Nehemiah's 9th Birthday

*sigh*

My baby boy is 9.  It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I was talking to my Dr and planning for a Valentine's Day induction.  I still feel bad that I had my Dr come to the hospital on Valentine's Day to deliver a baby... but Nehemiah was born at 4:20, the Dr totally had time to go home and celebrate with his wife.  :) 

I have struggled over the years with what to do for Valentine's Day and what to do for Nehemiah's birthday.  We aren't huge on Valentine's Day here, but I don't want to ignore the day all together.  I want my boys to celebrate it so they can bless their wives.  :)

Anyway, this year we had the added bonus of family visiting and some Pinterest finds... so Valentine's B-day was planned!

The kids were greeted with Valentine's jokes taped to the hallway wall.  Lining the floor from the hall through the living room were brown bags with silly little saying like "I chews you", and the bag had a pack of gum.  Or another would say "I go bananas over you!" and it had a banana in it.  You get the idea.  :)

there are a few pictures in this post that are sideways.  I don't know why.  Every time I go to fix it, it is correct.  Not sure what to do... sorry.

The mantel had a birthday banner and a Valentine's banner.  We often play in our house, asking "How much do you love me?" So our Valentine's banner has a bunch of "I love you more than" statements.  "I love you more than the # of fire ants in our yard" or "I love you more than a mouse loves cheese".  The kids would be quick to tell you that I wrote "I love you more than" on one of them and forgot to finish it.

Whatever

The other 30+ hearts say something!

punks

So after the kids passed the Valentine goodie bags, they made it to the kitchen where I had a Self Serve Yogurt Bar set up for breakfast.  We don't have yogurt often, and when we do I buy plain and we add homemade granola. So this was a special treat because I had vanilla yogurt and strawberry yogurt to go with the granola and fruit.

Also per birthday boys request, we had lemon pound cake.  I had never made that particular recipe before, but WOW, delicious.  It was a hit.  We also had bacon, biscuits, and eggs.  Yeah, it was a doozie of a breakfast.  The kids were full after their yogurt.  A few managed to save room for a slice of bacon.   All saved room for lunch, which was a special lunch out for a little 9th birthday fun.

Roger is the official bacon cooker.  He doesn't normally do it sideways though. ;)

We had a fun day, got a little birthday shopping done.  Opened presents.  Assembled lego's.  Played video games...

Valentine's aftermath.

and played a Valentine's minute to win it game. 

I say minute to win it, but we didn't time it.  Too many little ones at the table.  They had to do math with M&M's, open a Hershey Kiss and eat it with one hand, and bite the ends off of a twizzler, turning it into a straw to blow pixie stick innards outside of a designated area. 

That was kinda messy.

I think they had fun though.  Grandpa and Daddy played too, which made it even more fun.

Oh, and we can't forget about the cake.  Of course we had cake!  This year Nehemiah requested a Star Wars cake.  We looked at hundreds of cakes online.  I begged both Joseph and Nehemiah to let me make them a certain Star Wars cake for their birthdays, but no... they were not to be persuaded.  They both knew which Star Wars cake they were after.  And who am I to argue with a birthday boy?

He chose snickerdoodle cake and chocolate cake with peanut butter icing.  (it was a 2 tier)

delicious.


It was a fun-filled birthday.  Nehemiah enjoyed himself...and the cake.  And next year I'll be crying that he's 10.  This year, I'm ok.  :)  Happy Birthday Nehemiah!