Birthday Boy!

Our newly turned 14 year old! 

We had a pretty lowkey day--

building bridges for the guinea pigs in science class, park with friends afterwards,

and he requested homemade mac and cheese for dinner, and a mint brownie "cake", and a Marvel movie for the evening.

But then, one of his gifts was a night at the Great Wolf Lodge with cousins that weekend. From all reports, all the kids, and dads, had a fantastic time.

Daddy-o splurged and got them the whole package,

so they had credits for the arcade,

ropes course,

bowling,

and mini golf.

They got to hang out in their bunk room,

and the outdoor pool even opened, earlier in the year than we'd expected, so they spent some time on Saturday out there, as well as doing all the slides and fun in the water park indoors. experiences make the best birthday gifts!

Cake Decorating, Part 1

Peanut wanted to do the cake decorating project for 4-H this year and had his first meeting the other night.

We are so lucky to have a pretty awesome 4-H leader who not only oversees the whole club, but also runs several of the projects herself. S0 grateful for all the time she dedicates to this!

Peanut had a great time learning a few new techniques for decorating. They'll move on to whole cakes next, but starting with cupcakes was fun. Can't wait to see everything he learns!

Happy Birthday, Daddy-o!

Someone got another year older!

After the success and fun of Bug's diner, the kids wanted to do another restaurant.

This one was Italian themed (and relied heavily on frozen Trader Joe's meals!) Bug made the menu, Bean was the waitress, and we all helped in the kitchen. Usually, the birthday person gets to pick their dinner, but we figured since this included both pizza and lasagna, which are Daddy-o's typical picks, we were safe. He got to have both, haha.

Peanut made his awesome hat and was so excited for Daddy-o to wear it all through dinner, haha.

And then, for dessert, he asked for the chocolate peanut butter cake. This is a family favorite, for sure.

Happy Birthday to our favorite bearded pirate guy.

 

Sweer Sixteen

I don't know how it's been 16 years!

We decided to celebrate Bean's birthday on Saturday because her actual birthday was Father's Day and we wanted to give her a day that was all about her. She woke up to some of her favorite snacks and candies in poster form, her favorite breakfast (rice cereal) and a lazy morning before we got to have some fun.

Friends of ours were so kind to share their backyard pool while they were out of town this weekend, so we spent several hours swimming and lounging.

Bean and Bug practiced their water polo skills, while Peanut spent 90% of the time in the hot tub, haha.

I'm so glad these two have each other, now more than ever! They've been able to provide some of the much needed peer interaction.

(And Daddy-o and I have gotten to be Peanut's peers often during quarantine. So many imaginative games!)

We picked up pizza on the way home, played round after round of Nerts, and had cake and ice cream to finish off the night. She requested chocolate mint cake and Tillamook Cookies'n'Cream--so good!

We've been reading the blog together most weeks, starting from the beginning because Peanut wants to learn all about the family time before he was born and all the years he can't remember, and we just came across one of Bean's earlier birthdays when I had asked her about some favorites, so we thought it would be fun to do it again:

Favorite color: Teal
Favorite food: "There's too many--I can't choose."
Favorite thing to do: "Be outside"
Favorite book: "I have a lot of favorites--Wonder, Boys in the Boat, The War That Saved My Life, The War I Finally Won, The Giver, The Book Thief, Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Vanderbeekers series, Trumpet of the Swan, The Wild Robot, All Quiet on the Western Front, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Little Prince"
Favorite song: "I listen to too much music--I don't know."
Favorite Desserts: "Any dessert I'm eating at the moment is my favorite.)
Favorite TV show:  Gilmore Girls!
Favorite Animals:  "My bunny and guinea pigs"
Favorite Movies: It's a Wonderful Life, any musical, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spiderman Homecoming

Favorite Sport : Water polo

She still loves the outside, and has a hard time picking favorites, haha. 

Happy Birthday, Bean!

Birthday, Pandemic Style

Peanut was the first one in our immediate family to have a coronavirus birthday celebration. We did everything we could to make it a special day and help the loss of a birthday party with friends not feel too significant.

Bean helped me decorate the night before so he could wake up to birthday everywhere.

And we surprised him with a gigantic donut. He had asked for cinnamon rolls and the night before, when he realized that I hadn't started making the dough, he became frantic. I ended up having to tell him that I had a different surprise in mind which he wasn't very happy about, so I got him a donut cinnamon roll, just in case the other wasn't as exciting as I hoped it would be. But no fears--he was happy with the donut :)

Then, what probably made his day the best--having Bean and Bug play with him all day. When we asked him if there was anything he wanted to do, that was all he really wanted. They played extra-terrestials exploring other planets, 

pirates, and generally made his day incredible.

After lunch, their games took him out front where we surprised him with birthday visits from a bunch of friends. 

I think he liked the surprise (the element of surprise was definitely our secret weapon--it tends to make things more exciting, even if they aren't a huge deal), but we quickly realized that the actual visiting with friends in their cars was much more exciting for Daddy-o and I than for him. It's hard when you're 9 and all you really want to do is be running around with those friends, playing some imaginative game. 

One friend brought baby bunnies to visit, which added a fun element.

And then, because it was 96 degrees, we busted out yet another surprise. Waterballoons! I splurged on some of the easy fill ones and will never go back. 39 balloons ready in 60 seconds. We went through 5 sets of those in about an hour. Totally worth it to me.

We played baseball with them,

and catch.

And just attacked each other, of course.

It all felt great. At the end, we loaded up a big bowl of balloons and took them to another friend's birthday parade and tossed balloons at her family (who had okayed the attack ;).) I think that until the pools open, this will be how we survive the hot days.

After what felt like a pretty full birthday, Peanut still had his homemade mac'n'cheese dinner and presents. 

He got the red hammock he'd been wanting, and a red step counter (which despite being for kids age 5 and up, is WAY too big for his wrist--we're going to have to try to adjust it somehow.) 

And then we still had more fun to come! Cake, ice cream, 

and a surprise zoom party with family to sing to him and watch him blow out his candles. It's hard not being able to share cake with everyone, but we all appreciated the support of family.

He actually saw more family and friends than he ever does on his birthday this year. What we lack in actual closeness gets made up for in volume during this pandemic.

And then, there was still one more surprise. Bug created a movie theater experience,

including making this awesome concession stand. All we had to do was supply the food, but the rest was all him.

He lit the aisle leading to the seats,

made tickets for us to "buy",

and then he and Bean ran the whole thing. Peanut absolutely loved it. He couldn't stop talking about how I had kind of said no when he asked if he could stay up late to watch a movie that night, and then how fun it was when he got to "go" to a movie theater instead!

I'm so glad that this little Peanut had such a great day. We all wanted it to be something he'd remember and I think all the surprises made it a birthday to go down in the books.