Jonathan's 8th Birthday

Well, almost every single one of us has gotten to celebrate birthdays here in the States!  Nathan and Weston both had birthdays right before we came, but we celebrated them as soon as we arrived.  It's been so fun to have family together to celebrate with!  Jonathan celebrated his 8th birthday on December 14th!

Birthday breakfast!  J wanted french toast; and since we are in the States, we can get gluten free bread, so Carolina could have some too!

Jonathan couldn't decide between a "barrel of M&M's" cake like Nathan had for his birthday, or a Ninja Turtle cake... so I tried to combine the two. :)  So simple, but he was pretty thrilled. :) I was grateful... in the midst of all this holiday craziness, I needed simple! :)  It was a big hit with the whole family... who can resist chocolate cake with mint m&m's on top!

 My parents came into town to celebrate Jonathan's birthday, so we took advantage of the extra adult hands, and we painted windows for Christmas!  I knew I couldn't do it on my own... too many kids in too many different rooms to supervise; but with Grandmommy's help, we did it!  So, the morning of Jonathan's birthday was spent making the cake and painting windows!

 All the cousins came over for the evening for a celebration of pizza, cake and ice cream! :)... oh, and broccoli. lol... can't forget the broccoli! 

In Spain, there's no family around to help distinguish the day as special; so we make sure the whole day revolves around the birthday kid, so that they feel extra special. :)  Over there, the birthday kid gets to pick what he wants to eat for every meal of the day, and lunch is always "out" with Daddy.  Food is obviously a big deal in our family! lol... :)  Of course, we had to continue that tradition here in the States, or it wouldn't feel like a birthday to them.  So what did Jonathan pick for his birthday dinner?  Pizza of course... and broccoli.  I love it! :)

 Then presents....

I just love this shot.  Weston and Brooke's responses are so great.  Jonathan had just unwrapped a Kindle Fire, and he had yet to figure out what it was.  BUT Brooke and Weston knew.  They started screeching before Jonathan even figured it out! :) haha...

So, after this day, we officially have 5 tablets in our house. ha!  If we lived a "normal" life (ha!) I think we would have waited until Jonathan was older; but because of how much we travel, the fact that the kids can't get English books in Spain, the fact that Wes got the older version for a STEAL... AND the fact that all electronics are so much more expensive in Spain... (see, it obviously wasn't too hard to convince ourselves of this!), we decided this 8 year old kid would get a Kindle for his birthday! :)  What a beautiful family-filled day!!!