Logan's 7th Birthday

It's not every day that you wake up on your birthday to find church cancelled and ten inches of snow still waiting for you to play in...but that is what Logan got today!  Since I was so busy getting ready for his friend party yesterday, the children only went out once to play in the snow and they chose to sled on the neighbor's hill across the street.  As a result, the backyard was still totally perfect and completely untouched!  So after eating our traditional birthday breakfast of waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, the kids and I headed out on this cold, but sunny, day to frolic in the 10 inches of untouched snow in the backyard.  After awhile, we ventured to the front yard where I discovered that our road was the perfect sledding hill as it was completely covered in compact snow!  After explaining to my kids  what a rare and special treat this was, I convinced them to make the long walk up the hill to try sledding down our road in our plastic, toboggan sleds.  As I had hoped, it totally worked and the kids and I flew down our hill over and over again.  I enjoyed taking turns sledding down with all of the kids one at a time while the two others would go down on their own.  It was so much fun!  While the baby napped, Ron was able to come out and watch us from the driveway and even get some pictures and video.  Our neighbor, Lou, was out shoveling his driveway during this time and told Ron and me that this is only the second time in the twenty years that he has lived here when he has seen our road covered in compact snow like this.  As a result, I am so glad that we were able to go outside and take advantage of it!
After playing in the snow most of the morning, we all came back inside for lunch and a quiet afternoon of naps, TV time, or Lego building before grandma and grandpa arrived around 4:30 for for Logan's birthday celebrations.  After a long session of playing with the Lionel trains with grandpa and Ron while I finished making dinner, we sat down in the dining room and feasted on a dinner completely requested by Logan of ham, rice, broccoli, rolls, lumpia, and "fancy apple juice" (Martinelli's sparkling cider).  After eating, we watched Logan open up his family, birthday gifts and enjoyed seeing the smile on his face with every packaged he unwrapped.  Highlights included more pirate books, the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie, a large, Harry Potter Lego set, some cool accessories for his Logan doll, and more magnetic tiles and an awesome one dollar coin collection (from grandma and grandpa).  We finished off the evening's celebrations by eating chocolate cake made by grandma with vanilla ice cream just as the first snowflakes began to fall from storm #2 that had been predicted.  By the time we finished dessert at 7:15, the snow was coming down fast and furious!  My parents quickly gathered up their belongings and literally ran out the door to try to make their drive home in this second storm before the roads got crazy.  We were so grateful for this break in between the two storms that gave my parents the chance to make the drive down to join us for Logan's birthday.  After they left, it continued to snow very hard until after we went to bed providing over a foot of snow outside for us to play in tomorrow!

Logan getting ready to blow out the candles on his birthday waffles.

Blowing away!

Papa and baby Emmett looking on.

A close-up of our cutie!

The ten inches of snow I measured on our deck this morning.

All three kids standing in the untouched snow before running off to play in it.

Making snow angels.

Trying to sit up in that deep snow.

Ella knocking off the massive amount of snow from one of our bushes.

And down it goes!

Since it was his birthday, Logan got 'first dibs' on sledding down the slide.  Here he is getting ready to go down.

For the first time since the kids have been sledding down our slide, Logan actually got stuck because there was too much snow!

The birthday boy giving me a smile after tumbling down the rest of the slide.

Ella sliding down on her bottom.

And Lia, too!

After awhile, we ventured to the front yard so that the kids could sled down the neighbor's little hill.  This year they have perfected the art of standing on their sleds while going down the hill.  Here is Lia showing off her new skill!

Ella sledding down the hill the 'old school' way.

Logan showing off his mad, sledding-down-the-hill-while-standing skills.

Ron came out to watch us after we had started sledding down our road.  Here is Logan coming down the hill with Ella and me way up at the top.

Cute Logan giving dad a birthday smile.

Here comes Ella and mama!

Waving to daddy...

while having such a good time.

A mommy-kiddo picture in the front yard.

Mama and her birthday boy.  It's so hard to believe that he came into the world seven years ago today.  Where has the time gone?

Logan getting ready to open his presents after eating the birthday dinner.

A quick sibling photo before the unwrapping began.

Logan chose to open up his biggest present first...

which was an awesome and huge, Harry Potter Lego castle set complete with the whomping willow and Ron's flying car.

Logan opening up another gift.

Proudly showing off his new pirate books with his sister at his side.

Logan neatly lined up all of his gifts afterwards which is totally something he would do.  Here he is posing with all of his 'loot.'

Our second family photo since Emmett joined us.

Logan smiling next to his birthday cake that I decorated with miniature, pirate toys.

The birthday boy blowing out his seven candles...

and enjoying his cake!

Happy Birthday, Logan!  I am so grateful that Heavenly Father sent you to us seven years ago.  You have added so much joy, laughter, and energy to our family and I couldn't imagine life without you.  I hope you know how much we love and treasure you!