Happy Birthday Mark!

Today is Mark's birthday.  He would have been 33 today.  We decided to have a fun day today to celebrate his life, even though as Annie put it 'He's dead!'

We started out the day by going to the store to get some milk (we've been out for a few days now) and while we were there we got some 'Daddy presents' - meaning I told the kids they each had $5 to spend on a toy they wanted because it was daddy's birthday.  Turns out $5 didn't buy very many of the toys there.  Maybe I'll have to plan better and up that amount next time just to cut down on the amount of cheap, easily breakable toys in the house...

We also bought some donuts, a box of crackers that always reminds me of Mark, and a cake to make for a party later that night.  Then, after dropping off our much needed milk at the house, we headed to the cemetery to eat our donuts and crackers.

The kids had a lot of fun playing at the cemetery.

Annie and Emily chasing balls (they were the Daddy present that Annie picked out), and Jason eating Chicken in a Biscuit crackers

He asked me to take that one, and then went into great detail telling me that the cracker in his mouth was not his tongue...

Shelly learned a new way to drink water without taking the lid all the way off

The girls running around

Even Nikki got to play

There's Mark (still sans headstone).  He's the patch of grass you can almost see outlined right behind Webb, with one of the red flip flops (accidentally) marking the top right corner

Here's our car, with kids inside munching on donuts and crackers

The cake mix the kids picked out was Tie Dye.  Grandma was quite the sport and helped the kids make it.

Two 8 inch layers

All together with blue frosting in the middle, and green part of the way around the edge

Then purple on part of the top and pink to finish off the top and the rest of the edge

It was one interesting cake! 

(and several dirty kids!)

We had dinner outside, and throughly enjoyed it until the rain and wind finally chased us back inside, there we sang Happy Birthday and had the kids blow out the candles on the cake.

Overall it was a good day!  After I got home I found some flowers on my doorstep that had been delivered while I was gone.  I was quite touched that someone had remembered and sent us flowers, only to discover it was a total fluke of timing!  It was from my sister-in-law's brother and his wife and, from the card, I doubt they had any clue that it was Mark's birthday (although if they did, I'm even more impressed!)

I've had quite a few things like that happen recently.  I got a card just the other day that happened to come on an otherwise hard day (in fact, that has happened quite a few times - I'll get something unexpected in the mail, which always makes my day, but somehow the timing always seems inspired).  I have some amazing neighbors and church friends, my family has been super good to me I'm still seeing many tender mercies of the Lord in our lives.  

Also, we have been so busy this summer!  We've hardly been home at all, which has helped keep us distracted.

Overall today was a good day!  We missed you Mark, but we're doing our best to have fun and be happy, so you're not too sad that you had to leave us.