Happy Birthday, Luke Vanoy!

We wrapped up the 2014 Birthday Season with a quiet hurrah for this handsome 5-year-old. As with Sarah, we would have a set time of gifts and ice cream to celebrate the day, but because P had to be out of town on business until late that night, we were flexible. And although it really bothered P to barely even be there on Luke's actual birthday, I don't think the birthday boy minded too much - after all, it just made it all last longer! We went ahead and made plans to open gifts and have ice cream on the day after his birthday so that everyone could participate, but the kids and I still did a few things on his true birthday to make it special, starting with the leftover French Toast that I'd frozen after Sarah's birthday (not as good as fresh, but not too bad - especially with plenty of powdered sugar and syrup). 

Luke's birthday fell on Sunday just like Sarah's, and so he too enjoyed wearing his special button to church - although he must have been more than a little confused by all the weird birthday plans because he couldn't quite be convinced that he was really five, no matter what I told him. People kept asking him and he kept denying it, much to everyone's general confusion...

After church, I let him pick where we'd eat lunch; to my surprise and satisfaction, he chose Jason's Deli (every once in a while, I'm really glad that Chick-fil-a is closed on Sundays). The rest of the day was rather low key, but since Luke obviously needed a little convincing that he really had turned five, I went ahead and let him open the gifts that DD and Granddad had sent. He was, of course, thrilled - not only to open gifts, but to have a great new set of books - including a Frozen book (which we later brought with us to Brady; after DD had to read it to her grandkids about 500 different times, I'm thinking she might think twice before giving something like that again!!).

(This is very serious business.)

This is honestly what they did for the next twenty minutes.
Sometimes it's great to be a parent.

On Monday evening, once P got home from work, we set about with the final celebrations of this birthday saga. With gifts piled in front of him, Luke finally began to believe that he might actually be a big 5-year-old now - and the mint chocolate chip ice cream sealed the deal.

Since I forgot to take Sarah "shopping," I let her pick out a few toys from my stash of cheap new toys that I have picked up for just such occasions. Needless to say, he was just as pleased with these items as with the much more expensive gifts that P and I got him - but isn't that just the beauty of childhood? A plastic grabber-toy, a light up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle wand, and three Dollar Tree racecars and you're set for life.

But don't think for one second that he didn't love the Hot Wheels color-changer, shark-chomping race track or the TMNT action figure (Michelangelo) and trick skateboard. And don't think for another second that his dad didn't have just as much fun putting it all together. And then perhaps "demonstrating" how each one worked... a few (or more) times....

Many hands make tricky work.

It was another great day, and another great memory in honor of a really great kid. Happy Birthday, Luke Vanoy!