Celebrating Joe & His Birthday

Joe's birthday was April 24

We celebrated all week

 Joe greatly enjoyed, and appreciated, the stories shared by family

Our son & his family came over for dinner & birthday cake.

I made a rainbow cake. 

The music box is inserted in the cake. This is a Holton tradition. It started in the 1950s when Florence and Caryl Holton brought a music box back from Switzerland. It was made to put in cakes. That music box played "Happy Birthday" for decades. When it finally wore out, Dad bought four music boxes in plastic rectangular cases, put long extensions on the levers and gave them to the children so each of us could have a cake-ready Happy Birthday music box. You can see it in the cake on the left above and right below. I wrap it in plastic wrap before putting it in the cake. You need to mark where the lever is so you know where to cut the cake and activate the music box. 

 The cake also had magic candles. Mom started using these candles long ago. 

The relighting candles always delight children and adults. 

Joe delights in birthday cards designed for children. 

He likes them for himself & he likes to send them to family & friends too. 

Julia's gift to Joe - Tshirt that says 

"Life is good: Kirkland, Washington"

Indeed it is. 

One evening we tried a new restaurant in Kirkland

(new for us)

We spent a day tiptoeing through the tulip fields about an hour north of here. 

MANY, MANY tulip pictures will follow. 

Michael took us to lunch at a restaurant close to his office. 

The restaurant was in this building & overlooked Lake Washington.

Shipyards used to be on this site. At the height of World War II, 9,000 people were employed there. Eventually the shipyards closed down and the land was later redeveloped into offices, shops, apartments, and condos. 

Sculpture - Hand in Hand

Michael's office in the distance

One evening we stopped to watch the sunset at Houghton Beach Park

Light, water, birds, sailboat

Life is good - and beautiful

Birthday gelato at Sirena