So I am going to make up for that. Now. Since we have all now officially celebrated a birthday this year - I might as well regale you with pictures and cute moments from each birthday. Be careful not to choke on the sappy sweetness of it all...
First up - Colin! He turned the big '1' on Feb 5th
My gosh - he looks so tiny then - and it's only been six months! This was such a fun birthday - we had brunch at home with family and close friends. Come to think about it - I may have blogged about it. I am too tired to back looking through my posts, so I will just do every family member here equal justice and call it good. The best moment of this birthday was the second my brother, SIL, and three nephews entered the house and helped pull all of the last-minute party prep together. You all saved me some serious face that morning!
Next up is Owen, turning three on Feb 28th (although his birthday is really on the 29th)
I think I did a blog post about our visit to the WOW museum the day before (the car picture), but for whatever reason, I never did come back and mention his actual birthday. Owen didn't really specify what kind of birthday cake he wanted. I knew that he was sad about losing his Thomas train that he got for Christmas, so I picked up a new one, and made a train cake to go along with it. For me, store-bought cakes for birthdays are absolute sacrilege - I won't do it. so I made up a train cake on my own. And it looks it. I never said I was good at this. But the boy loved it (I mean *look* at that face!!) and it was priceless. What made it all the more special is that his Oklahoma grandparents were able to link up on video chat and sing along with us as Owen blew out his candles. That was the best little family celebration ever!
Jordan turned 11 on May 9th.
For us, what has worked best for our kids is birthdays in small doses. We don't do big parties. We don't do sleepovers. We don't invite lots and lots of kids that we only 'sorta' know. We invite a close friend or two. We do a family dinner and cake - ON the actual birthday. Jordan did have a 'big' party when he turned five. I had only known him for two months at that point. I remember making two cakes. We invited kids and their parents. We served appetizers and drank beer and wine. It was such a nice party - but I didn't know anybody except this little girl pictured above, standing with Jordan. Here we are, six years later, and they are still the best of buds! No birthday would be complete without Abbi. It also happens that Rylan just adores Abbi.
We began with a small family celebration the day before his birthday, which just happened to be Mother's Day as well. One cake for three kids - three sets of candles for Owen, Rylan and Jordan. My brother and his family brought up birthday presents for all three kids- so it was quite a day! On Jordan's birthday, I made his favorite cake - Chocolate Blackout Cake. You black out from the sugar over-load. Jordan was a trooper - he had to wait until after his scout meeting for his cake. The Oklahoma grandparents arrived a couple of days later, and we went out to dinner to celebrate both Jordan and Rylan's birthdays. The restaurant pick was Jordan's: The Hibachi Japanese Steakhouse. Jordan brought along his good friend Gabe for the evening. A couple of weeks later it was miniature golf and dinner out with friend Abbi.
Rylan turned five on May 12th
Poor Rylan. Last year it snowed on her birthday. This year it rained. But she hauled in so much in the present department that she didn't seem to mind. She began the day with a gigantic pink doll house that dominated the kitchen table. She went shopping with Oklahoma grandparents and added stuff to it. Then we worked on her fairy birthday cake. Shortly after Owen's birthday (like the next morning), she said she wanted a train cake too. Really? Why? "Because I want those chocolate railroad pieces". Oh - the KitKat bars that I had used for the train tracks. I bargained with her that I could use the KitKats and build a fairy hut or something.. Well, I forgot about that, but kept the fairy idea. She loved her cake. If the fairies didn't cost $6.99 a piece, there would have been more of them. It would seem to be, judging from the reaction, that the best gift of all was the Rookie Perplexus that Jordan gave to her. Bless him - he even paid for it too. That hug above says it all.
Kirsten - 40 on August 8th.
Okay - most of you knew that anyway. Here is my picture with my birthday cake.
My *lovely* children (with the help of my mother) decided that I needed ALL of my forty hard-earned candles on my cake. That is a 13 x 9 pan of Mississippi Mud deliciousness there.
Dean - 41 on August 28th
Dean began his birthday by being serenaded by a campsite full of Girl Scouts. Another dad (in green) has the same birthday (small world!), so they both got the Birthday song treatment. We got home from camp, did lots of laundry and showers, and closed the day with a yummy dinner and Buster Bar ice cream cake for dessert. Oh. my. yum. See? Only one candle. Dean claims that when you hit '40', you get to start over again with the candle counting. Cheater.
