Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Ok, truth be told, we actually had more than a quiet evening of celebration with family for Jason's birthday last Tuesday...but if I would have blogged it earlier, it would have spoiled the surprise!

While daddy was at work, Mommy went to work making 2 cakes. One small cake (aka--the dummy cake, to throw daddy off the scent) and one large cake (which Norah and I delivered during the day), for all of the party guests.






Unfortunately, mommy failed to offer Norah any of the left-over icing. Instead, mommy threw the unused icing into the trashcan. However, being the self-sufficient soul that she is, Norah simply helped herself to the icing supply.

I caught her almost instantly (as you can probably tell by the look on her face). Thankfully, I already had the camera out to take pictures of the cake!


Once I had taken a couple of pictures, her expression changed from one of "Uh-oh...I'm in Trouble", to one that said, "Oh, I think I'm gonna get away with this after all!"










We headed out to the "Robinson Farm" for our "family dinner", only to be bombarded by a caravan of our friends, toting their dinner, ready to join us! Jason was completely surprised (for once, we were able to pull one over on him!)





Everyone ate dinner. The kids had a ball feeding the goats. But probably the most popular attraction of the evening was Uncle Grant's bow target, which looks like a deer. Kellen kept asking if he could "pet the reindeer"! It was too cute for words!

I had to laugh at little Shelby, too. Mid-way through the evening she ran all the way across the yard and up onto the porch where the "moms" were congregated and asked with optimism, "Mommy, can I holler outside?" Katy answered, "Yes, sweetie. You can holler outside." Shelby turned and let out a little girly shriek before she even made it off the porch, and continued "hollering" as she ran across the yard. (Katy explained that she was constantly telling Shelby at home that she couldn't holler inside, she has to use her inside voice)

After everyone had plenty of time to play with the animals (and in the rain, for some of the evening!), we all gathered on the back porch for cake and ice cream. This was one of my favorite cakes I think I've ever made. (It's a disc golf basket, in case you're not familiar with one of Jason's biggest passions) It took quite a while piping the individual chain links and the basket, but it was totally worth it when Jason told me how much he loved his cake.




After the crowd died down, we had a little family time and Jason got to open his gifts from his mom, Grandmother, and Grant & Paige. (Norah re-lived her Christmas joys, by wearing a bow atop her head)













We also got some great photos of Norah playing in a box. (Thanks to Aunt Paige for making ridiculous faces and funny noises to get her to look up!) These were especially special to me because my parents took some similar photos of me when i was just a little older than Norah is now. (I know everyone's parents probably took photos of them in boxes...but its just fun to compare your baby pictures with your child's)



And of course, she had to make her cheesy face and pose for the camera a little too. (She was in an exceptionally good mood, considering it was over an hour past her bedtime and she usually turns into a pumpkin!)