It's Party Time!

  A few years ago Thing 1 went to a birthday party for a neighborhood friend at Barefoot Gymnastics so when it came time to have have his party this was the first place he thought of.  It was an hour and a half of smiles and laughing with playful competitions and a little bit of dancing.  He has such an entertainer personality and watching him with school mates and hearing how he is at school was a crack up! He has some stories to tell his mama!

Playing musical obstacles

The birthday crew.

We keep the celebration alive!

I have always been a lover of all things birthday and my kids are lucky in that way! I get so distracted sometimes I forget to even buy them a present, but we sure do have a lot of fun (It's been at least 2 years since I forgot to buy a kid a present FYI).  I think it comes from my mom's side of the family, but every birthday morning we make birthday pancakes! It is a skill I am getting better at, for James birthday he even got pancake balloons.  I have learned that I have to write out the name on a piece of paper first and then backwards so I know what I am doing when I start with the pancake batter.

 I don't know why it was such a shock to me when Carson came home and told me his teacher told him he was turning 4...I had been planning his party for weeks, but to hear him say it made me do a double take!

 

It was so great to have Mama there visiting for Carson's birthday/James Baptism.  We had to bribe James to go to Texas Roadhouse afterwards and since we all needed naps and the ice cream had slipped his mind we waited until it was a little more convenient to bring it up for the adults! Carson's birthday was the perfect excuse to double up the ice cream bribe! Menchie's has this great side room that had enough space to let the little's run around crazy while Mama, my little sis and I had some adult time before we opened the presents, so it was sanity time too.  While Mama was done in April we found this fabric and I had mentioned that Carson needed another blanket for daycare now that we were back to full time.  I had donated all of the one's I made for him thinking we were done with the daycare thing, oops!

 

 It was a perfect gift for him.  He has been carrying it around with him and it is great to have a little piece of Mama at daycare too.

 

  After Menchie's we went swimming at our complex and then during nap time/quite time I made some candy cane ice cream for Carson's Birthday. It was a long full day/weekend with Aunts, Uncles, cousins, a Baptism, daddy, Mama and we were all exhausted.  None as much as Carson.  After dinner we attempted to wake him him to get him to blow out his candle, but that was easier said then done!

 He's just a new 4 year-old!

This is while we were singing to him...so happy to be awake!

James attempted to convince him to blow out the candles while Carson attempts to fall back to sleep.

 So sleepy he needed help blowing out his candle! Poor kid!

 After all was said and done it was a great way to end an exciting weekend. I am so grateful to be the Mommy to this handsome guy.

Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?

This morning we had Caron's Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see? Birthday Party at the main street splash pad.  I have been planning and thinking about this party for the last 2 months.  For as long as I can remember it has been his favorite book and I find him reading it to himself now occasionally.  I found these great invitations and a matching party pack that I could personalize myself off Esty and thanks to my little sister it all came together at the last minute.

 This rainbow cake was so much easier then I thought it would be.  It was just a cup of batter per color @ 350 for 10 minutes, if your cooking 2 layers at a time.  Having it exposed made it even more simple and I kinda like the cake being exposed!

 I decided to make these cupcakes about an hour and a half before the party so they came in without frosting, which actually made transporting really easy.  We only frosted the 5 we needed to fit the plate and left the rest in the muffin tin to be frosted later. 

 Nancy brought in her water container which really helped keep all the kids hydrated.  We had lemonade, blueberries, purple grapes, layered Jello, chocolate teddy grahams, goldfish crackers, green gummy frogs, red swedish fish, rainbow licorice and coconut brownies on this table...Plenty to share with people walking past!

 Logan, Carson, Easton and Robert (friend from his Primary class).

 

 Carson is a little unsure...the wind was blowing so the candle had already blown out, but we sang anyway! I tried to make up for Carson attempting to sleep through his cake on his actual birthday.

 LOVE IT!

 Thank you Nancy for this great idea! I would have never thought to have Jello at a birthday party! I found this little cups at Wal-Mart that have lids...says you can wash and reuse, probably won't happen, but that's pretty neat!

 

Carson came home after the party and put all of these puzzles together, ALONE, 8 puzzles - 4 with 24 pieces and 4 with 48 pieces.  This kid is incredible! He asked me for help a few times, but I was cleaning up the sticky mess from the last few days.

Happy Birthday James

For the first time I paid money to have a party at a facility, the Washington Rec Center.  The kids had fun in the pool then came in for pizza, cupcakes and presents and then ran back out again for more pool time.  It was really neat that James had friends from church, school, daycare and neighbors all come and have fun together.  They also talked about when he was getting baptized which was a new experience to me, very exciting that it is so freely discussed. There was only one girl that could come because the other 2 were getting baptized at the same time!

 

 

 Of course this monumental day would not be complete without birthday pancakes! Eight years old..man that seems impossible to be the mother of an 8 year old.

Daddy came and picked up all the boys from school on Friday and took the 2 big boys to see Rio 2 and then we all met up for Pizza at Pirate Island.  James had issues with accepting daddy's limits.  I wish I had a better picture of the 2 of them together, but this is the only picture I have of boy and father.