Happy Birthday, Luke!!!

Luke turned 11 years old today! He asked for cheesecake again, and we brought that to Bible study last night, along with a host of other goodies.

I had a little bit of leftover peanut butter cup filling from Christmas in the freezer, plus I had some caramel that I never did use at Christmas, so I spent the afternoon making candies. Since the cake/chocolate supply shop closed (boo-hoo), I just bought some Wilton choclate coating discs from Michaels. I was not very impressed with them. They didn't melt very smoothly, and they just glooped together. I had some paramount crystals (fat, sort of like crisco) so I added that, but it never really smoothed out to my satisfaction. Oh well. I guess I will have to start ordering Merckens chocolate online.

We also brought rice krispie treats for those like Nathan and Amanda, who don't like cheesecake, and for Caleb, who is allergic. I had a little bit of pink frosting left over in the fridge from Faith's birthday, so I frosted the treats with that. I told Luke they were to honor Faith's birthday, since we didn't bring a cake to Bible study for her, so he would not be insulted that we were bringing pink treats to his birthday celebration!

Here is a closer look at the cheesecake, in all its yummy goodness. It has snickers bars chopped up inside it, as well as sprinkled on top, and chocolate syrup drizzled over the top. Very tasty!!

Today we went out to CiCi's Pizza for lunch to celebrate. CiCi's was having an anniversary celebration this month, where everyone ate for $3.99. Since tomorrow was the last day, we thought it was a good time to take advantage of that deal!

For his birthday dinner, Luke requested chicken salad on croissants, and we also had Sunchips and cut-up orange slices. Easy and lighter, after our big meal!

After dinner, Luke opened his presents. He got a new basketball, a Toby Mac CD, a "How to Draw Star Wars Clone Wars" book from Grandpa and Grandma B., and a Scrabble Slam card game and a very challenging 3-d globe puzzle from Grandma and Grandpa G.! He was also very thrilled to get an Amazon gift card from Aunt Amy and Uncle Jason, and some money from Uncle Dan and Aunt Melinda, so he is looking forward to figuring out what exactly he will get with this largesse!