Heff kind of gets jipped every year on his birthday- since it's Valentine's Day! Last year we were in LA for Thomas' baptism and this year he kind of got overshadowed by "waiting for a baby"- so we tried to treat him like the birthday boy all weekend and then Sunday night we had in impromptu party at our house with my parents and Uncle Jerry (just in case we were otherwise occupied tonight but so far no such luck). The girls and I decorated while Heff was on a run, Jannie and Grampa brought really yummy lamb chops and Francie lead the charge on cupcakes for dessert.

Francie wrote "DAD" (connecting some dots :) all by herself

We made Heff a Troopy pinata! (well they had a army jeep at Target we took the tissue paper off and re-did- I was not that ambitions to paper mache a car shaped pinata) and TG for my 25,000 pieces of tissue paper for last minute decorations

Thanks for all the help France! and smiling at the camera for once

instead of the usual faces I get:

Francie found a "Cakes for Kids Book" and insisted Heff pick out a cake she was going to make for him right then and there. "I'm SERIOUS Dad- I'm going to make it look just like this rocket ship." She made Uncle Jerry ready the "interstructions" and then barked orders- "Jannie, turn on the oven for 350!" "Mom, I need a baking pan!" Brian finally said someone has to tell her the rocket ship isn't happening. We settled for cupcakes instead.

Maisie even got to help

They did almost everything themselves thanks to some easy recipe we found with 6 ingredients and 3 steps. The batter was more like sugar cookies than cupcakes but served as an appetizer (the dough bowl) and the cupcakes didn't need any frosting