Happy Birthday Jeremy!

Jeremy was happy to be at home (not little kid state wrestling) and have electricity (unlike last year) for his birthday.

Happy birthday Jeremy, we love you!

Happy 16th Birthday Philip!

Looks like he got brownies on St. Patrick's day

and cake the next day.

Julia made the cake and was very excited about the hidden treat in the middle!

 We love you Philip!

Happy Birthday Julia

 She's 18!  Happy Birthday to my favorite daughter! ❤️

She and I went prom dress shopping for her birthday. We found a dress that we later returned.  We also had sushi per her request.

We had cake and presents at home later that evening.

Love you Julia!

Happy Birthday Thomas!

He's 21!

No More Littles

only teens and above in the house!

Grandma made a nice cake.

And he got some "carpet farm" machinery.

Looks like fun!

Happy Birthday Nicholas, we love you!

Happy Birthday Philip!

We were on spring break for Philip's birthday.

Julia was very excited about the dirt and worms cake she made him.  She called it a poop and pee cake because she grew up with boys and thinks bathroom humor is funny.

Friday of spring break Philip and I headed to Fremont so he could take his written driving test and get his learners permit.  It only took an hour and a half of waiting but he got it!  And we'd have waited much longer if we'd gone on the one day they come to Wahoo.  Stupid DMV.

He requested a trip to the new Lego store in the Gretna outlets on his birthday so we headed out.  One of the workers was building this big dinosaur set and asked it Philip and Nicholas would like to help.  Um, yes.  Also Philip got to build a free mini figure since it was his birthday.  So those things made the trip worth it.

Each boy also bought a set and then we were $10 away from a free floral set.  Since Julia had specifically asked us to get a floral set if there was one I let the boys build $10 worth of mini figures and we got the set for Julia!  It was a $50 set and I'm really glad it was free.  It's pretty and cool but not that big!

Philip got a Star Wars flyer.

Nick did too. I must have forgotten to get the finished build.

Philip had a couple other gifts to open too.

 His gift from us is a working phone...as soon as we get him back into the apple ID we made him a couple years ago.  I'm usually good about keeping track of passwords but that one is missing and apparently it's not letting Jeremy reset it easily.  We'll get there!

Happy 15th Philip, we love you!

Happy Birthday Julia!

 17 years old...my time with another girl in the house is slipping away.

Grandma Susan made her a nice cake.

She was hoping to see Hadestown but man were those tickets expensive.  Hopefully Hamilton in April.

We love you Julia!

Happy Birthday Nicholas!

Julia made him a Twinkie inspired cake.  Julia went with candles like me...use what you've got and try to get them to add up to the right number.  8 candles + the 4 = 12 years old.

(Still had some tall Grandma Carlson candles around.  She always had them- where did she get them?  I've never seen them in a store.)

Nick was easy to shop for this year.  The unused part of his Christmas list was still a mile long.

Happy to do some living room farming with his new gear.

 Here's to our last year with someone younger than a teen in the house!

We love you Nick!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I declared it a craft day!

I dragged Nick and Philip with me to Joann's after the orthodontist and grocery shopping.

Project one was just flower placement.

Project two I sewed the cute little flowers then hot glued them to a wreath.

Project three I made a couple years ago but I ran out of yellow fabric and it wasn't very full.

I like it better now!

And Jeremy took me out for dinner and froyo!  It was a fun day.
 

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

We love you!

We celebrated at little on his actual birthday...

And then the following Saturday

I threw a little surprise party for him!  The Laniks were in charge of distraction the day of.  Chad needed company while smoking some ribs for "a buddy's" party.  He just left out who the buddy was!  Jeremy headed to their house at 1:00, which was earlier than I anticipated but gave me lots of time to get ready.  The kids helped me clean. I picked up the frozen pizza rolls I'd made (during a wrestling meet I didn't go to) from the Rezac's and got them baked.  Then Samuel showed up to take the younger boys to Lincoln for brothers evening and spending the night at G & G's.  At 4:00 Chad texted Mayday! and Becca called me for ideas.  The Shoeneck's showed up with the beer I'd enlisted them to buy and Robyn brought fruit due to the fact any fruit let at Family Fare in Wahoo on Saturday is very sad.  Then we just had to wait...

I had figured if we could keep it a secret until he pulled in the driveway it was a success and we did it! The Laniks pulled through and kept him at their house without arousing his suspicion.  Yay!  It was a really fun party.

Happy 45th and thanks for everything you do for us!

Happy Birthday Philip!

 He's 14 already!  Seems weird that one of my "littles" is so big.

State wresting was on his birthday so we were in Grand Island.  He chose Mexican for lunch after the meet and we found a great little authentic restaurant which was fun.  

Julia and I had found these fun mustaches but he wouldn't wear them in public.

Stopped for a Dairy Queen cake on the way home.

He got a little banged up at state.  He already had a black eye, which got worse and his other eye got a little bruised and swollen too.

Happy Birthday Philip!  We love you!