was an excellent (and excellently executed) idea.

Alexander and Zoë and half the neighbourhood are obsessed with Harry Potter lately. Zoë is planning on being Fleur Delacour for Halloween and Alexander is planning to be none other than...Albus Dumbledore. So stay tuned for that!

Grandpa and Darla joined us for dinner:

When the kids slept over at their house they watched the Dungeons and Dragon movie, which I haven't seen, and I don't think Alexander had seen it either. But there was this owlbear character that he thought was incredible. Grandpa brought along an owlbear action figure for Alexander, which totally made his night!

Auntie K sent a new owl costume for him to enjoy since the one I made for him when he was two was getting a little small. (Did I write about Phoebe's reaction to that costume when I brought it out for her to wear one day not too long ago when she said she wanted to be an owl? She said, 'What is that?!' And then when I explained what it was she was like, "No, thanks. I will be an owl tomorrow. You can make a better costume than that!" That girl has opinions). Anyway, everyone was very impressed with Alexander's new wings!

Zoë made him this beautiful birthday poster:

Benjamin designed a special birthday level for him on some game thing that Google has up right now. 

He also got a huge collection of wooden dominoes:

He loves designing Rube Goldberg machines but I don't love him using our playing set of dominoes because I always worry that he'll lose a piece, so this was the perfect gift!

It comes with all sorts of things—like bells to ring and windmills to power and cool little contraptions like that. He and Benjamin have been building long trails of dominoes all up and down the hallway.

(Please note Phoebe and her emotional support pumpkin. She's been much more logical about birthdays this year and will tell anyone who will listen that her birthday is coming up in November. She even tried to make some little baby on the playground repeat "November" so that she (Phoebe) would know that she (the baby) understood when Phoebe's birthday was.)

Alexander also got some new owl pyjamas, which he was terribly excited about, and a couple of books (you can see Laika on the floor there).

In full disclosure of my underconsumption core, the pyjamas, dominoes, and birthday shirt were from the Buy Nothing Group; the books were from a book giveaway on campus. But I know we bought him something...it was...oh! A set of walkie talkies. 

He loved the owl walkie talkies Auntie K sent him a few years ago, but they were beginning to give up the ghost. Also, Alexander did a lot of research to find some rechargeable walkie talkies so that he could have control over their charged status (the owl ones had batteries with a cover that screwed on so he needed help changing them out). The set he chose can plug in to recharge so he feels...empowered. 

I hope you took a minute to appreciate that pun.

Benjamin has been doing a lot of growing up recently. You can tell by how he is moaning over some joke his dad told just before I took this picture:

Here's Alexander blowing out his candles:

We didn't get around to doing FHE until after Grandpa and Darla left for home, but it was a pretty simple lesson. We just talked about gratitude, got started on our Thankful Tree and wrote some birthday balloons for Alexander. Here he is, all ready for bed in his owl pyjamas:

And here he is on Tuesday morning, right before Rachel and I left for campus—still in his owl pyjamas, holding a walkie talkie, and making a line of dominoes:

Seven should be heaven with/for this kid!