rites of passage

Last night, we celebrated all the October birthdays in our family, and there are lots of them within a week of each other. Well, actually, four at last count. Mom made us spaghetti and meatballs, which my OLDest sister, Kathy, couldn't resist telling me, a vegetarian, just how good the meatballs really really were. I'll stick with my buttered and cheesed spaghetti, thank you very much :)

After our bellies were full, we moved into the living room to open presents, and oh, how many there were. By one of her gifts, I could see that my niece, Christine, would love to turn me into one of those people. You know the kind - the ones who dress their dogs up and paint their toe nails purple (sorry, Maria, just had to throw that in there...hahaha). This is what she got me for Murray, who so nicely modeled it later in the evening:

Apparently, Murray doesn't want to be one of those dogs either, as the entire time I was trying to take pictures of him in the costume, he kept trying to grab it with his teeth to get it off of him. And even after I took it off and put it on top of the table, he wasn't satisfied. He jumped up and grabbed the outfit from the table and tried to hide the offending object. Speaking of which, I just glanced down, and guess what is now sitting at my feet? That same pumpkin outfit. Guess Murray's still trying to get rid of it. Either that or he's changed his mind and is asking me to put it back on him...lol.

After presents, it was time for some yummy cake and ice cream. Ever try to sing the Happy Birthday song with four names in it? It ain't easy. Luckily, I only had to sing three, since I'm one of the birthday people (smile). Here's a picture of the cake. We'll just pretend it says "and Ed" at the bottom of it (poor guy, he gets lost between us three sisters).