Helen Turns Four!!

I love celebrating my kids' birthdays, but for some reason, Helen's recent birthday was a hard one for me. The night before, I hovered in her room, telling her and myself this was her last night of being three. I think part of my sadness relates to the fact that we won't know her little sister as a three year old.

Here's the birthday girl on Sunday morning before church, posing nicely with the requested pink princess castle cake. Her sweetness quickly morphed into rocking the world with her silliness. (Motherly roll of eyes.)
The Castle. Those little pink candies are pink Whoppers. I can't bring myself to call them strawberry because the only thing strawberry about them is the picture on the box. After a futile nap attempt, we let the kids lounge while we all watched the New York City marathon and cheered for Meb and Shalane Flanagan.

Helen showed off her cake one more time. I think the most beautiful thing about this picture is the husband vacuuming in the background. Mawmaw was the first guest to arrive, and Jack could not stop belly laughing for the sheer joy of parties.We ate and then opened presents! Grandpa and Grandma Weber hit the jackpot with this preschool workbook. A huge artist's tablet and new paints from Uncle Brent and Aunt Jan were also well received by Miss Can-I-Paint-Mom-Can-I?!!And wonder of wonders--a musical jewelry box with a twirling angel ballerina from Uncle Conrad and Aunt Les! Well. What a pleased four-year-old girl we have!

Party Party!

One of the things that is so nice about a two year old, or any young child for that matter, is that they don't really understand that a birthday is supposed to be celebrated on a particular day. Since we already had plans for Jack's actual birthday on June 26, we delayed the big celebration until we could throw some more party in the pot. Jason celebrated the big 3-5 on July 1, and since the Fourth fell nicely on a Sunday this year, we invited the family over for a bit of hoopla.

It took Saturday to make the cake, which was again lifted from the pages of Family Fun. Here is the empty barnyard that Helen helped make. I can't resist the nod to my pun-prone inlaws to say it was desserted. You can all throw pie at me now.
Then the animals gathered. Owen helped with the livestock, mostly in the hopes of candy rejects.
Here's my tell: a can of black olives shoring up the rickety structure. You'd think that being a builder's daughter I would know the importance of a good foundation, but I was just following the magazine instructions.
Here are the birthday boys! Jack had already gotten into the chips, and had to be torn away from the bag. Poor deprived child whose mama hardly ever buys chips!

He extinguished the candles on the first puff.He and cousin Allison had the best seats in the garage. Look at their plates. What in the world?! After supper, there was plenty of hang out time before the Poarch Indians' fireworks, which we watched from our house. The kids roamed the soybean field and raided the blueberry bush.David and Jace brought their new potato gun. The younger ones played with their hands over their ears, never knowing when the next potato would be launched. OK, so it was mostly Helen being fearful. In all of my pictures from that evening, she has her hands clenched over those ears. It reminds me of her response to automatic flushing toilets.
Jack opened his loot, and by the end of the day, was quite spoiled. The favorite was the John Deere truck, trailer and tractor. We had a great evening, and I felt quite spoiled when my mother in law and great aunt Lois washed all the dishes. We love our family!

Party III: More Birthday Mania

Now that Helen has reached the ripe old age of three years and one month, let me post some pictures of her long-past birthday party! Her cake was very simple. She wanted a purple H, a pink cake with purple frosting. How could I refuse? I baked two 8x8 cakes--thank you, you 88-cent box of strawberry cake mix! Then I disected and spliced them together with loads of purple frosting. I sprinkled it with decorating sugar and tied on a bow to pretty up the muppet look. By the way, that purple frosting left reddish marks on my floor. I have no--ahem--idea how any of it landed on the floor.Helen was very pleased, even though she had wanted a Dora on top too. (Dora?! Seriously? She doesn't watch Dora! She wanted Dora on top because that's what her friend "Kafflyn" had this past summer. Aren't we a bit young to be starting this?)We actually tacked Helen's party onto a celebration for my mother in law, who had turned 60 the previous week. Hers was the main event, but it would have been a shame to not take advantage of the opportunity! I think grandma would have almost been offended if we hadn't have. The birthday girls:
Some pre-cake euphoria:We served three different kinds of cupcakes for Ruth. It's hard to resist a cupcake!
This is not even all of the kids that were here for the party! The noise wasn't bad, really. WHAT? SPEAK UP!!

Apparently the furry icing was irresistable too. And I get the prize for leaving the butcher knife at the children's fingertips.

Happy Birthday, Helen! Have fun being "this many" (hold up three fingers.)

Party II: Owen Turns Five

It is still hard to believe I have a five year old! Owen hit this big birthday on October 19th. Somehow, it just seems pretty old! With our firstborn turning five this fall, I know that this is the end of an era. Next fall, for the next howevermany years, we'll be enrolling kids in school and embracing the whirlwind of activity that comes with our involvement there. As hectic as our lives can be now, and as irritated I get with food and toy messes, sometimes I want to hit the pause button and hold the kids, remembering every detail about how they looked, what they said and what our relationship is like. I treasure this time in their lives! Our kids love us and they want to please us. What a humbling thought to realize the responsibility we have to them.

Owen and I finally decided on a 5 cake for him.
What can I say, but that I got in a hurry decorating and messed up a few details?

Owen was still delighted with his cake, and that is what mattered.
He opted not to blow out his own candles this year. Too many people staring at him, I guess! We had a great little party with immediate family. And then I had about two weeks to rest until it was time to bake the next cake!

Party I: Choctoberfest

Looking through my pictures, it would seem all we have done lately is eat cake. In order to avoid sweet tooth overload and a bad case of gut rot, I'll post the parties in installments.

The MOPS Choctoberfest was a chocolate party I hosted in October (if the title of the event wasn't self-explanatory enough.) MOPS=Mothers of Preschoolers. Hurrah for MOPS of Atmore, but that is an aside.

Choctoberfest was a blast, and we quickly decided it will have to be an annual event. That much fun oughtta be illegal. We loved being together, able to talk without being interrupted. It was a wonderful girls' night out on a Friday evening. And did I mention no kids were there?!

I gave prizes for the most chocolatey dressed, and let me tell ya, we had some people in all the brown they could find in their closets! I myself appeared as a cup of hot chocolate with a marshmallow on top, my creative description of brown pants and a white top. We even had some women wearing chocolate accessories, I kid you not! Tootsie roll necklace and earrings, Hershey's Kisses dangling from a bracelet and a Reese's cup foil-wrapped medallion necklace and hoop earrings! Their creativity amazed me. Quite a bit of effort for a nice-smelling candle, some chocolate-flavored lip balm or chocolate-named fingernail polish, mmm-hmm.

We also had some games, like NUM3ERS, where we guessed the number of Hershey's Kisses in a jar. We played Are You Smarter Than a Candy Bar? and guessed at unwrapped, non-cut candy bars. And of course, we had to vote for the new Iron Chef Atmore! We voted on the best chocolate desserts and gave out candy bars as prizes.

The chocolate itself was extremely delicious, but there was so much there that after we had served ourselves, we had made barely a dent! As we munched, the conversation slowly was overtaken by groans of too much chocolate, so one sweet and thoughtful friend popped a bag of popcorn she had brought for that very purpose. My sister in law really wished she had brought some chocolate-flavored Tums to pass around!

We filled plates to present to our families, those of us who could stomach the sight of another full plate of chocolate, and one by one, my friends left, all smiling, glad to have had a night away from responsibility at home.

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I got my idea here and here.