On Sunday we had a little family party for Lex’s birthday. Family parties feel little these days with all of my siblings away and Grandma no longer with us. It was nice, but we were definitely missing some of the big personalities! :)

We had a quiet morning with just the four of us, then Mema and Grandpa Tom came over at lunch time. When the kids were getting too bouncy and Lex was barely able to contain the excitement of another day of presents, my mom had the great idea to take them out to fly kites. The sky was dark and the wind was whipping, but we had fun for awhile. Mema brought them each a new kite and they are very pretty. Lex managed to get his up in the air, but then he couldn’t get it down again! How’s that for an unusual kite problem. :)

Eve and her owl kite

Lex flying his space shuttle kite high in the sky!

It’s time for this space shuttle to come in for a landing!

“Mom, I can’t get my kite down!!”

Eve was SUPER proud that she had a great idea and was able to help get the kite down. She’s a smartie!

Back at the house Amanda and Rachel arrived, then Grandpa and Katie, and THEN the moment he was waiting for… presents! (yep, he’s reached that age!)

They both crack me up in this picture. Eve looks like she’s ready to dive in, and Lex looks a little disgusted at the books he just opened. As if he’s not going to have them read by morning! :)

Laser pegs! Always a good time!

It’s hard to let Lex choose his birthday dinner since his diet is sooo limited. We settled on pizza, garlic bread (which he loves), and salad for dinner.

Yummy dinner.

Then, of course, cake!!! This was a chocolate peanut butter cake. Not as fancy as the basketball cake from Saturday, but sooo much tastier!

Time for cake!

Did you notice the birthday banner on the wall behind him? Eve made it just for for Lex. She also bought him two presents with her own money. They are so sweet to each other.

One happy eight year old!

We ended the evening with a multi-generational game of Monopoly. Lex got a new version with gold pieces. Oh-la-la! It was fun!!

Real estate tycoons, hard at work.