Happy Birthday, Luke!

 Luke turned 15 on Feb. 27, and he got the best birthday present of all on that very day--he got his braces off!!  He has had this "phase" of braces on since Feb. 14, 2011, so it has been 3 long years.  But we got back a paper with the pictures the orthodontist took of Luke when he first started, and it was so long ago!  He started in 2008, back when he was 9!  His smile looks fantastic, but now he has to wear a retainer on both top and bottom teeth for an entire year to hopefully keep everything where it is.

For Luke's birthday dinner Thursday night, we had chicken packets, stir-fried garlic green beans, spinach strawberry salad, and mixed berries.  It was so yummy!  After dinner we had ice cream, and Luke got his present from us--Ticket to Ride Europe!  We got to play this last night, and I must say, I liked it even better than the original!  I don't know my European cities quite as well, so it will be a good geography lesson for me too.

 On Friday, we brought a real smorgasbord of desserts to Bible study.  We were celebrating ALL our February birthdays!  Faith asked for mini cupcakes, frosted with purple and pink, of course, and Luke asked for a chocolate Snickers cheesecake as well as Air Force dessert (hey, the cheesecake is just not that big), and I was perfectly happy with both those options!
You would think with all that dessert that we would still be eating it here at home.  Ha!  Did we mention our Bible study usually has around 28 children, not to mention adults??  We brought home a little bit of Air Force dessert, which I had made in my huge 17x20 pan.  That was all!

So Luke had a good birthday.  He is still ruminating over what to spend an Amazon gift card on from his grandparents . . .  We are looking forward to another year with Luke, as he matures even more physically (he's passing up Nathan . . .), emotionally, and spiritually!  He's a lot of fun, and best of all, he is my finder/organizer/marshall of cleaning up.  Without his leadership, not much around here actually gets accomplished, especially while I am gone, LOL.  He's a keeper!