The Dragon's Cave - Happy Birthday

My son Jeffrey just turned 9 years old. 9!! I have a son who is really growing up--that means I'm getting old & grey & decrepit... :P

Jeffrey had a fun birthday. We wanted to make a cake, but he said he wanted donuts instead. SO, Kimberly took two chocolate donuts, cut one of them up, and pieced them together to make a big number 9. We put candles in the donuts and lit them up just like a birthday cake.

His favorite present was a gift from his uncle Brent. Last year, Brent bought a refurbished GameCube and three Zelda titles (Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess). He has since finished them all, and he wanted one of his nephews to get into the excitement and brain-grinding fun that the Zelda games are. So, he gave me the GameCube along with the three zelda titles. I went ahead & bought Mario Kart Double Dash and an additional controller, then gave it all to Jeffrey for his birthday.

Since then, all three of my boys have been up super early (6:00 AM!) each morning, getting dressed, combing their hair, eating breakfast, and packing their lunches for school, all so they can get some time to play before school started. They all love to play Mario Kart, and even little 3-year-old Nathan has more or less figured out how to drive his car around the track without simply going in circles.

Jeffrey has also really gotten into Zelda: Ocarina of Time; he loves it! In the days since his birthday, he has already gone through the Deku Tree, gotten himself into Hyrule Castle, and met the princess. Last night as I was driving home from work, he called me on my cell phone, asking me how to do such-and-such and where is such-and-such in the game.

Our company has finally announced our latest title for the Wii: Order Up! To see the announcement, click here. It's a family-oriented cooking/restaurant management game with a great cartoony style, and it has been called a mix between Cooking Mama and Diner Dash. I'm not one of the devs on this project (I'm working on a currently unannounced Wii title), but from what I've been able to test-play, this game is a lot of fun! See what happens when you get three orders at once, and you've got to manage how to cook pancakes, hamburgers, and mac & cheese all at the same time so that they all arrive hot and fresh for the customers.

I'm taking my sons camping this weekend with our church group. I've been put in charge of making the desserts tomorrow night, so I'm going to put together a large-scale dutch oven peach cobbler fest. I've got access to 7 or 8 dutch ovens, and I'm probably going to spend most of the evening preparing and cooking cobbler for between 60-70 men and boys. Camp cooking is lots of fun! :)