the big 4-0

{note:  almost all of these photos were taken by Nyla.  she graciously took the camera and got great photos that night.  unfortunately I forgot that the watermark with my name on it automatically goes on the pictures for the blog.  sorry Nyla!  we love the pictures!!}

I think we were successful in surprising Brian for his 40th!

(thanks to Pat for keeping him entertained and away all afternoon!)

and in keeping the kids entertained all evening making confetti angels and confetti rain and all other things confetti!

Was there any other choice than to have a Georgia Bulldogs cake?

(Except in Missouri they do not have any Georgia cake picks.  Mizzou was offered up, but I about choked thinking of what kind of reaction that would get.  So I made my own - fancy, huh?)

Kelsey was able to get exactly 40 candles on that cake - she's superwoman!

Which meant that the birthday boy needed a lot of help from his much younger friends to blow all of those candles out.

Of course all of those younger peeps were very willing to help Kelsey get all of those candles off of that cake.

(Faster they are off, the faster they get to dig into that delicious icing-ness you know)

 We had lots of decorations, but the pictures were my favorite, of course.

We made a banner out of his school pictures from preschool up until college graduation.

Thankfully Angie was there to hang it or it might have still been on the floor in the office when he arrived!

And Brian's mom must share my love for documenting with photos, because I was able to find birthday pictures of Brian in almost the exact same spot from his first birthday to his 21st. 

Did you notice the gap between 21 and 32?

Yeah, over an entire decade of birthday photos missing.

I guess he went to college so his mom wasn't around to take those birthday photos.

And I'll blame some of the gap to being busy with babies and toddlers.

But between about 24 - 28.......no idea!

Lots of "40" reminders.

In case he forgot why all those people were over.

And this was still the scene more than 2 days after the fact.

Fortunately, Brian didn't mind helping me clean it all up a bit after this so the house is pretty much back to normal now.

Thank you to everyone who helped pull this off and who came to celebrate with us.  We love you!

happy birthday B

Today is Brian's birthday.

We gave him 3 birthday pancakes with 3 candles.

They represent the last year of his 30s.

He doesn't like when I say that.

He happened to have the day off work today, so I was excited to spend the day together.

Love you baby!

eight

Ethan turned 8 a couple of weeks ago.

He was very excited about his birthday.

I think mostly because it meant he no longer needed the booster seat in the car.

He was up early and really wanted to help make his birthday pancakes.

His job was transferring from griddle to plate - a very important role.

Happy Birthday my favorite Ethan!

Love you so so much!!!

happy 50

Happy Birthday Lisa!

Actually, her birthday was over a month ago.

Our small group surprised her with some of her favorite foods

for lunch and a celebration after church on her birthday.

And Kendall even made a cake for her....what a thoughtful husband!

Fun fun day for a very sweet friend!

Love getting together with these guys!

ten

Elliott turned 10 yesterday.

TEN.

I really cannot believe that we have a child in the double digits now.

Where did the time go?

The usual suspects - breakfast pancakes.

He wanted his to look like Mickey Mouse this time.

I forgot to get the whipped cream in a can, so he was a bit disappointed about that,

but was happy with the M&Ms, chocolate chips and marshmallow.

I'm sure the boys' teachers were excited about the sugar highs :)

Brian had to be at work early, so he buttered Elliott's nose, ate a pancake and headed to Wally World.

That left Ethan and I to actually sing "Happy Birthday".

One of us sang the traditional version.

One of us sang a funny version.

One of us almost got punched by the birthday boy.

I'll let you figure out which of us filled those roles.

We prayed, thanking God for another year of life and for Elliott's role in our family.

He was so thankful for us making pancakes and celebrating his birthday.

He gave hugs and said thank you I don't know how many times.

Love these times when they are beyond sweet.

I took Taco Bell to him at lunch time.

His request.

He gave me another huge hug when he saw me and thanked me for coming.

I could tell he was a little sad about something when we sat down.

I don't think he was having the best school day.

And he said he was hoping that Brian was going to get to be there, too.

But he perked up and was more cheerful halfway through lunch.

At one point he looked me in the eye and said to me in such a sincere grateful tone,

"Thanks for coming here and bringing me this lunch, Mom.  That was really

nice that you did that."

and gave me another hug.

Seriously. melt. my. heart.

Showing such gratitude.

And maturity.

I stayed while he passed out birthday snacks in his room.

He enjoyed getting to share something special with the friends in his class.

It was fun to watch him be generous as well as be excited to celebrate his birthday in a special way.

He didn't want to go out to eat for dinner (they always get to choose a special meal or a special place to go).  He wanted to eat at home and do smores around the fire pit with the kids on our street.

So that's what we did.

We even sang "Happy Birthday" and embarrassed him :)

His original request was to grill cheeseburgers for dinner.

It was too late after the smores, so we ended up having leftover hotdogs instead (thank you Nyla).

Ethan offered to pray.

Usually these before-dinner prayers consist of "thanks for the good day, for the food, let us have a good night and day tomorrow".

Apparently they are in a hurry to eat or something.

But this time it went something like this:

Dear God,

Thank you for a good day.

Thank you for Elliott and his birthday.

That he gets to be 10.

Thank you for his "funniness".....

Amen.

He said some other things after "funniness" but I can't remember them.

I was so struck that he would really be that grateful for his brother that I didn't process anything else.

I love these boys so much!!

Happy Birthday Elliott!!!

We love you always and are so proud of the man you are becoming (even though it hurts to say "man")

weekend stories

Turning 4 is a big deal,

so we headed over to Illinois 

this weekend to 

celebrate with Eli!

It was a Curious George party - love Curious George!

His antics remind me very much of the antics at our house.

Nobody means to cause trouble,

they are just curious little monkeys.

While we were over there, the boys had to ride the

golf cart, of course.

And Rob was a good sport and put up with

their driving!

 Eli's other grandma brought a couple of beautiful 

horses with her to the party.

They were hanging out in the yard most of the day 

trying to stay cool.

Eli wasn't too fond of the Earl (the darker horse),

but he seemed to like this one.

 Isn't she pretty?

I can't remember her name, but

I remember thinking it was the perfect

name for a horse.

And she must be southern, because I

also remember that it was a double name 

(like Anna Beth, Mary Ann, etc.)

The mercury rose to 109 at the party Saturday.

Hot. Hot. Hot.

The only thing to do was play in the water, right?

Happy Birthday Eli!!!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Happy 7th Birthday Ethan!

Can't believe you are already SEVEN!

Love your expressions here.

So you.

Love your sense of humor and fun-loving self.

Love your sensitive side.

Love your love for us and others.

Love your generosity.

Love that you'll play any sport and love it.

Love you!!!

 

major league party

Ethan wanted to have a backyard baseball game for his birthday party this year.

Brian told the kids we could sing the National Anthem before we started.

Guess who had to sing most of the song by herself?

The first pitch of the game.  The birthday boy got the honors of first at-bat!

I think most of the boys could have played for hours.  It was a lot of fun to watch them.

Waiting patiently in the dugout for their turn at bat.  This is probably the most that were ever sitting there at one time.  Most of the time they were over in the snacks or getting a drink.  They were starving after all of that baseball playing :)

We played relay games, too.

One of them was "dizzy bat".  I think we should have made them run around the bat a few more times because none of them seemed too dizzy.  Maybe that's a good thing, though.

Another crazy face getting ready to blow out the candle on the cookie cake he requested.

So glad that Ethan has such great friends.  I love each of these kids and the blessing that they are in Ethan's life.  Thanks for celebrating with us!!

campout (or camp-in) party

Elliott wanted a campout party this year for his birthday.  Brian said he would campout with them so we went for it.  It was tons of fun even though it turned into a "camp-IN" party.  The mercury dipped into the lower 40s that night so they all camped in the loft.  The boys were disappointed for a few minutes and then got over it and played TRON with the glow sticks I gave them. 

We ordered pizza and ate out in the blustery wind.

They made trail mix.  This was a last minute thought on my part, but they really enjoyed doing it and it gave them something to snack on and they had plenty to take home the next day too.

One of Elliott's friends had a 3DS that took 3-D pictures (very cool), and he was quite the photographer while Elliott was opening presents :)

Okay, so I really like to make their birthday cakes.  I just enjoy coming up with the ideas and seeing how it all plays out.  I don't do it every year, and I figured I might not be able to this year.  But I had found a camping cake that looked really easy that I was going to do.  So I asked Elliott what kind of cake he wanted, and he said a cookie cake.  Really?!  So disappointed not to be able to decorate the camping cake, but in reality this was the best scenario cause I did NOT have the energy to even BAKE a cake, let alone decorate one.  But I did build a tent out of graham crackers and a campfire out of pretzels and candy corn.  That counts, right?

Happy 9th Birthday Elliott!!

Happy Birthday big guy!

9 years.

Hard to believe.

Love your sense of humor.

Love your creativity.

Love your caring heart.

Love your laughter.

Love you very very much!!