The birthday boy!

Another great happening in April involved this young man....
Jeffrey's 12th birthday! Of course the day started out like this....

I keep thinking one of the years, one of the boys is going to think this whole birthday set up is lame! But it never happens. So we'll continue to reuse the Hobby Lobby banner from about 1000 birthdays ago and the crepe paper that never seems to run out!

He's so glad to be 12! I still have found myself telling people that he's 11. He seemed like he was 11 for sooooo long, like nearly 400 days straight!

As is customary, Jeffrey got to choose the meals for his birthday. He chose Shipley's donuts for breakfast. They've opened one in San Antonio about 20 minutes away, so we went before church. Not as great as the "mother ship" in Bryan, but other Shipley's never are, so we kept our expectations appropriately low. Even a "not as good as" Shipley's donut beats out just every other donut! After church, Jeffrey decided that he wanted grilled chicken thighs, hamburgers and hot dogs for his main birthday meal. No problem! Except......we didn't have a grill. Well, that is to say, we HAD a grill, it just wasn't assembled yet. (Our other grill had been taken to its final resting place...the dump!) So, as a part of Jeffrey's birthday present, Jonathan, Jeremy and Michael assembled the grill!

Jeffrey's birthday cake this year was a little different. Yes, it was an ice cream sandwich cake, but with a twist. Jeffrey wanted me to get Blue Bell mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches to use and put Junior Mints as the candy. However, I couldn't find mcc ic sandwiches, but I did find "moo bar" type things w/ m.c.c. ice cream. We pulled them off of the stick (ate what got left ON the stick) and mashed them in with some regular ice cream sandwiches. The result......YUM YUM YUM! Maybe my favorite yet!

We tried forming a #12 out of Junior Mints, but the whipped cream was a little uncooperative.

Jeffrey couldn't wait to light the candles.

And blow out the candles!

We are so proud of the awesome young man Jeffrey is becoming! Happy Birthday, Jeffrey!!