Bella is 5!

A few scenes from her birthday.

'Tis the Season for Birthdays

Benjamin turned 8

The transition from winter to spring is one that is jam-packed with birthdays in these here parts.

For the kids we kept things simple this year: just dessert with whichever family members could make it over.

Brent got further along in the 40-somethings

With a little more energy and money under our belts this year (as compared to the last two years), The Papa and I could actually pull off some grown-up time. I surprised him with an overnight stay on Shelter Island, where we got to eat at a nice restaurant, take in a live band, and tear up the dance floor. We spent the following day riding around on bikes and just having nothing to do. BLISS.

Sadie Lou turned 5

Oliver turned 4

For my birthday, I planned a wine tasting at the folks' cellar. Five dear friends and their husbands came over for a night of learning about the Garnacha grape, Spain, and various Spanish blends with Garnacha. While many great photos surfaced from the evening, this one makes me laugh loudest. Please enjoy the photobombs. A couple of our husbands are gremlins.

Jessica is now soundly 40-something

Isabella's Second Birthday

Bella turned two in September and we celebrated her birthday simply - an after church treat of donut holes and a visit from Auntie Bek and Uncle Mike and cousin Caleb (who she adores).

While everyone was excited to celebrate her, she was just...tired and cranky.

I wouldn't even mention it, but I feel some explanation is needed for her expression in all the photos - ranging from nonplussed to hesitant, from mildly interested to wildly over it. About a week before she turned two, she turned two (if you know what I mean).

Nevermind, Bella Roux, we love you anyway through and through.

Bounce House Bonanza Birthday Party

As I said in the previous post, we tried this year to celebrate the kids' birthdays efficiently. The January through April season in our group of friends is one that could conceivably have a party every weekend...which gets exhausting. Plus, Benji suggested we get a bounce house for his next party.

While pondering all this, a thought occurred to me - what if we did one party to celebrate all three of the kids? Better yet, what if we combine efforts with all the other families who have kid birthdays this season? Good for us, we have wild and crazy friends.

In the end, we celebrated SEVEN children's birthdays!

Cameron and Benjamin turned 7.
Sadie June, Caleb, and Noah turned 5.
Sadie Lou turned 4.
Oliver turned 3.

And this silly party was a SUCCESS!

So here are a few pictures from the day:

Playing in the fort

This guy - before losing his two front teeth

Two of the birthday boys (and their mama taking pictures)

A table full of birthday kids and their friends

Sadie Lou inspected her "4" candle.

He didn't like Red Velvet cupcakes after all.

Oli takes cupcakes VERY seriously.

Noah had his mama bring ocean-themed cupcakes.

Speaking of cupcakes...each birthday family brought their own type of cupcake - something their kids would love!

Sadie got an Elsa dress that day - of course she put it on immediately.

See Bella in the back?  This little guy is one of her buddies from church nursery. They are only five days apart!

No P-Pod party would be complete without cousin Caleb and his hoop shooting.

Birthdays, 2015 style

Birthdays. It gets kind of nutty when a family grows. And then there are all the friends and extended family. The only way we could handle it this year was to do a simple dessert on the day of the person's birthday, and then join together with all our other friends whose kids have birthdays at the same time for a big extravaganza. I will cover THAT epic (not-soon-to-be-repeated) party in another post. For now, here are a few pics from the birthdays so far.

JANUARY - BENJAMIN 

He wanted an ice cream sundae for dessert, and we even let him have two bowls. He survived the evening with only a mild tummy ache.

FEBRUARY - BRENT

The Papa constantly requests that I get him a mariachi band for any given event, so I served up some Mexican food, turned on Pandora's mariachi station, and let him blow out his candle on a mold of flan. We also did a beer tasting of some of my brother's fabulous brews (his little brewery in Seattle is receiving all sorts of accolades - Standard Brewing).

FEBRUARY - SADIE

This girl wanted a bundt cake (which sounds quite like "butt cake" when she pronounces it). She also wanted pink and purple, so I managed to figure that out, too. Lavendar frosting is pretty unappetizing, I learned, but we were saved by the cake bling.

MARCH - OLIVER

Oli Bug doesn't really know yet what he prefers so I snuck in gluten-free brownies, heh, heh. His birthday is a day before my dad's, so we convened at Grandma and Grandpa's beautiful gardens and celebrated there.

MAY - MAMA

I'm pretty sure we didn't do anything for my birthday, but as it is close to Mother's Day, I received well wishes at that gig. I thought I forgot something, but when I looked for photos, there are none. So...maybe it didn't happen?   (39 forever, baby!)

Isabella turns 1!

Back in September, our petite little miss celebrated her first birthday. Close family joined us and we made the tiniest cupcake for her itty bitty hands. A few notables from the day include...

-- Both of her birth parents joined us.
-- My 90-year-old grandmother joined us.
-- My grandmother was the first person Bella has ever waved goodbye to - and it happened as grandma was leaving the party.
-- We ate white chili, a fancy chicken and grape salad, and Italian cream cupcakes - the best cupcakes in the world.
-- Bella showed off her crawling and eating skills.

And now for the slide show. Many thanks to my mother who manned the camera and is therefore not in any pictures.

Catching Up - Oli's Birthday

Back in March, Oli turned two years old. At that time, he had only been with us for about five weeks. He barely knew my extended family and had been to church maybe once. Everything was still wildly new and overpowering...so we kept it super simple.

Cupcakes, some healthy snacks, my family, and one other family he is close to came. And that was enough.

You might have noticed that we always have birth family at our kids' parties when they can make it. Because Oli was older when he came to us, we were all advised to wait six months before he would see biological family again. So they will be at his third birthday party.

Everyone had to get involved in unwrapping presents. Of course.

And apparently he could not blow out his own candles. It did not take Benj and Sadie long to embrace their roles as older siblings!