Birthday Boys

We had more summer birthday celebrations around these parts.  Landon has been talking about what he wanted for his birthday for the past 364 days so it was with great relief to the entire family that his birthday finally arrived.  Both boys wanted more Legos.  I told them I will not be buying anymore Legos for them ever again because our house is flooded with them.  There are Lego pieces everywhere!  They knew I meant business so Landon quickly learned how to text my dad to ask for a specific Lego set for his birthday.  As long as it isn't my money used on Lego sets, the boys can have them.
I was able to dodge another birthday party by suggesting Randy take the boys camping overnight.  Everyone thought this was a great idea.  Unfortunately last minute plans almost never work out and this was one of them.  Randy couldn't reserve any sites with less than a weeks notice so they headed up the canyon in search of an empty camp site and there were none to be found.  They drove around for 3 hours and came home late, tired, and dejected.  What a great birthday celebration, huh? 
We decided Birthday Party Plan B would be to go out for breakfast the next morning.  This was a big deal because we haven't gone out for breakfast since Rhode Island where we could eat at the locally owned T's.  Our boys haven't forgotten the wonder of eating at T's and I heard good reviews about The Pancake House in Redmond so we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.  It was alright.  But everyone got plenty of food and they brought it out in record time, probably because our waitress saw me trying to keep five boys happy so she rushed our food. 

Freshly rolled out of bed and barely awake for breakfast

Landon was thrilled he could order hot chocolate with whipping cream

 After the so-so breakfast, we opened birthday presents.  I went against the boys' wishes and bought them new bikes, even though they didn't ask for them.  We have a garage full of bikes and almost all of them should be at the dump instead and I am sick of it.  I shopped around and discovered if I spent about a hundred bucks more per bike, the quality goes way up.  So I splurged.  That never happens.  But I kept thinking about how wonderful it would be to throw out all those rusty, crappy, broken bikes and I was willing to do anything.  Luckily the boys were thrilled with their new wheels and even wear their new helmets when they ride.  {Eventually they'll figure out that I don't care if they wear their helmets all the time, but for now it's cute.} Then Randy broke all the rules and treated the boys to lunch at McDonald's {yes, they ate out for breakfast and lunch} to make up for the missed camping I guess.  And while they were out he bought them each a Lego set.  I was furious.  And so were Marcus and Ethan.  "No more Legos!" we all said.  Randy just smiled smugly and went outside to do yard work.  It's his coping mechanism.  We had birthday cake and ice cream that night and invited our next door neighbors over to celebrate so it felt like a party and I got to socialize which is really what it's all about!

Parker still has training wheels!  Yep, I've failed him.  But he'll get them off eventually and the best part about these training wheels is that I can just untwist a knob and off they come.  No tools needed!

Happy 6th Birthday, Parker!

Happy 9th Birthday, Landon!