Birthdays are feast days in our domestic church, so we consider them days outside of Lent, i.e., meat and sugar allowed! We kicked off the partying by throwing Miriam her first slumber party to celebrate her 10-1 birthday. (Why even bother with the 9? Since all 9-year-olds can think about is that they'll be 10 next year...)
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| strawberry cake with blue buttercream frosting for sky, chocolate buttercream frosting for the ground, and copious amounts of green sprinkles for grass. and the requisite sunshine, fluffy clouds, and flowers. this cake is so girly, I love it! |
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| he can actually blow up the balloon. this explains why his shrieks are so loud. |
The party itself was oodles of fun. She invited a couple friends over for dinner and cake on Friday, and they spent the night. They're all still young enough that they're actually tired at a decent hour. After lights out at 10 pm, I only heard whispering for another 10 mins. or so. Of course, they were up extremely early the next morning, but they were very quiet. Mr. Pickles made chocolate chip pancakes with mashed strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast. Then they ran around outside to get some of the sugar out, and we drove them home. It was an absolutely gorgeous day -- didn't even need jackets! Miriam spent most of the rest of the day getting sunburnt riding her new razor scooter and hula hooping (Katie bought the hula hoop for her with her own allowance money!).
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| is it just me, or is she growing up way too fast? |
Joseph's birthday was next. He's camera shy lately -- mostly I think because he doesn't want to do anything he's asked to do, the little contrarian -- so most of my pictures are of him trying to hide.
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| or else they're deer-in-the-headlights candids. (honestly, this was the best one) |
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| ...a big boy who likes hockey!! |
We didn't have a party for Joseph this year -- it's sad, but I realized that he doesn't really have many little buddies. Most of the playdates we have are for the girls' sake. Of course, 2-year-olds don't really socialize -- their playdates consist rather of parents constantly reminding them to share and take turns. But now that he's older and is actually learning to play cooperatively with someone, I'll try to make an effort to help him develop his own friendships, too.
So we just had a simple family party, but he was happy -- he's old enough to understand about cake and presents and candles and singing! Joseph also received a scooter for his birthday:
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| Lightning McQueen -- a much more masculine piece of equipment than the pink and purple butterly-covered hand-me-down he has been using. :) |
The next day was Mr. Pickles' THIRTY-FIFTH birthday. He still had to go to work, but I fixed a dinner which included a big slab of meat and a checkerboard mousse cake, so it wasn't all bad. :)
Proof that numbers mean nothing: you're only as old as you feel (or act). :)
(No, it's not your glasses, or your screen -- the camera lens was all smeary from Some Little Person's Fingers, which I didn't realize until viewing this video right now.)
For his birthday we gave Mr. Pickles a collage of family pictures for his office, a foam football (which Katie picked out -- she is so fun to shop with!), and Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. Miriam has also been working for weeks on a Secret Project, which she will be able to finish once I figure out how to unravel an enormous knot in her ball of yarn....
So now all the parties are over, the various cakes have finally been consumed, and most of the balloons have popped.
You're half-way done with Miriam! You're a sixth of the way done with Joseph! Mr. P is CLOSER TO 70 THAN TO HIS BIRTH!
ReplyDeleteYou're older than you've ever been and now you're even older.