Double Digits - a Belated Birthday Post

 We had a big birthday (numberwise) the other day as our third child (the biggest in this picture) turned 10!  He stole an idea from his big sister and had an appetizer dinner.  He was especially excited about the bread stuffed with sour cream and french onion soup mix, then baked.  We decided afterwards that next time we make this we will just cook the dip separately and bake and the bread into crunchy dipping pieces ;)

 It was a pretty simple celebration.  Unfortunately, Dad's work schedule didn't cooperate, so it was just me and the boys for dinner and presents.  He decided to wait to do his cake until more people could enjoy it.  He wants to decorate it himself.  He still hasn't made one though.

The first gift he got to open was from his brother in the Air Force.  He sent him an awesome Swiss army knife.  He used it to open everything else.  He had a lot of fun with that gift because his brother called from Turkey and had him open it while he was on the phone.

 The little brothers tried very hard to stay back and let him open his gifts, but it was H.A.R.D. ;)

 He was pretty excited to get two Lego sets.  All three boys are totally obsessed with Legos right now. I'm pretty sure I could throw out 90% of our toys and just keep the Legos, a few stuffed animals and cars, and they wouldn't even notice.

 He got right to work putting together the Lego set Grandma sent.

His sister called from college, and he put her on speaker phone while assembling the Lego car.  The five year old thinks that since he can see her picture on the phone, she can see him too, so he went to get her one of his favorite books so she could "read" it ;)  He actually did a fairly good job telling the story.

It was a riot to watch him.

The car got finished.  I think he had a pretty decent time, despite not having anyone over.  Over the next few days more presents and cards trickled in, so it was more like a birthday week than a day.  We went out to dinner when Dad was available, and he ordered his first prime rib dinner, followed by turtle cheesecake.  He also ordered coffee with dinner, but didn't want a refill and ordered something else when that was gone.  It was more cream than coffee by the time he got it "cool enough to drink" - lol.