It's a Campout!

...A backyard campout, that is!  In order to include Grandma & Grandpa in Elaine's birthday celebration, we had to do it a couple of weeks early while we are here this weekend  Something Elaine has mentioned wanting to do for her birthday is camping.  But since she's a November birthday, it's usually too cold.  Ben came up with the idea of camping out in the backyard at Grandma's house.  It's not too cold yet, and the house is right there if things do get too cold during the night.  We opted to keep the babies inside, so it was a Grandpa-Daddy-Elaine-Nolan campout.

 

The birthday girl and her gifts & balloons

 

 Grandma did the menu and the cake, and it was fabulous!  The kids got to roast their hotdogs over the fire pit (pictures did not come out well), and then we finished it off with an amazing ice cream cake and mini cupcakes!

 

blow, baby, blow!

 

best combination ever - mint chocolate chip and moose tracks ice cream with oreo cookie crust!

 

Nehemiah could NOT wait to get at those cupcakes!

 

 

A couple of months ago Ben pulled a giant doll house out of someone's trash pile.  It was in great condition!  But...we had no doll house furniture.  It's been populated with giraffes, dinosaurs, and Little People, but Elaine has been asking for doll house stuff for her birthday.  She hit the jackpot!  My mom sent the Family, Grandma got her a Living Room set, and we gave her the Dining Room.  Even Nolan got a brother!

 

 

 

 

And kind of as a joke, but also a lot of seriousness, Elaine's siblings got her this:

 

 

Here's the background...I buy the super cheap, 1000 sheets-per-roll, basic toilet paper.  Elaine has often complained, "EVERYONE has softer toilet paper than we do!"  So I bought her the softest, squishiest kind I could find.  3-ply even!  And she loved it.  And vowed not to share!

 

And off to bed they went...

 

 

Happy Birthday Elaine!