Eric's Birthday, Ashlynn's Open House, and the Day After

Eric's birthday was on Tuesday.  He had to work on his birthday (sometimes he's been on spring break for it), so Carter and I brought him some Panda Express for lunch at his school.

Tuesday was a windy day, so when everyone was home from school and work, we went out front and flew the Yoda kite that Carter had gotten from the Easter bunny.  It is really fun to fly a kite when the wind is right.  We just hold the kite out and the wind picks it up.  I was the first flier (so there are no photos of that), and I was nearly able to release all the string from the holder, getting it quite high up in the sky.  Then Eric had a turn (and I grabbed my camera).

Look at Eric's smile.  It really is fun!

 

Eric's birthday was also Ashlynn's Open House night, so we had an early dinner at the Thai restaurant in town. 

We didn't order anything too exotic, but our kids really enjoyed the meal.  So happy they like Thai because it is one of my favorites!

 The birthday boy and his kiddos

 Ashlynn's desk at her Open House

 A sweet poem her friend Lydia wrote about her

 With her teacher

 Showing her dad around the classroom

The next morning Carter got up bright and early and wanted to do "homework".  This meant that he wanted to work on the letters book he's got (and rarely works on).  That morning, however, he did page after page of capital letters on his own.  It must have been the fact that we previewed a few kindergarten rooms at Ashlynn's Open House that he became motivated.  I thought it was adorable to see my little boy working on school skills.

 

 After school, Ashlynn had a long-overdue playdate with her friend Lydia.  The girls looked like twins that day with matching pigtails and white tee shirts (it really looked that way as they walked side-by-side at school, since they are also the same height).

 They had fun (and let Carter participate for a bit too).

After Lydia was picked up, we were in the backyard and discovered the first of this year's backyard caterpillars.  Ashlynn is especially excited since last year we found 13 caterpillars that made chrysalises in our butterfly net.

 After dinner we went to Cheesecake Factory to enjoy Eric's birthday dessert (it was too late after Open House to go on the real day).  Yum!

 Carter LOVED the piece he shared with Ashlynn!

  Happy birthday to Eric!