Happy birthday, dear boy!

Friday was a very important day in our house - Aidan's 8th birthday! He has been counting down the days since the first of March and I am sure there were times that he thought his birthday would never arrive.

He chose a chocolate chip cookie cake to celebrate with his classmates, so I took that in at the end of the day. Mrs. M had also asked me to bring a book to read, so after they gobbled up the cookie slices, I read Smelly Socks by Robert Munsch. That book is always guaranteed to get a good giggle!

Aidan could hardly wait for James to get home so we could eat dinner, have cake (from Geddes Bakery, of course) and open presents. He got a good breath to blow out the candles:


He really concentrated on getting all of those candles out:


Success!


He received many awesome presents (his words), including binoculars from James and me:


The Scrambled States of America book and game from Aunt Tammie and Uncle Mike:


(The game, by the way, is great fun to play - there was much laughter in our house yesterday when we tried it out)

And a Syracuse Orange basketball from Grandma Williams:


Aidan also received cards with money (always fun) from Grandma and Grandpa Miller, and Cousin Jill and Great Uncle Vernon. He is busy planning what he will buy on his next Target shopping excursion.

Our eight year old boy went to bed happy and full of cake on Friday night!

Heluva Good! weekend

Yesterday after James finished his volunteer shift at the Beaver Lake Nature Center maple syrup celebration, we drove west and a little north to the Heluva Good! Country Store in Sodus. We have long been fans of the Heluva Good! dips, which were the only items carried in the Harris Teeter and Publix grocery stores; we were pleasantly surprised to learn that the Heluva Good! company also produces cheeses and condiments.

Instead of going directly to Sodus, we made a quick side trip to the village of Sodus Point, which is surrounded on three sides by water, that of Lake Ontario and Sodus Bay. It is obviously a town that depends heavily on summer tourists, since many businesses (and even a church) displayed signs that read "Closed for the season". We drove to the lighthouse, which is actually the second lighthouse at that spot.


We enjoyed walking around the grounds and seeing the gorgeous views of Lake Ontario:


It was a beautiful day with the temperature in the 50s, but the wind coming off the lake was quite brisk. We walked down to the shore and Aidan happily picked through the rocks, shells and beach glass:


Don't ask me what kind of dance he was doing when this photo was snapped!


We then drove on to the town of Sodus and visited the Heluva Good! Country Store, which is located across the street from the processing facility. We sampled four or five different cheeses, and left with a bag of goodies: dips, cheeses, crackers and a specialty mustard.

Today we drove out to Critz Farms in Cazenovia. During the maple syrup production, they offer an all you can eat country breakfast on the weekends. While we didn't go hungry, let's just say that we can now cross that item off our "to do" list! But it is a lovely setting, and Aidan quickly made friends with Sydney, one of the Australian shepherds:


We also saw goats and llams:




We rode in a wagon down to the sugar bush. The weather has been so warm during the past week that maple syrup production has stalled; the people at Critz Farms were cleaning their boiler today rather than using it to boil sap.

Another fun weekend, made even better by Syracuse University's victory over Gonzaga and advancement to the Sweet Sixteen!