And the birthday cycle begins again...

January!...and the cycle of nieces and nephews birthday parties wastes no time in repeating itself.  Here we have the first of the year, a newly crowned nine year old! He invited all of us to party at his new home across the Bay!  Here is the prince in all his glory:

 Take one party with awesome treats such as these...

 Add in a motley assortment of cousins of various ages and sizes...

 And THIS is the result:

The party guests chilled out while awaiting such activities as "tearing into gifts" and "diving into cake":

 After enduring about an hour of such silliness, the party boy demanded we get this show on the road:

 The sacred "present circle":

 He dove right into the gifts, revealing such gems as a new DS something or another game:

 ...some talking pear stuffed thing (note to self, do not photograph in front of the fireplace screen next year)

 ...some kind of angry snuggie towel kinda bird beaked thing:

...and the BIG gift - the traditional offering of a brand new bike for a boy on the cusp of independence!

 After the display of gifts had been torn down and appreciated, we had some time to hang out in the sunshine - here you see some of the family dogs getting a chance to meet and greet:

 Release the hounds!

 Assorted cousins kept auntie happy by posing for poolside shots:

 While inside, the birthday boy attacked his DS game, completely oblivious to the cuteness going on right next to him:

Then it was time for the kids to rip into the Mario and Luigi style cake (some people, I WON'T SAY WHO, were trying to get their finger into the frosting a little early!)

The sad remains of the cake...

 More family chill time:

 An unscheduled appearance by the cover band "Toddlers and Tantrums":

 A short dance recital.  And I do mean short.  As in, after this photo was snapped, they immediately escaped into another area of the house.

 This was the last sight I saw of the birthday boy - he had already gotten to some insanely high level in this game and was almost done with it already.  Why in MY day (insert cranky old lady voice), we played Pong for days!  And we liked it!