Birthdays, Celebration

Birthday Boy

by embracingtheessentials


Little Luke turned 6 years old yesterday. I LOVE celebrating their birthdays. Getting to say YES to everything all day long is like a dream come true for both of us. Yes, you can have donuts and bacon for breakfast and ham and bacon for dinner (real requests). Yes, you can have a new bike! Yes, you can pick the movie for movie night, no coin flipping. Yes, you can stay up late. Yes, you can have more pie and whip cream and ice cream.

We decided at the beginning of birthday season (all the kids birthdays are within 4 months) that we weren’t going to do parties this year. Each child would get to pick what they wanted to do all day on their birthday. The best way that I can describe what a unique and remarkable person Luke is, is to tell you about some of his requests for the day.

Most of his requests centered around eating. He wanted donuts and bacon for breakfast. He also wanted “baba” (my dad) breakfast who always cooks them eggs and grits. He also wanted to go to Dunkin Donuts. Then he wanted to go out to eat for lunch, come home and play and then go out to eat again for dinner. Hilarious. We weren’t able to accommodate all of these requests but we did our best and he seemed pleased.

Donuts and bacon! His hair is crazy because he had already been on a ride on his new bike and gotten all sweaty.

When we asked him what he wanted as far as gifts, he told us to just pick some things that we thought he would like.

Later he asked for two fidget spinners so that he could give one to Fleet.

He wanted three presents – one for Fleet to open, one for Elle to open and one for him.

Opening the gifts . . . look at Elle’s face!

We went to the Children’s Museum, per his request and he wanted everyone to have an equal number of coins to put into the parking meter.

His dinner/favorite meal request was pesto pasta with ditalini and ham . . . oh and bacon too. And key lime pie for desert. I have a great recipe for key lime pie that I will include at the bottom.


He blows us away constantly with his generous spirit. I wish that we could say that we taught him this but really, he has always been like this. We have had a big weekend celebrating him. Elle, especially had a bit of a hard time with the day being all about Luke. She kept saying, Elle birthday. When we would tell her, it’s Luke’s birthday, she would say, NO, ELLE BIRTHDAY!

That snaggle tooth, those ears, that scar on his chest, his huge and imperfect heart. ALL THE GOODNESS.

Randomly Luke wanted to wear his heart necklace to dinner at his Tutu’s (MIL). He actually let me snap this amazing picture of him – no tongue sticking out or anything! Each bead on his “Beads of Courage” necklace represents a procedure related to his heart whether it was an ultrasound, x-ray or heart surgery. Honestly, we could have filled up a couple more necklaces. The fact that he wanted to wear this was a reminder of what we have been through and just how precious life is.

Be. Still. My. Heart.

Celebrating with cousins.

He got a keyboard from my FIL and says he wants lessons.

I included this picture because CUTENESS!

In the interest of keeping it real, we are all pretty tuckered out from the birthday weekend. It’s been fun but it’s also been non-stop. The last few nights, big Luke and I have fallen into bed like zombies. We just can’t seem to get enough sleep these days and I think that’s the new normal. For all you children of the 80’s and 90’s . . .

Keylime Buttermilk Icebox Pie

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325°. Whisk together first 3 ingredients in a bowl.

  2. Beat egg yolks with a handheld mixer (I use a kitchen aid mixer, not a handheld and it works fine) in a medium bowl at high speed 4 to 5 minutes or until yolks become pale and ribbons form on surface of mixture when beater is lifted. Gradually whisk in sweetened condensed milk mixture, and whisk until thoroughly combined; whisk in buttermilk. Pour mixture into prepared crust.

  3. Bake at 325° for 20 to 25 minutes or until set around edges. (Pie will be slightly jiggly.) Cool on a wire rack 1 hour. Cover pie with lightly greased (with cooking spray) plastic wrap, and freeze 4 to 6 hours.

  4. Top with sweetened whip cream. I usually make it from scratch because it’s so easy and delicious.

Crust

Ingredients

  • 1&1/2 cup crackers
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt (omit if using buttery rounds)
  • 6 tablespoons melted butter

Directions

  1. Process crushed cookies or crackers, sugar, and (if used) salt in a food processor until finely crushed and well combined. Add melted butter, and process until thoroughly combined. Press on bottom, up sides, and onto lip of a lightly greased (with cooking spray) 9-inch regular pie plate or 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. (I used a spring form pan this time but have used a regular pie plate in the past. I like the spring form because you can see the crust and it’s just pretty.) Freeze 30 minutes to 1 hour or while preparing fillings.