Leroy the 4 Year Old

Did you know Levi is often called Leroy around our house? Ben came up with it one day long ago and it stuck.  A week ago (time is flying) Levi turned 4!  Thankfully, it worked out for Tim and Sue to stay here long enough to celebrate with Levi.  And lucky for the rest of us, we ate Semmel (the s is said with a z sound) for supper.  

 Semmel is a simple bread made with yeast, flour, water and salt.  It bakes at a high temperature so the outside gets hard and the inside is chewy like sourdough.  It's a Beatrice, Nebraska tradition that continues within the Schrag family.  You eat them when they're fresh out of the oven, sliced open and filled with a slice each of cheddar cheese and summer sausage.  Or, slather it with butter and strawberry jam or honey.  Or just with cheese, or even with peanut butter.  They're very good and make a simple supper.

 From the flavor of the cake, to the candles and sprinkles Levi picked out his birthday cake.  He picked the cake mix and container of frosting at the store and told me how to "decorate" it.  It was fun to have him help and since I didn't have anything special planned for his cake it helped me out too.

 He also picked out Birthday Party ice cream - which was surprisingly good, despite all the blue goo swirled in the ice cream.

 Levi is a lucky boy. He had all 4 of his grandparents at his birthday party and got some great gifts.  A big front loader (check out that tough guy face he's making), a whiteboard and markers (whiteboards are all the rage in our house these days), a marble game

and a cowboy hat!

Levi is such a joy.  He is expressive, loves to sing, play with tractors (big and small), adores his brother, is an eager helper and is very opinionated.  We can't wait to see what the next year brings.