Lincoln's Birthday

 Lincoln's birthday was a little bit wild as it was the same day as Thanksgiving this year.  It was interesting to try and get everything done to host the Nelson Family and also make sure Lincoln had an extra special day.  We weren't sure what to do with the decorations because everything else was decorated for Thanksgiving, we decided to make this area where our kitchen table was all birthday.  We called it the "Birthday Nook". 

 Lincoln woke up to presents on his birthday plate as is our tradition.

 And a birthday sign.

 And let's not forget the balloons in his bedroom.

 I always loved birthdays when I was a little girl.  My mom always made them extra special.  Our siblings had to divide up our chores and we got to pick all of the meals and there just seemed to be an extra infusion of magic on the day of a birthday.  I have tried to recreate that for my kids.  Birthdays SHOULD be special. 

 I think he had a good day and even enjoyed having everyone over on his birthday.

 After opening all of his presents we made "Thin Pancakes"  for breakfast.  They are so good (sort of like a thickish crepe with syrup and butter on it) and they are Lincoln's favorite.  I usually take the kids out to breakfast for their birthdays, but since not many places were open, we had gone out the previous Saturday on a little date.  We went to Chik-fil-a for lunch and then to look for birthday present ideas (he wasn't really sure what he wanted).  He got to celebrate at school the Tuesday before Thanksgiving at school and he brought individual ice creams for the class.  He came home on cloud 9. 

 Later when grandma came over for dinner, he got to open his present.

 he got roller blades and hasn't really taken them off since.  He and Palmer have loved rollerblading to school together.

 Instead of cake he had a special pie on Thanksgiving night. 

 Later on that night he opened some fun presents from the aunts, uncles and cousins.

 We wanted to keep the birthday in our celebrating, so we did a little Mario Bros pinata.

 McKay loved hitting the pinata (no idea how to do Spanish letters?) and would go crazy any time anyone else tried to do it. 

 The Sunday after the birthday we had the Palmer grandparents, Uncle Mark and Uncle Nathan over for meatloaf (Lincoln's dinner of choice) and cake and ice cream.  Lincoln wanted a Pokemon cake.  This is a "Poke ball" from Pokemon (Lincoln guided me on the decorating). 

 Then we had some cousins come over for cake and ice cream.

 He loved the cake and pretty much thought that I was the best mom ever (and if you had seen how I wrecked the cake getting it out of the pan, the fact that this is round took some serious ingenuity...)

I didn't get a picture of Lincoln with the family, but picture some really great grandparents in this picture.  He has loved his umbrella (Hunter has one and Lincoln has been coveting it for about a year) and he got a light saber that actually makes sounds, very cool.  Lincoln was in heaven and I have to say that during this Thanksgiving season that Josh and I have definitely been thinking about all of the reasons we are thankful for our sweet boy Lincoln.  He sure is a great kid!