Jacob's birthday

We celebrated our sweet Jacob's 8th birthday over the weekend!  We are going to be in Russia over his real birthday, so we tried to make this day as special as we could.  I made him swedish pancakes for breakfast and did all of the things I would usually do on his birthday.  As heartbroken as I am to miss the special day when Jacob turns 8, my sister has graciously offered to watch him and make it amazing.  He is super excited to spend his birthday with his cousin!

I can't believe he is turning 8!!

 I cannot get over this cake.  A friend from MOPS made it for Jacob and I actually teared up when I saw it.  (Again, just a little sensitive about missing his big day ;)  It was perfect in every way and Jacob was beyond excited!

We got Jacob some Angry Birds plush toys.  :)

His collection!

Daddy thought it would be funny to add some eggs to the picture.

The birthday party was simple, which I was definitely a fan of with how crazy busy our life is right now!

We picked up his friends and drove to a Teppanyaki restaurant called Samurais.

We happened to only have Russian rubles in our pockets, so they each threw a coin into the waterfall.

Thankfully, they make kid-friendly chopsticks here.  (I probably could use those too!)

The boys were LOVING all of the fire and tricks as our chef performed.

The fire onion ring volcano.  :)

I was glad I thought to take a picture of their reactions too!

Our chef was amazing... so good with all of the kids!

Making a beat on the birthday drum!

Then we came back to our house for a chocolate coin hunt, a race (Jacob really wanted an outdoor race for some reason?), and of course, Wii!

Jacob with his best buddies from school.

Lighting the candles!

Adam kept making jokes about cutting into Mario and the kids were cracking up.

Four player Mario cart!

Jacob, it was so much fun to see your eyes light up in happiness today.  We love you sooooo much and are so proud of the amazing boy that you are.  We're really sad we have to miss your birthday... but that is the same day we will be picking up your baby sister!  Which makes December 20th even more special!  We hope you have an amazing day with Aunt Heidi, Uncle David, Maddie, and Travis.  You will be in our hearts and thoughts the entire time.  We can't wait to see you on Christmas Eve with baby Ella!