Happy Birthday, D2!

Five years ago, the midwife looked me over and gave me a 50-50 chance of going into labor that weekend.  I knew which 50 I believed.  Our first three boys had been born increasingly late, and it was still two weeks before the fourth was due.  So we spent Labor Day doing some preliminary shopping for a vehicle that would fit us all, in a couple of weeks.  That night, with very little warning, D2 made his surprising way into the world. 

This Labor Day, we celebrated the fruit of that labor by taking our little boy to the beach.

We found a great driftwood fort for our base of operations.

As usual, Scoot and Rollo spent the most time in the water,

while Dandelionslayer found a comfortable place to relax,

and D2 assembled a Museum of Cool Things.

Back at home, we enjoyed a cake that D2 designed, inspired by one of his favorite books.  See what I mean about pink?

D2 missed being born on Labor Day by a couple of hours, and was actually born on the first day of school.  This year the first day of school was a day later, and quite chaotic.  But here are some pictures from the second day of school . . .

which was also D2's first day of kindergarten. 

They say time flies on wings of lightning, but maybe it rolls on the tires of a big yellow bus.