Birthday Time!

Owen turned 3 on October 19, and Helen turned 1 two weeks later. Rather than having two separate parties, we waited until Helen's official birthday and then combined them. How handy, since some of my family from Indiana was visiting! Since we've combined parties for Owen and his cousin Abby (born the day after him) the past two years, Owen still has yet to have one all to himself, but for now he doesn't know and he doesn't care! (And we as parents shall take full advantage of that fact.)

Since Owen's favorite TV show is Wheel of Fortune, my brother Kevin found this so I could plan out the cake. (The other cake possibility was a smoke alarm cake that really beeped, but that required too much energy.) Dear, sweet Helen will have to wait until next year for her historic first-year birthday lamb cake. Mommy was too tired, and Daddy heaved a hearty veto. She savored a cupcake with one cute little candle on top.

Here are all the little cake eaters that came to the party. Cousins and more cousins! It was noisy but fun. Across the table from left to right are Abby, Blake, Owen, Caedmon and Kaiya. In the back are David holding Helen and Jace holding Brian. What a bunch of good lookin' kids getting ready for a sugar high!







Owen was grandly excited, but subdued by the shock and awe of a party. He still can't blow out candles, but sure thought he did when Caedmon lent some air. (This was the second go at it--I think Blake may have extinguished them the first time around!)















Here are the cupcakes! Heh heh heh...ahem.



















Helen had just eaten supper and was a little sleepy. I couldn't believe that she didn't rip into her cupcake. She needed some encouragement to get started. She eventually got going and grabbed all the frosting off. My mom put the cupcake in a small bowl, poured milk on it and fed it to her with a spoon. Atta girl! Cake + milk FOREVER!!














We had a great time with everyone at the party. But we're sooo glad birthdays only come once a year!