Happy Birthday, Ben!

Last Friday the kids were super excited to celebrate Daddy's birthday- after all, birthdays mean presents they can open (even if they are for Daddy!) and treats to eat! Daniel very proudly picked out a really cool Star Wars Lego set to give Daddy, while Annabel was absolutely tickled to have found a Star Wars list pad during a recent trip to Barnes & Noble. She just loved having her own special thing to give him. The kids could hardly stand to wait for Daddy to have a free minute (it was a work day after all) to open presents- you'd have thought it was their birthday! They were also happy to wear shirts that they knew Daddy would like, in honor of his birthday- Daniel wore a Lego shirt and Annabel wore her Star Wars shirt. I love these kids- they are just so cute!

We had a lot of fun making eclairs for Daddy's birthday treat. I had made these eclairs years ago (6 years ago to be exact), and they were good, really good, but then Daniel's milk allergy became known shortly thereafter and we never made them again because that would just be mean to eat them in front of him. Well, it's a new world without allergies for us and we're loving it...bring on the eclairs! It was really fun to make these and remember the first time I made them because this was my audience at dawn thirty the morning of Father's Day 2009. I very clearly remember baby Daniel sitting in the family room playing away while I baked, filled, and frosted eclairs to surprise Ben with when he woke up. I remember thinking how good Daniel was while I was busy in the kitchen, and how well he played on his own. I remember how adorable it was to watch him play away the whole time. (And when I typed in eclairs to search for this blog post, I also came across this post, too- oh, the trips down memory lane!)

Anyway, this time around, I had helpers...the best helpers! The kids just loved filling the eclairs- dropping big dollops of pudding on and then sandwiching them with the top of the eclair. They didn't leave me any to do, that's how much fun they had! And of course the best part was the tasting while they helped, because these sure are messy to make! We all gobbled up just a few eclairs after we helped Daddy open his presents...they were such good eclairs.

Happy Birthday, Daddy! We love you so much!