Frederick is 8!!!

Another birthday! Since technically today is Frederick's birthday and today is a boring school day for all but Simon, we decided to celebrate Frederick's day yesterday when we could enjoy the entire day by relaxing in our own backyard which is what we all like to do best.

Frederick gives the 8 candles a mighty blast and, with the encouragements of Thomas and Grandma, blows them out. (He's not telling us what--if anything--he wished for.)

Recently we heard rumors that Frederick likes to shop at Pier 1 Imports with Emily (what DO they get up to together!?!), in particular, he liked to sit in a swing chair. Simon and I went back and forth about getting him this chair for a birthday present (it wasn't cheap) but we knew he would love it forever so... (Though we didn't realized that some fatso would break the only one in the nearby Pier 1 and Simon would have to drive like a man possessed in The Midnight Hour to the far corners of civilization to try and find one that not only was neither broken our from overweight customers but also had all the hardware for hanging from the frame. Why is life SO HARD?) We put his other presents in it and covered it with a sheet. After the candles were blown out, cake was eaten and Happy Birthday was sung (many, MANY times....) we headed to the garage.... Frederick seemed a bit confused. "Why is the Pier I Imports chair in our garage? That's just silly."
We moved it into the backyard, where it was nice and sunny (Simon even got a bit of a sunburn!) and Frederick opened the rest of his presents. Thomas supervised, just in case Frederick failed to understand some subtlety. (Or, in case he slipped out of the chair and Thomas could get a chance to swing in it for a bit. Which he did not.)
Here Frederick opens a new dvd called Monster Hits, which is from Thomas. He loves it.
Frederick models a new t-shirt from Emily (which features a guitar, a favorite theme) a tries out the new stilt walkers, which he thinks are pretty cool. He's actually pretty good at them. And unlike the stilt-walkers that were sold by Ronco for only $9.99 when I was a kid ("But wait--there's more!"), these things actually work!
A scooter-like device came just before his birthday, too. Frederick will be giving that a whirl as well, shortly too. We'll include photographic evidence of that soon.