Happy Birthday Party, Grandpa!

Yesterday we celebrated Grandpa's 65th Birthday with family at Renato's Italian restaurant. We had a room reserved and we actually dined before the restaurant opened so it was really easy to keep an eye on the boys. Aunt Linda had gotten them Play Doh for Hanukkah and the boys played with that the entire time. What a great strategy for good restaurant behavior.

The boys were so excited for the party. They had each picked out gifts for Grandpa, a gift bag and a card. Roo picked out bright orange golf ball and put them in an Optimus Prime gift bag with an Optimus Prime card. After Grandpa opened his gift, he asked Grandpa if he could keep the card and bag. Silly kiddo, was so excited the whole way home and said how great Grandpa was for letting him keep the bag and card. Bug got Grandpa Buzz Lightyear and Woody figures for his desk. He said the Woody was for Grandma's desk. He put them in a Buzz Lightyear gift bag and got Grandpa a cake card. He was so excited for the party and enjoyed himself the entire time.

It was great to see family and it was a wonderful afternoon. Here's a picture of the cake I made for the party, a Les Paul guitar cake. Daddy definitely saved the day on this one after the fondant decided it didn't want to work. All for the better though because the icing I made tasted so much better than the fondant.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a "surprise" birthday dinner for Grandma last weekend. Grandpa knew what we'd be eating but Grandma didn't and it was a pleasant surprise to have lobster and steaks and scallops. I also baked a flower cake that turned out really yummy!

After we had lunder the boys played outside on their scooters.

Their goal was to ride down the path, across the driveway and then fall once they reached the grass. No bushes were damaged during this fun, though some mulch had to be swept back in place.

It was a fun afternoon and the kids had a blast playing outside! Oh, and so did mommy and daddy, we took a few turns on Roo's scooter!

Happy 29th Grandma!

Happy Birthday Party...A Sideways Picture Posting

We celebrated Bug's birthday on Saturday with family and a few of the kids friends. We lucked out and had great weather. The party was a bit smaller than we've had at previous birthday parties but it was the perfect size the boys had a blast. Bug's best friend L that he's known since they were born was there in addition to L's sister K who is Roo's best friend. Connor was also there and all of the kids had a blast playing together.

Before everyone arrived the boys had a riot of a good time driving their vehicles around in the back yard and crashing into each other and if you're Bug, into trees!

Once all the boys friends got there they played outside.

Eventually we had the kids eat dinner and then it was birthday cake time. Bug loved his blue airplane cake!

After the kids finished their cake it was present time. Bug loved all the Transformers he got and Roo was amazed every time Bug got another Transformer. Aunt Linda and Daddy spent a lot of time transforming! And Bug figured out the best technique for opening gift bags!

Bug also got other great gifts, like the InnoTab from Grandma and Grandpa, the space station from Grammy and Pop Pop, the very cool talking dinos from Uncle Matt and the balance bicycle and helmet from Mommy and Daddy.

But I think his favorite gift of all was the scooter he got from the Bloobs. He spent the rest of the evening riding his scooter around with his helmet on, only to take breaks to make sure nobody played with his new toys!

And how cute are Bug and L playing under the desk!

Oh, and did you notice that he wore his new Transformers pajamas the entire day!

Roo's 5th Birthday Party

Roo's 5th birthday party was just what he wanted. I was hoping to not have it at the house this year but he really wanted it at the house. After checking out Paragon Gymnastics to see if we could have it there, which I think he would have loved, they told me they weren't doing Sunday parties. Alas, Uncle Matt planned his entire summer around being at the party on Sunday the 7th. So we had the party at home!

I talked with Roo a bit about what kind of cake he wanted this year. After telling him I wasn't planning on making a Wall-E cake again like last year, we agreed that a caterpillar cake would be great. He wanted it with lots of worms. I looked up some pictures on the internet to get some ideas and decided against The Very Hungry Caterpillar as I thought it was a little young for him. I showed Daddy and one of his friends at work what I planned on making and they were unimpressed, asking me if I aspired to do it nicely at all.

With that vote of confidence, I made this caterpillar cake. Dairy and egg free and delicious too! I tried a new icing recipe that someone at work gave me and it worked really well. Hooray!

When Roo first saw the cake he thought it was amazing. Roo then asked where the worms were and I told him that the caterpillar ate them and that's why it's so big. He seemed satisfied with that answer.

As for the actual party, we filled up the baby pool and put out a double slip n slide. We also gave each of the kids a water gun. The kids all had a blast playing outside and getting really wet. It was super humid out so it was good that the storms held off and they were able to play outside.

I made a bunch of food and everyone had a good time with each other. We had a "smaller" party this year though it still seemed like a lot of people for the size of our kitchen. Roo was excited to have a few of his friends over and we enjoyed catching up with friends and family.

Before Roo opened his presents I asked him if he could nicely thank each person who gave him a gift after he opened it. Roo loved everything he received and was good about thanking everyone. It was hard to pull him away from his presents last night, this morning and as soon as he got home this afternoon!

We're really glad he enjoyed his party and had so much fun with his friends!