Happy Birthday Tom Jr.

5 years seems so long ago but also feels like just yesterday that I held you for the first time.  You were beautifully BIG, 9lbs 15oz, I just say 10 lbs when I tell people your story.   I remember the stillness of the room as I snuggled you in my robe.  Everyone had left and it was just you and me.  You stared at me with your big round brown eyes and our hearts were joined from that moment on.

Today as we snuggle in your bed every night, you look at me with those same eyes and hug me so tight.  You bring us so much joy sweet boy.  You love so intensely and I know what that feels like.  You put every fiber of your being into whatever it is that you are doing, or want to do.  We love you and hope that you have a great birthday.  You are a blessing!

Love,
Daddy and Mommy

And now for Birthday festivies....Matey!!

We had a morning party with a few school friends, they were oddly quiet and well behaved for a handful of 4/5 year olds!!!.  And then we had family/friends like family party in the afternoon.  Whew, what a day, it was great, long, fun, and the smiles and squeals from my little FIVE year old boy made everything worth while!

decorating pirate hats and telescopes

Sweet treats table

Treasure cupcakes for school party

Jeweled goblets for school party

Every pirate needs a beard

Photo props, Argggggh

Serious and fierce pirates

Matey Charlie yelling "CHARGE!!!"

Walking the plank

Swords (Twizzlers), Sea Fare (Swedish fish) Cannon Balls (cream puffs and molt balls)

School friends digging for treasure

Cannon ball fight (balloons)

Singing Happy Birthday to Tommy, he was so sweet and kept saying "Thank you, thank you" in his shy little voice

Pirate ship cake for afternoon party

Argh!  These guys were into it!!

Daddy getting ready

Penny was upset that she had to wait for the cake...lol

Ah, that is better.  Lounging with Nana and eating chocolate cake.

Yeah for friends!

Thanks Grandpa for making the trip! It means more then you know!

Chocolate golden coins given as favors.  Thanks to Miss Gretchen for doing all the graphics for us!!!

It was SO much fun.  Tommy had a great time and was excited to have all of his friends and cousins with him!!

Happy Birthday big boy, we love you!
C

May the Force be with you. Charlie turns 7.

The birthday boy on his birthday with his best buddy.

 We did A LOT of celebrating this year for Charlie's birthday.  We had 3 separate events and they were ALL so much fun!  Daddy was unfortunately out of town on Charlie's birthday but Nana came over for dinner, hot dogs per the boys request and cake from Casa Dolce...yum!

Then the following Saturday we went all out.  First we had a handful of school friends over for a mega STAR WARS party.  All boys and one very sweet little girl :)

I made her these cute little Leiah buns (thanks Christina for the idea!!)

Trent made the coolest jet packs out of 2 liter bottles and light sabers out of foam and colored duct tape.  They were a HUGE hit!

We started the party by building spaceships out of LEGOS which the kids were more then happy to do and probably would of kept at it for longer if I didn't have an agenda and time constraints.

Then we headed them downstairs to an obstacle course, ie Jedi Training.  They had to jump through hot lava,




and then climb over an galactic asteroid (2 chairs covered in a grey table cloth), and then crawl through the slimy green swap (crawl through a tunnel that was covered with a green table cloth).  The kids loved it!  Then they headed back upstairs to design their Jedi wrist bands.  I used an old roll of wrapping paper and cut it into bracelets.  I spray painted some old wooden blocks gold and cut out the lets JEDI in foam and made my own stamps.  The kids stamped with ink, JEDI on their wrist bands and then decorated them with stars.

Now they were true Jedi's and had to return to the basement and battle the Stormtroopers that had invaded our home. 

I drew Stormtrooper faces on white helium balloons and Trent taped them to the basement floor.  The kids went NUTS!!!

Even Daddy had a good time!

Then it was time for cake, presents and for all little Jedi's to go home.

We were awaken bright and early by Tommy who was dressed in his Sunday school clothes, v-neck sweater on backwards and all, which he insisted on wearing backwards the entire day.  When asked why he was so dressed up he simply said with his shy little grin, "I wanted to look good for the party".  Adorable, Thomas, you are adorable!!

Then came round 3!  That same afternoon, call us crazy, we had our family and family-like friends over for our traditional birthday party.

Darth Vader even showed up!  Tommy took one look at her and said "Nana!"....it was so funny!

We had a Darth Vader pinata

The kids made paper R2D2s and Galaxy Playdough (black homemade playdough and they added glitter to it)

And then we had to have cake AGAIN!

Light Saber cupcakes

C3PO Hydro-Oil

 Trent made a lot of really cool graphics for the party.  He made the water bottle covers, the signage for the center piece, Edible Ewoks that were used with gummie bears as a favor and a light saber sign for light saber favors that were pretzels dipped in red and blue chocolate.  He also made the invitation and the sign for our Yoda Soda, green sherbert and 7up.

I totally cheated on the cake this year.  With everything else that we did to prepare, I just wasn't into making a big cake.  So the night before the party I called the local market and went and bought an undecorated cake straight from their freezer.  They sold me a bucket of frosting and I was off.  Unfortunately, they didn't give me enough frosting to cover anything but the top.  Thankfully, I had left over grey frosting from the cupcakes and a can of chocolate ready made frosting in the pantry.  Tada!!! Charlie picked Anakin's Skywalkers flying machine to put on top, I threw miniature R2D2s and his friends around the cake and called it a day.

I think that Trent and I had a lot of fun putting all of this together for Charlie.  But the most important thing was that Charlie had a great birthday surrounded by old and new friends and people that love him.

I can not believe that our boy, our baby, is 7 years old!!

Dearest Charlie,

We love you beyond the moon and back.  You are the sweetest, funniest, most loving boy and we are blessed to have been chosen to be your family.

Happy Birthday Charlie Barley Bear!

Penny's First Birthday Party

Our little cupcake

We had a lot of fun at Penny's first birthday party!  We combined it with our annual Halloween party and it was a smashing hit.

We really tried to keep is simple this year, or at least tamed down then what I had originally planned.  I took my time and decorated the house over the month leading up to the big day.  I had fun making a Trick or Treat banner and making the back porch extra spooky with Trent.

I knew I needed to plan a few activities for the older kids to keep them out of trouble occupied.
 
Daddy made his famous graveyard that they had to walk through,

Tommy wanted to play skeleton limbo and they decorated Halloween picture frames.
After all that fun was had we paraded over to the playground down the street and did an eye ball hunt.  The kids went crazy filling their bags with chocolate eye balls.  It was a lot of fun!

 The kids also had fun just playing in the backyard and I think that Penny got passed around more then I actually got to hold her!  But I was happy to share her with everyone that loves her, especially on her big day!

Then it was time to sing to our birthday girl! I decided to not make a cake (gasp! I know) but instead made
mini ghost cupcakes for the kids and large candy corn cupcakes for the adults.

We also served

friendly ghost chocolate pretzels,

and Halloween sprinkled marshmallow pops.  Even though I made several different things, it was really much easier and only took about an hour to make it all.  A cut themed cake usually takes me 8 hours from start to finish.

And for the favor we wrapped up friendly witches hats cookies.

I did make a small smash cake just for Penny, a little pumpkin.  It was so funny to watch her daintily pick at it and gently lick her fingers.  The boys were literally covered in their cakes, but not our sweet little girl.  She certainly brings the tender side of things to our house!

The day went by so fast.  I was good to see our family and friends come and celebrate our sweet girl with us!  The day was really perfect, except for the fact that we were all starting to come down with a cold.  Penny was in good spirits and even surprised us at how willing she was to go to everyone (she sometimes gets overwhelmed with crowds), but she was off just a bit.  I think she had fun though and really enjoyed seeing all the kids.

Happy Birthday Penny!!  We love you so very much!!