Happy Birthday to Dad

Today is my birthday!  I had a really busy day at work, but I was all done with work by the evening in time to enjoy time at home with my family.  We started with cards.  Meghan made a super cool custom card from the kids.  I'm not sure why I was the only person in this picture who felt it was appropriate to wear clothes.

The pajama pants that I've loved and had forever since I got them as a Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa Hall many years ago finally wore out.  I found this out when I went to put them on, and while my leg was sliding down the leg hole, my toe caught on a weak area of the fabric near the knee and punched through the cloth and then proceeded to tear a giant gaping hole in the right leg of the pajama pants.  At that point they no longer served their purpose of keeping me warm.  And in fact, they specifically did the opposite, exposing a large portion of my leg to the cold air that I try to avoid by virtue of wearing the pajama pants in the first place.  Anyway, the point is I currently have no pajama pants.  But now it's "had", as Meghan recently took Joshua with her to the store to buy me some for my birthday.  Meghan gave Joshua the privilege of choosing the ones he wanted, and because he happens to currently love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, he saw a pair and chose them for me.  While I don't have a particular affinity for the Ninja Turtles at this stage in my life (I mean, they are cool in their own way), I love these pajama pants because Joshua picked them out, and it makes me smile to think of him seeing them in the store and instantly knowing they were the perfect choice.

Here I am with my spoils and with my three mostly-naked children.  Seriously, put on some clothes!

I used to have a lot of Dairy Queen ice cream cakes in my life, but I don't so much anymore, so I've kind of missed them.  So this year I requested one, and it was delicious.  It was a great birthday overall, despite the heavy workload early in the day.  I was really glad that yet again, I didn't have to travel for work on my birthday, which is always a risk.

This picture is unrelated to anything other than that I noticed it in the pictures Meghan took.  I don't remember what Clara said or did, but apparently it earned one of the more hardcore side eyes that anyone has ever been given.  I'm pretty sure I was teasing her about something, or probably she was actually teasing me, resulting in the look, but either way, that's some serious side-eye action and should be recorded for posterity in our blog.  But it should be noted, that I only have this skill because I learned from the best.