Birthday Boy(s)

For Jeff's birthday last Saturday, I asked him if he'd like to go to his parents' house at some point that day, and he readily agreed that would be great. After a moment of thought, I called his mom and arranged to cook dinner over there for all of us. I was planning on making one of Jeff's favorite meals anyway, and I had plenty to include his parents, too. Along with the ice cream cake his mom provided, we had bacon cheeseburgers (with a fried egg for the birthday boy!) and Seasoned Potato Wedges. Jeff offered to have two slices of cake so we'd feel like his twin brother Joe got to celebrate with us, too. He's thoughtful like that.

And of course, yesterday was our Joe's birthday - last year in single digits! I know parents always say this, but it really is hard to believe he's 9 years old!

My parents sent Joe's gift to our house so he could open it on his actual birthday ...

His very own "Going to Grandma's" piece of luggage! He loves all the pockets.

And speaking of pockets, I hid the presents from us inside the bag.

Found one!

A "vintage" (ha-ha) 1995 Star Trek: The Next Generation playset! It's a model of the Enterprise, complete with Data, Riker (with beard) and Picard action figures.

Searching for the next present ...

Kaity: "Cool!"

Lego: Lord of the Rings Wii game!

For obvious reasons, Joe hasn't seen the movies, but he's familiar with the story since Jeff read the series and The Hobbit to the kids a while back.

Joe's birthday dinner was chili dogs, with apple cobbler for dessert.

Tonight we're continuing the birthday tradition of our friend Eli coming over for dinner, because his birthday is two days after Jeff's. I'm frying chicken, and we'll have red velvet cake for dessert.