Tom's birthday celebration

It's fun to get the kids involved in planning Tom's birthday and Father's Day (he's already had the pleasure this year of working with the kids on my birthday and Mother's Day).  Lukas and I went to an auto parts store, hoping for inspiration on what to get him.  For the man who already has every tool he needs for working on his vehicle, we settled on a "suds and go power brush" with a 53" locking head extension pole so Tom can wash his van (he often talks about how he would like to wash his van but can't reach the top of it).  This morning, after we gave him the present--which he loves BTW--I had the epiphany in the shower that now he can wash my van too!  No ulterior motives before we bought the present, for sure!

After Tom left for work, we worked on his birthday dinner.  He had requested tri-tip, German potato salad, lima beans and a green salad.  The potato salad takes some time, especially when Lukas wants to help...and if Lukas is helping, then Natalie and Konrad want to help too.  And Dominik chose to want an early feeding.  Lukas peeled the eggs, I helped Konrad slice the eggs, and Natalie helped crumble the bacon...then it was time for a TV distraction so I could finish!

This afternoon we visited Tom at work so he could show off Dominik.  Dominik got held by a few of Tom's coworkers and received a slew of ooohs and aaahs over how cute and what a good sleeper he is.

When Tom came home, the kids said "happy birthday" MANY times and we all enjoyed a fun dinner.  Lukas was excited about the birthday dessert he invented.  Several months ago when we were at Costco having pizza and ice cream, Lukas said, "the only thing better than pizza and ice cream would be 'ice cream pizza'!"  Then he wanted to make ice cream pizza.  It's been in the back of my head (and he's mentioned it again a few times since) so I decided to make it for Tom's birthday cake, especially since Tom likes ice cream more than any other dessert.

Here is the ice cream pizza (you will note I forgot to take a picture of it before I cut it...just like I forgot to take a picture of Tom on his birthday, but we do have video!...although Tom shot the video so it's really only his voice on video)  That's Konrad's hand, pointing to the piece he wants.

For the pizza crust, I used crushed Oreo cookies, then spread ice cream and Lukas decorated it like a pizza with red vines, gummy worms, chocolate kisses and gum drops.  Tom loved it!

Now if Lukas requests pizza ice cream, I'm not interested, but ice cream pizza is a hit.

Happy Birthday Tom!