You Wish You Had a Friend Like This

Ian and I had our 39th birthday last week. (I know, I know...we're ancient. I'm at peace.)

To help us appropriately celebrate the last year in our thirties Emily delivered this heavenly creation:

That's a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse & toffee filling with chocolate ganache and more toffee bits.

And that, my friends, is why I may never be satisfied with another cake again.

Ellie's 6th

For Ellie's 6th birthday her first request was a picnic in the park with some "food from the slushy place". With such beautiful weather, how could we say no? So, we picked up some Sonic and headed out to celebrate.

Ellie is one of my favorite present-openers. Her anticipation is only rivaled by her enthusiasm.

She also happens to be an incredibly grateful girl...which is super sweet.

(Curtis spent the entire day telling everyone it was his birthday. And he wouldn't listen to any contrary opinions. Poor thing wasn't used to someone else getting all the attention. In the middle of our little party he stood up on the bench and loudly pulled out his recent crowd-pleasing "Welcome to the gun show!!!" routine. It's hard to shut him down when he's showing off those muscles.)

Anyhow...back to the birthday. Ellie's second request was a black and white polka-dotted cake. Fortunately, for me, I recently made friends with the bakery at the local grocery store. She came through with flying colors...or in this case with black and white icing. Awesome.

Happy birthday, girl. We love you SOOOOOOOOOO much!

When You're Having Fun

Boy, how time has flown. Happy Birthday, Lindy. We LOVE YOU!

The Birthday Girl

The anticipation for Lindy's seventh birthday nearly pushed us all over the edge. Not only did she have a calendar to check off each day (with a huge red circle around the 26th) but she barraged her parents dozens of times each day to find out exactly how long it was until her birthday. It's been a long month.

But the big day finally arrived. Unlike every other morning of her life, Lindy awoke bright and early with a smile on her face, eager to greet the day. She was fairly impatient with the rest of us as we attempted to cling to any last remnant of sleep we could. At one point she decided to pile various toys and books on top of her sister's head in order to encourage wakefulness. It worked.

She enjoyed a scrambled-egg breakfast, made to order. Later, per her re

quest, the entire family joined her at school for school lunch. "Scrumptious!" she declares with oozing sarcasm.

Her classmates made her the cutest little birthday cards. Her face was pure delight as she opened each card and oohed and aaahed at every heartfelt wish.

To celebrate the big 7, she got to choose where she wanted to eat and invite one friend to join us. She chose Wingers and her first-grade BFF, Emma. (Two seven year olds are, as a matter of fact, more difficult to manage than one. FYI.)

Lindy enjoyed every second of being in the spotlight. It was certainly her day and she loved it.

Happy birthday, Lindy!

Post Edit: We keep telling her to STOP growing up. But, as usual, she isn't listening.

Birthday Girl

It's hard to believe that our little Ellie is a FOUR year old! I keep telling my kids to stop growing up but, as usual, they never listen!

We spent the majority of her birthday driving back from Idaho, but decided to celebrate in style as soon as we got home. There were balloons, presents, and a fabulous birthday meal courtesy of Rubio's...Ellie just LOVES those quesadillas.

Happy birthday to our little princess. We love you!

Grandpa and Grandma's

Our Idaho vacation was spent at Grandpa and Grandma's house this year. The kids had so much fun! I'm afraid our house is relatively boring. I haven't seen these smiles since we left.

They were even allowed to crawl around in the dirt. Curtis was completely enthralled. Apparently he doesn't get enough dirt time around here.

And the best part...the tree swing. I think Lindy would have slept out there, given the chance.

Grandma also planned a fun birthday celebration for our little soon-to-be 4 year old. Ellie had a beautiful girly cake and was surrounded by cousins. What a treat!

A big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Jones for the wonderful vacation. We miss you already and can't wait to see you again.

Happy 36th!

Today is my birthday.

Here's a little known fact: it's also my husbands' birthday. While this eliminates the risk of either one of us forgetting each other's birthday there are a couple of cons that come along with sharing the big day. For example, who plans the party? Who cooks breakfast in bed? Who takes the kids? Who gets the day off? Tough decision.

For the most part we've just handled our birthday like any other day. And this has worked well for us. This year, however, I wanted to celebrate Ian's birthday as much as possible...he's a great husband and father and deserves a little time in the spotlight.

With this goal in mind I put the gears in motion to have a surprise get-together planned for Saturday evening. And I was excited. Ian, however, seemed to be doing everything possible he could to thwart my plans. He woke up that morning with an itch for home-repair and decided that our "free" Saturday was a perfect day to paint our master bathroom. How could I say no without risking all my carefully-laid plans? But how could I spend all the time painting without risking my party-preparation time? Conundrum.

Luckily it all worked out. I was able to paint the bathroom, persuade him to shower, get him out of the house (thanks, Aaron), and get everything taken care of for dinner just in time. With help from family and friends we were set for the "surprise" by the time he walked in the door that evening. Phew!

We had a blast! It was a great dinner and we had so much fun visiting and laughing. It was nice to have an evening to celebrate Ian. Happy birthday, Ian! I love you.