Birthday Celebration Pictures

All of our family lives hither and yon so they cannot be here to see the kids get their presents. I thought I would post a few pictures from the day so that you could experience the kids' eighth birthday with us.

We started off the kids' day with just a few presents. They were so excited to open some of the things that were already under the tree. I planned on doing a truncated day of school with them and let them even have a jammie day (I know, I know...I'm a softie...but it WAS their birthday and we ARE ahead), so these first few pictures are in their pj's. Grandma Sherry's gifts were a HUGE hit for these royal children!



I think Shaylen is excited about her new crown, don't you think?

Marshall and Shaylen quickly went upstairs and got their royal capes on that I had made for them a long time ago and posed in their new crowns from Grandma Sherry. It's awesome to be able to upgrade from construction paper crowns that rip constantly. These crowns will last forever!

After school & lunch, we let them open up another gift. These were all the way from Alaska! The kids were super thrilled to get "real" shields that wouldn't bend like their cardboard ones.

The kids had requested chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Isn't that funny? They scarfed up dinner and quickly went into the living room to conquer the remaining cards and presents.

The kids got these really neat van organizers from Dad & Cathy. She took an idea from online and ran with it. Now our trips in the van will never be boring. In fact, I'm finding it difficult to get the kids OUT of the van now. Too funny!

See how nicely these fit on the backs of the driver's and passenger's seat? Dad & Cathy even took pains to see that the organizer was already stocked with stuff for our trips. 

 The kids and I also love these new lunchboxes! I cannot tell you how handy these will be on our weekly trip to piano lessons and back (about a 45 minute drive each way). They can get their lunches all by themselves and I can stay safe by keeping both hands on the wheel and both eyes on the road. Thank you!

There were so many other gifts and I could not possibly post pictures of everything, but hopefully you got a taste of the kids' wonderful day.  Thank you for loving them!

After gifts, we celebrated by eating cake that was leftover from Friday. Marshall, Shaylen and I sat down to eat. Unfortunately, Taigen had to grab his Gatorade, say goodnight to us, and go camp out upstairs. Call it raunchy timing, but he had to go and "prepare" for his colonoscopy the next day. What fun, eh? The kids absolutely love this picture of Taigen. Every time they see it scroll through on our screen saver they say, "Oh! Poor Daddy!" I love how he struck the most pitiful pose he could muster. Ha ha! More news on Taigen's health in the next post.

All in all, it was a wonderful birthday and the kids are STILL enjoying all of their gifts.