2015 Birthdays

Willa - January - 6 years old

Willa loves birthdays and birthday parties.  She planned her party for months and changed her mind a dozen times.  In the end, she had a tea party at home with a group of friends.  She was very specific.  She wanted the color pink, fancy dishes, fancy tea pots with chocolate milk and apple juice, costumes, a zebra piñata, a Frozen cake, flowers, flower shaped sandwiches, mini treats, and I can't remember what else.

 

It was a success.  We hit up all the thrift stores to find fancy dishes. 

My mom flew in from Florida and we had fun setting up and getting the food ready.

 

 

The kids played several games, decorated white tea cups with sharpie markers to use during lunch and hit the piñata.

 

 

Then we had our tea party lunch, cake, and presents.

 

Matt - March - 35 years old

 Matt always wants a simple birthday.  Dinner with the fam, pound cake or cheese cake, and a present or two.  He got a DSLR camera this year.  Now he really takes a lot of pictures... thousands and thousands.  Lots of great ones though, so you don't hear me complaining. 

 

 

Clark - March - 4 years old

Clark loves birthdays as well, but didn't want a big party.  I kept trying to plan one and even bought some invitations, but I ended up returning them.  I realized that I was planning a big party because I felt like I had to to be a good mom or keep it fair or something.  He wanted one friend (our neighbor, Wes) and our family.  I'm glad I listened to him and kept it small.  It was a perfect day for him.

We invited Wes and his family to meet us at the trampoline park in town.  We had so much fun.  We had the place to ourselves.  We all jumped and really played.  Sometimes at birthday parties or play dates, I find myself working the whole time and not being able to just play with my kids.  We kept Clark's birthday so simple that we could play right beside the kids.

Afterwards, we picked up Café Rio take out and brought it back to our house for dinner, cake, and presents.  The Bryant's have two boys the same ages as our boys so it works out great.

 

Clark is into Toy Story.  He asked for a "Woody cowboy who talks when you pull a string" and a "Buzz who's wings pop out when you push a button."  My mom was able to find both on amazon.  He was thrilled.

 

 

The picture below makes me laugh.  It's from the morning after.  He's enjoying his cup of soy milk and a chocolate something wearing his new Buzz jammies.  Looks like such a content little boy.

Oliver - July - 2 years old

My parents visited in July so we celebrated Oliver's birthday while they were here.  My Dad, Willa, and Clark set out on a mission to find a cake with a motorcycle on it.  They came back several hours later having had a wonderful time with the perfect cake.  Oliver loved his cake and the motorcycle on it.

 

 

We kept it very simple.  We had streamers, balloons, and poppers that were filled with paper crowns and little toys. 

We ate dinner and cake on the deck. 

 

blowing out his candles - not sure what Clark is doing



Blue frosting equals blue mouths!

 

 

 

 Oliver's big present was a mini trampoline.  He was scared of it at first, but quickly fell in love.  He jumps on that thing all the time.

 

 

Lindsay - September - 34 years old

We unofficially celebrated my birthday the weekend before with the Bryants.  Steph and I have the same birthday - we are basically twins.  Mike and Steph brought over their jet ski and we spent the day on the river.  I took these pictures of our kids.  Such good little friends.  Steph was doing the chicken dance behind me and the camera.

 

 

 

We officially celebrated with a delicious homemade cake on my actual birthday.  My friend, Sarah, made it.  It was so good.  I need to bake more cakes for our birthdays.  Homemade really is so much better.