Clark's Birthday!

 The big event this week was that Clark just turned 6! He is growing up so fast, and it will be nice for a little while to have his size and age match up a little better. Planning for Clark's birthdays is usually pretty easy - he knows what he wants for gifts and to eat all day. He had chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, a Lunchable with an Oreo for lunch, spaghetti with meatballs for dinner, and a s'mores cake for dessert.

Clark had already blown out the candle before taking a photo, so we had him pose like he was blowing it out. It looks like he is unhappy with the cake, but I assure you this is just his attempt to look like he is blowing out the candle.

Clark got a lot of presents he was looking forward to. Here he is holding nerf-like blaster guns. Along with the transformers he got, his gifts kept him entertained for a good deal of time.

A side view of a piece of yummy s'mores cake. in addition to the chocolate cake, there were melted chocolate pieces between cake and graham cracker crust and beneath the marshmallows.

Clark got a little backhoe that has sensors that enable it to follow a black line that you draw on paper. I had a big board with a non porous white surface out in the workshop. We tried a couple different patterns with a dry erase marker, and the little guy followed it just fine. This Clark shaped track was my favorite. 

One of Clark's big wishes was to go to Legoland in Grapevine (about 30 minutes away)(not a real Legoland like in Carlsbad, a much smaller one). My lovely and resourceful wife found major discount tickets so the whole family was able to go for much less than I thought we would. Now if we could only find such a deal for places like Disney Land, maybe I would consider going. No probably not.

While the older kids rode the two rides that were for bigger kids only, Eliza got to play in Duplo land. She really enjoyed herself. 

Eliza and some new friends.

They obviously have lots of things made out of Legos in Legoland. I had to put one of my favorite parts from the section with downtown Dallas buildings. You'll notice that a certain one of the windows is open. I would say that's nice attention to detail, but there is nobody with a gun on the grassy knoll.

Clark had a wonderful birthday, and we are so glad to have him. He has been learning so much in Kindergarten and we can't wait to see all he learns over the next year of his life.

Just in case you want to know how autumn is going for us here in Dallas, this is a picture of our backyard thermometer today (Nov 5) when we got home from church at 1:15. And no, this has not been in the sun at all today.