The Last of the Birthdays

Tis the end of birthday the birthday season over here.  With 4 birthdays from Sept 30 to Oct 30 this part of the year can be wild.  Maybe that's why I feel the urge to simplify.

Cayden always has the hardest time waiting for his birthday because both Seth and Gracie have theirs before him.  It is not fair.  Thankfully he had a little better concept of time this year so he was able to handle the waiting a bit better.

He had a grand list of presents, but we narrowed it down to a few good ones.

We had the gang over...and since Cayden shares a birthday with Adam and his bio sister, Brooklyn, we had to have three cakes.

(I didn't make any of them...shh).

The kiddos are all rosy cheek-ed because I made them play OUTSIDE.  

It's a little nippy on October fall evenings.

I almost made them eat outside too.

"My Birthday"

 Then Brooklyn and Adam got to blow out some candles.

Grandma Martha gave him some great puzzles.

That's her favorite gift to give.

I'll have to show her our stack next time she visits so she gets the hint that maybe we have enough sturdy wooden puzzles;)

Love her.

 After the party went home I let the boys open their presents from me.

Did I do good or what?

They had a blast with those Nerf guns and super heroes.

And they even let Seth in on the fun.

Gracie is Finally Five

She has been waiting for this for a while...at least since she started kindergarten last month and found out that everyone else in her class was already 5.  

This little girl amazes me everyday with how grown up she is becoming.  She jokes with her big sisters and tries to take care of her little brothers.  She has definate opinions about what she should wear, what she should eat, and when she should go to bed.

She loves to play ponies and they have set up permanent residence in her doll house.  

She got to go to a super duper Halloween themed birthday party the day before her own and I thought I was going to be in trouble for not planning her day to match.  She didn't razz me too much, because she loves me and knows some people do birthdays bigger.

For her cake I saw an idea on Sweetapolita(through Pinterest of course) that I knew would be just perfect for her, a doodle cake.  I found the edible markers at Michael's and let the girls color away on the fondant covered cupcakes.

We had a My Little Ponie theme going as you can see, and funner even still the girls were chatting it up with cousin Chelsea on Facetime during the decorating.  She then proceeded to text me a million times since then all matter of unidentifiable stuff, but I still love her:)

These are her favorite gifts, her new ponies from Grandma and the crayon/marker set from Nana.  She has taken such great care of that set.  A month later everypiece is still in place.  She guards it well from her brothers.

For her birthday we actually had quite a few people over.  We had some good friends who moved away years ago come and visit and because they only had a short time to stay we invited all our church friends over so everyone could get caught up on each other's lives.  We were happy to have the Evan's come and happy to help them get to "see" everyone.  Gracie didn't mind one bit that there were extra guests in the house.  She made out pretty well on the birthday card and money area that way.

Thanks again for the visit Mel and the boys.

Home in Time for a Birthday

The day  Cayden and I got back from our trip to AZ, Seth had his 2nd Birthday.

With limited birthday prep time, it was a perfect opportunity to test out the "construction cake" method.

Take a bakery cake, mess it up a bit, add some crushed up cookies for gravel, and add a dump truck and traffic cones.

Waah la!  A Construction Birthday Cake, perfect for the boy who loves his tractors.

 

 We had the boys' bio siblings over for a birthday dinner, backyard play, and cake.

That always makes it a party.

Happy Birthday my big boy.  He may look and act sweet, but he has a salty side to him too; the scowls and screams and throw himself on the ground side.  Believe me.

He is still not a fan of sleeping through the night.  He likes to wake up and scream for a sippy cup.  After 5 kids you'd think I had the "cry it out" thing under control, but this boy DOES not stop.  I have let him scream for two hours and still no let up- so I give in an awful lot and hand the boy his cup of milk.  The other night I finally went in there and told him very firmly to quit screaming.  With a few muffled sobs he quieted down.  I rubbed his back for a bit and left the room and didn't hear anything else for the rest of the night.  I hope I can keep that up.

He is a talker.  I love to hear him trying out new words.  He repeats everything.

It is so much better to have a toddler who can communicate, even if he doesn't like to listen:)

I hope to have the potty training started for real in the next few months-probably after the holidays.  I can get him to go pee on the toilet if he is in a good mood and if Cayden is going at the same time and if there is no mention of bath anytime around the pee-ing.  He loses concentration and just wants to hop in the tub.

We've got all our paper work turned in for our adoption application.  Just waiting for a court date.  Keeping our fingers crossed for one before Christmas!