Birthday Season

Our birthday season has begun. Next up is Linkerton! 

Lincoln has become very...expressive...when the camera comes out lately. 

Lincoln had a waffle and bacon breakfast, went to his two hours of school, and then when he got home his present scavenger hunt was waiting for him. 

As always, many Lego sets were involved in the making of this birthday. Lincoln also got two big trucks, a bubble gun, and a marble track. 

For dinner he requested pizza and orange Fanta to pair with more funny poses. 

He asked for a Link cake which proved to be a challenge beyond my abilities, so I just made a cake with the Link logo on it and then surprised Lincoln with a cute little Link doll. It was his favorite gift of the day and a fun finisher. 

One day I noticed someone besides me had finally replaced the toilet paper roll in the bathroom. It is obvious this is never done by anyone else because they didn't know what to do with the old tube after they had replaced it. I'm just really hoping this was done by one of the kids and not Jeff. 

Carson drew this adorable baby Yoda in art class. Jeff loves the eyes and I love the shading in the ears. Darling!

Eli built an Emoji-Man one afternoon out of sheer boredom. He was so excited for Jeff to get home, hoping his afternoon's activities would scare Jeff once he walked into his room. 

We found a cool park that has a horse arena as part of it. People can bring their horses and ride them in the arena. We love to watch the horses, and Jonah loves to sit on this horse for hours pretending he's Link. 

The older boys finally got to go back to school! Just for two hours, but it is every day. 

When my brother asked me how I felt about the kids being back in school, I cracked myself up when I responded with this picture of my dad. 

That picture had popped up on our TV just the day before and I knew it would come in handy one day, I just wasn't expecting to be able to use it so soon!

Eli added a comments section to a paper Carson had brought home from school. We're living in a digital world. 

Carson wanted to watch a "special Valentine's video" the night of Valentine's Day. I found a tutorial of Baby Yoda holding a heart, so we gave that a try. Lincoln's turned out so cute! 

Jeff pulled a beautiful Valentine's meal together for us. He grilled up some salmon and it was such a fun treat! We had fed the kids crepes right after church and then had a nice romantic dinner together after they were full and playing upstairs. Yum!

Before long it was Jeff's birthday. I couldn't compete with the cute day he planned for my birthday, but we tried to make him feel special. The boys all wanted to make him cards on posterboards. 

Jeff got off work early. One of my gifts for him was two tennis rackets and some tennis balls. Jeff and I both played tennis in high school, and now that our kids are older I thought it would be fun to match up against each other while the kids play at the park. We tried the rackets out on the afternoon of his birthday and it was so fun! The weather was beautiful and Eli actually joined us and did a pretty good job for his first time. Tennis skills may be hereditary. 

I also got Jeff Super Smash Bros for the Nintendo Switch. The boys all played that while I made dinner. Of course we did the traditional fried rice, but I also picked up some fun new things to try from Trader Joe's. I got Mandarin Orange Chicken, Wonton Soup, and some Asian Veggies. It felt like we had ordered Chinese take-out. Then Jeff led us all in a round of Happy Birthday as we ended the night with angel food cake. 

I'll end with this cute Lego portrait of Jeff Carson made for Jeff's birthday. So cute!