Cumple de Will

This child turned 10 on May 16! And even though we were commencing week 10 of province-wide lockdown, it was extremely special and he loved every minute of it. 

Started the day off with a twist on the traditional gumdrop tree.....Colette, our genius artist-in-residence, created the next best thing with a gumdrop half-orange. Pat made bacon, pancakes and freshly squeezed orange juice (which is not far off from the king's usual breakfast fare)

 He was then serenaded by Pedro and Colette on the ukelele  to the tune of "Feliz Cumpleanos" and they also gave him a little science experiment kit.

(She really should make cards professionally)

Post breakfast, Will requested an intense rough house session with little bro and papa. You'll be shocked to hear that I sat it out. 

Next up was a scavenger hunt around the cave, the neighborhood and our favorite spots in Granada. Colette quickly drew these little images of pomegranates (this post is not sponsored by her, I swear), Pedro pre-recorded the clues in 12 different short videos and Leo and I ran ahead of Pat and Will posting up the granadas all over Granada. Perhaps his favorite clue was the one where he got to pick up Hugo, his buddy, and take him along for the walk (he had not seen Hugo in person in 9 weeks at this point)

There are few photos of the actual hunt, because Patrick "is too in the moment" (actual quote) to take pictures, but you can imagine Will bounding around just happy to be in the presence of a peer and hitting up some favorite spots (bakery (cookies), bakery (donuts) and restaurant (sushi). 

After sushi lunch back at the house it poured rain and they got to snuggle in to watch Dr. Strange (yet another birthday dream fulfilled.....snugglefest with a bellyful of sushi watching a Marvel movie)

More food later in the day.....homemade pizza pizza pizza!  

A raspberry explosion on a flourless chocolate cake. Took 18 hours to beat the egg whites into submission. 

And finally: we settled in to the hour and half (!!!!!) long movie we made by piecing together wonderful videos from all over the world from his fans, family and friends. Lots of beautiful birthday wishes, tales of mythological characters and beasts, and a few tearful tributes. He grinned ear to ear the entire time and LOVED it. And requested to watch again. Thank you to all for sending your love to him on his day....he really felt it!

William will never forget when he turned 10 during a worldwide pandemic while living in a cave in Granada and felt so much love from all over the world.