My Birthday!

And thus it ends, this March Madness of birthdays for our family, with my birthday on the 27th.  This was our first year celebrating all three March birthdays and I have to say we had a blast.  Sure it was stressful at times, like the one night I didn't get home from birthday shopping for Joshua & Caden until 11pm and then Jake and I had to stay up 'til past midnight wrapping the gifts on a school night, or when I was given one week notice to prepare my first ever Relief Society lesson in the middle of all this.  But overall it has been such a fun time for our family and what a great reason to party and celebrate multiple times in under 2 weeks!

To kick things off for my birthday some friends took me out the week before for dessert at Papa Haydn's.  This was our second time there and I have a feeling it won't be our last.  I love going out with these ladies!  We talked and laughed 'til way past closing on our first time around, but Papa Haydn's was very gracious (and delicious!) and I highly recommend it to anyone in the Portland area.

On the actual day of we got to wake up to birthday muffins a good friend had dropped by.  They were delicious and disappeared unbelievably fast. All the boys were home for spring break so we spent a leisurely morning and then met Jake for the lunch buffet at Round Table.  It is hardwired into my genetics, I love Round Table pizza and this particular location is so family friendly it's not even funny.  I brought plenty of quarters and the boys spent most of their time at the arcade in the back between bites of pizza. 

Check out Lucas' stash! He won all of this from the claw game over at the arcade (oy!). I didn't know a 3-year-old could work those things, but apparently lots goes on at that arcade while Jake and I talk and enjoy our pizza.

 

Jake came home from work with the chocolate cake and Baskin Robbins I had requested (thanks so much Jake!) and I opened my presents:

Lucas was my official gift-getter, a responsibility he took very seriously.  Maybe a little too seriously; he also designated himself my official gift-opener:

After our little shindig at home Jake took me to see Hunger Games.  We go out a lot but a birthday date is just that much more celebratory!

I feel kind of self-congratulatory doing a birthday post about myself, but I decided to swallow it and just go ahead since we had such a blast as a family and I want to be able to remember and look back on the great string of partying we got to do this March! Treasured memories for sure and I truly appreciate everyone who went out of their way to help me feel special and loved.  My husband and children, family and friends sure know how to spoil a gal!

Joshua's Birthday - Friend's Par-tay

Throwing a birthday party for a nine-year-old boy is a lot of fun!  We had a house full of 11 boys on Friday night (including our own four) and I am still basking in the glow and energy that they provided in abundance.  And Jake and I are still high-fiving that we pulled it all off!

Upon arrival we hired each boy as a Lego designer and had him work on a creation while we waited for everyone (and the pizza!) to arrive.  Each guest came up with something unique and awesome, of course. I took a picture of each designer with his creation and emailed it to his parents afterward. Here are the ones I would have emailed to myself!

Pizza!

Designing Pokemon cards:

This picture is fairly representative of what things looked like in between the planned activities.  The boys quickly and easily fell in to a game of their own creation which was great, but I suppose I should have let the parents know that we would be providing arms to each guest:

I love seeing Caden playing with a tractor in the background of this one!  I know this is Joshua's birthday party post but since he loves Caden so fiercely I don't think he'll mind my saying how much I love seeing our littlest guest in the background of so many of these pictures!  It's really fun to see Caden thoroughly enjoying the party and hanging with all the guys in his own baby way!  Too cute!

Here's the game we ended with while waiting for parents to arrive.  It involved a coat worn backwards, socks worn over the hands, a butter knife & fork and a chocolate bar:

Joshua's Birthday - Family Party

We had a great time celebrating Joshua's birthday this year!  Since it fell on a Sunday we had him choose an activity we could do the day before to get the festivities started.  He chose a trip to McDonald's, the one with his favorite play place.  I exercised restraint and didn't try to get him to choose somewhere else instead.  He was the birthday boy, after all!  The kids all had such a great time eating real fast and then rushing outside to play.  And even I enjoyed my french fries!

On Sunday Joshua opened his presents after Jake came home from an early morning meeting.  We had plenty of time since church doesn't start 'til 1pm for us this year.  As always, Joshua's enthusiasm was brimming and he was truly excited and grateful for each gift he received.  He played hard with everything that morning and spent lots of time checking it all out.

 

After church (well, after Jake got home from a late meeting) we had cake and ice cream and just had a really nice time together.  It is so much fun to celebrate this guy!

 

The next morning, Jake went to the school first thing to deliver birthday donuts to Joshua's class.  He says he was very well received.  Making a classroom full of 3rd graders happy is apparently a great way to start the day!

Happy Birthday, dear Joshua!  You are one special boy and we feel so blessed and lucky that you are ours.  Out of all the families in the world, you came to us!  We'll be here for you always and want you to know that we love you so!

My Baby Turns 1!

It really happened, Caden turned one year old and we're still here and doing well!  It was an intense year of living, trying to meet the needs of each of our boys and learning how to run a household of six, but it has still managed to go by fast!  A friend of mine said that when raising young children time does a funny thing where it makes for long days but short years.  She's about 10 years older than I am but already I think I can see what she means.

Regardless of how fast or slow the last 365 days have seemed, individually or collectively, I can't help but simply focus on how grateful I feel that this sweet little guy joined our family.  I can't even describe how seamlessly he fit into our family right from the start.  It felt incredibly natural, like it was totally meant to be.  I think I can safely say that his older brothers feel the same.  None of us can really remember that he hasn't always been with us.  Caden has made himself right at home and we are thrilled.

The festivities began the night before his birthday when we headed to Out of This World Pizza (OOTWP, what would we ever do without you?!).  He had a blast, of course.  I love that even babies can thoroughly enjoy themselves at this place:

Meanwhile his big bros were having a blast of their own, tussling over at the scooter cars:

Unbeknownst to us, Tuesday evenings turn into "stellar play" where they hand out glow sticks then turn out all the lights and do a laser show.  Lucas instinctively found the center point of all the laser lights (unfortunately you can't see the lasers in these pictures) and danced his heart out right there in the middle of everything.  This kid knows how to party:

 The big day itself (we had to split the celebrating into two nights because the l'il guy can't stay up long enough to fit everything into one night!) he got his own mantle-full of presents!  His very first of many!

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The guys just wanted their picture taken and I happily obliged.  I love Daniel's expression!  And Lucas' knight costume (he dressed for the occasion):

Here he is with our traditional "Perfect Gift for a One Year Old" roll of paper towels, to do with as he pleases.  Joshua and Daniel each got a box of tissues but we switched to paper towels starting with Lucas.  Just as much fun for the baby but less work for the parents:

Risking cheesiness we decided to do a pie for the Pi day birthday boy (it ended up being a really delicious pie, btw).  With so much birthday cake happening for our family in March we really wanted to do something different when we had the chance.  I think we'll keep this tradition until Caden is old enough to have an opinion:

  
Happy Birthday sweet Caden!  You are one special boy and bring us such joy.  Thank you for giving us so much to celebrate!  I love that you have formed special relationships with each of us, even at such a tender age.  I really look forward to getting to know you more and more and for the relationship we'll have as you grow.  I can tell we'll be close!