{"id":1338,"date":"2009-10-21T22:56:16","date_gmt":"2009-10-21T13:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2009-10-21\/1338"},"modified":"2009-10-21T22:56:16","modified_gmt":"2009-10-21T13:56:16","slug":"anthony-turns-7-a-couple-of-days-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2009-10-21\/1338","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Turns 7 (a couple of days early)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 34 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/3.5, ISO 1400 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nBirthday-Fun Excitement<\/span>\nthese looks of unbridled joy are so precious in their rarity at this age\n<\/div>\n\n

Anthony turns 7 on Friday, but we had his birthday party today because\nhe comes home from school earlier on Wednesdays.<\/p>\n\n

We're not big on extravagant parties, and didn't have the time even if\nwe were, but we did a couple<\/span> of things that really made it fun for him\n(besides cake and presents, which are a given<\/span>).<\/p>\n\n

We filled the hallway with balloons, and hung a few<\/span> from the ceiling, to make\na little<\/span> gauntlet area for him to come through when he got home...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 90 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 3600 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nThe Balloon Gauntlet<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

It looks fairly lame in the photo, but it was much nicer in real life,\nwith lots of pretty colors and movement.<\/p>\n\n

Fumie used some colored chocolate “paint” to make personalized cookies\nto go with the cake...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 125 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 900 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nJust Getting Started with the Cookies<\/span>\nfirst test cookie in the foreground\n<\/div>\n\n

When he came home we had him stand in the hall facing the balloons with\nhis eyes closed, and we waited in the living room, then told him “okay,\ncome!”. He apparently<\/span> had intended to dash in, and had to quickly put the\nbrakes on when he opened his eyes to see the way blocked by balloons. But he recovered<\/span> more quickly than I could<\/span> focus, and was through with joyous\nlaughter before I could<\/span> take a focused<\/span> shot.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 4500 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nGiving Mommy a Thank<\/span>-You Hug<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Then it was time to show him the cookies....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 900 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nChecking Out The Reject Pile<\/span>\ncertain to be as tasty and fun as the rest!\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 3600 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nCookies To Go On The Cake<\/span>\n“Happy Birthday” and “Anthony”\n<\/div>\n\n

Fumie always makes sure that his birthday cake has a drawing<\/span> of something he likes.\nPrevious years (in reverse chronological order) saw a\nfire truck<\/a>,\nrocket<\/a>,\nfire truck<\/a>,\nairplane<\/a>,\nand a big<\/span> truck (which, when he turned two, was his first experience with a birthday<\/span> cake).<\/p>\n\n

This year he's really into Star Wars, as evidenced by this\nrecent photo<\/a>, so Fumie made some Star-Wars themed cookies. She had prepared<\/span> a small<\/span> catalog of Lego Star\nWars products<\/a> to use as inspiration for something to draw (Anthony is\nvery much into the advanced Legos as well), but not knowing much about Star\nWars, soon enlisted my help on something to draw that was both good (not a\nvillain<\/span>), easy to draw on a cookie<\/span> with chocolate, and easy for Anthony to\nrecognize. I suggested<\/span> R2-D2<\/a>. The R2-D2 in the Lego catalog wasn't easy to see,\nso I did<\/span> a quick<\/span> search on the web for “R2-D2 drawing”, and found a scan<\/span> of\na drawing<\/span> some guy did 20+ years ago as a kid<\/span><\/a>. I'm sure you<\/span>'ll join me in amazement at how Fumie's version is a perfect<\/span> copy,\nalmost indistinguishable from the original. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n

Anyway, when Anthony came in and saw the cookies, he recognized R2-D2\nimmediately<\/i>, and was just overjoyed with everything. (See the\n“unbridled joy” in the lead photo of this post.) He kept saying\n\n “;\u4e16\u754c<\/span>\u3067\u4e00\u756a<\/span>\u3044\u3044\u8a95\u751f\u65e5<\/span>\u30d1\u30fc\u30c6\u30a3”\n\n(“best birthday party in the world”) or the like, over and over.<\/p>\n\n

We were pleased.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 56 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 1250 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nExplaining To Mommy<\/span>\nsomething about R2-D2\n<\/div>\n\n

Then it was back to the balloons.... <\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 38 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 900 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nImpromptu Balloon Fight<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 62 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 2800 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nAmmunition Run<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 5600 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nBack Into the Fray<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 48 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 1250 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nGrowing Up<\/span>\nbut not too big to be picked up in a big<\/span> Mommy Hug\n<\/div>\n\n

(Yikes, that looks like a nice shot, so I run<\/span> the balloon gauntlet myself lickety-split and put the better light behind me...)<\/p>\n\n

\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 5000 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nHappy to be Alive<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 58 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 4000 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nJapanese Pose<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 6400 —\nfull exif<\/a><\/span>\nBack to the Balloons<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

It was a great party and it hadn't really even started yet....<\/p>\n\n

Continued here...<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony turns 7 on Friday, but we had his birthday party today because he comes home from school earlier on Wednesdays.<\/p>

We're not big on extravagant parties, and didn't have the time even if we were, but we did a couple of things that really made it fun for him (besides cake and presents, which are a given).<\/p>

We filled the hallway with balloons, and hung a few from the ceiling, to make a little gauntlet area for him to come through when he got home...<\/p>

It looks fairly lame in the photo, but it was much nicer in real [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}