the birthday began at midnight when Katherine and Beth took a walk to the store and bought the fixings for cocoa and ice cream...

the next morning Katherine (with some additional little hands) made a birthday breakfast (Melinda trained her well).

during the day.... a package from Melinda and Earl arrived...Emily and Hannah came home for lunch...

after phone calls and emails from daughters, sons, friends, and many others... Tony took us to dinner..

after dinner, we bought a Christmas tree...

Tony and Katherine had picked out the cake together on her way home from school... a sensational white chocolate cake with European buttercream, yummm

A smashing birthday! (We took this photo in Key West)