Birthday Season again

It is the September Birthday season again. 

This year Karissa turned 11 and we had a spa party.  The girls had a lot of fun and my friend Jenny and I got to pretend to be 11 again.  Needless to say, there was a lot of giggling.

We even had a pretty cake.

A week later we had a Lego Party for Andrew's 8th Birthday

Andrew building a tower in the highest tower contest

Building a boat from a random handful of legos

Blowing out the candles on his lego cake.

Happy Birthday to Me

I figured I should mention my birthday mostly because Brandon pulled off a surprise, which is not common.  He was out of town on my birthday  and the Sunday following he said he wanted to go for a drive but we had to pick something up from some friends.  Once we got there it was a party.  It was very sweet of him.

Happy Hogwart's BIrthday to you!

As most of you know, Karissa & Andrew's birthdays are 8 days apart.  So this year when I asked them what they wanted for their party they both said "Harry Potter".  Karissa getting her inspiration from the books she has been reading and Andrew getting his from Lego Harry Potter for Wii.  Anyway, since I didn't want to do 2 parties on the same theme a week apart, I convinced them to have a joint party and it was a raging success.  Now just to come up with a theme for next year that interests an 11 year old girl and then 8 year old boy.  But I am not worrying about that until next year.  On to this year's party.  I have to admit I went a little crazy but since I only had to do one for the both of them I felt fully justified.  I can claim very little imagination on the party I basically copied parts of this party and this party.  This is what we did.

When they arrived they went to "Diagon Alley" to "shop".  They went to

for their wands,

Then to Flourish & Blotts (Don't have a photo of the sign) for their book

you can go here for pictures of the inside of the book.  Basically, it had a basic history of Hogwart's, the schedule, some info on the classes, etc.

and pencils

thank you modge podge and my Silhouette and the idea from here (I am now going to make more like the ones from the site)

Then they went to

and got a caldron (a spray painted dollar store bowl) for use in their activities.

Then we gathered at Platform

 and went to Hogwart's where we had a feast and were informed that all children from Albuquerque were always in Griffendor so there was no need for sorting (this was basically to eliminate any fighting over who was in what house).  While at Hogwart's they also found a suprise in the bathroom

Moaning Myrtle came to visit.

Since we were a little ahead of schedule they also all went to the basement and got themselves and animal

since this was just a preview day we allowed all animals

Then they were off to Transfiguration where they learned to hold their wands and started the transfiguration spell by coloring on Shrinky Dinks and saying "Chango-Arango"  I think the girls really got a kick out of it.  We then baked them and made magnets.

Then they went to potions (recipes were in the books) and used their cauldrons to brew potions.  They got to do two.  One thing they don't say in the movies or books, is that potions smell bad

But I think it was their favorite part.

Finally we had Divination

Some of the kids got into it more than others.  

Andrew loved the "OOOMMM" part

In Divination they made "fortune tellers"

You can see the "fortunes" here

 Then we had the closing ceremonies with presents and the cake with invisible writing

Finally, as they left they visited HoneyDukes for candy

Some of the "Professors" even enjoyed the visit

As usual Spencer spent a lot of the party just looking cute

We had a lot of fun and we were worn out by the end.  Luckily, it is another year until the crazy birthday week!

Happy Birthday -- Again!

Now it is Andrew's turn.  I can't believe he is 7 already.  My how time flies.  Here is one of my favorite photos of him.

Such a handsome boy!

Guess Who's One (A Few Weeks Ago)

SPENCER!!!

We celebrated with a couple of friends we have made here.  Basically, just some yummy food and cake and ice cream.  Spencer LOVES balls so we thought a ball cake was perfect for him.

He hasn't quite figured out what the whole blowing out thing is but he thinks it is fun.  The "1" candle has been used for all the kids first birthday which I think is kind of fun!

I had to add this photo, my friend C loves to rub his "brillo" head - perhaps for luck, but mostly because it feels cool!

This is a ball popping thing from Playskook that I don't remember the name of but Spencer loved it.  Just seeing it makes him get excited.  The kids also love playing with him.

Since he loves balls, he also got a large ball that he loves to chase around the house.

Earlier in the day he got his favorite breakfast

Muffins and Applesauce -- someone left the "empty" bowl a little too close to him.

The birthday girl!

So this is a little late, but we celebrated Alexis' birthday a couple weeks ago.  I can't believe she is 4, and yet sometimes I forget and think she is older.  In many ways she is such an old soul.  She is my favorite cooking helper.  Anytime I am in the kitchen she is right there to help.

We had a small party with the 3 families we know.  She got 2 Tatiana dolls that she was thrilled about.

And the cake was pretty basic, since, she doesn't like cake.  I know, how is she possibly related to me.  But that is the way it is.  She of course helped make and decorate it.

We had this small cake and then unfrosted cupcakes since, if she does decide to eat cake, it is only done without frosting.

Andrew has "Transformed" to 6

Yesterday was Andrew's 6th birthday.  I know, I can hardly believe it either, but he is.  Since he is obsessed with Transformers Animated we had a "Transformers Animated" party.  I wish I could take credit for the ideas, but I was very inspired by someone else's Transformer party  activities from birthdaypartyideas.com.  When they arrived I gave each of them an envelope each with a different picture of an autobot (good transformer) in his vehicle or dinobot form.  Then I told them that the "allspark" had been stolen by the decepticons (bad transformers) and they had to get it back.  First they needed to complete 4 missions to transform their transformer into the robot form (there were 4 puzzle pieces they got to put together of the robot form in the envelope) and then would get the instructions on how to find the allspark.  First they had to bomb Blitzwing (decepticon)

Basically taking black water balloons and throwing them at a laminated poster of blitzwing I made.

Notice the balloons all over the ground.  They had a blast!

Then we had to "ice" Megatron (leader of the decepticons).  They lined up and took turns filling a cup with ice from a large bowl

and then running it down to another bowl and dumping it on megatron

We kept telling them that Megatron was going to get loose and they had to hurry.  They were very concerned and started hurrying. 

Then they got "infected" and had to get some medicine.  Which, of course, was cake and ice cream.

 

Notice the broken purple "decepticon" side and the well built "autobot" side -- I got the figures from the grocery store bakery.

After eating cake they then had to get energy and draw a blue marble out of a bowl of soapy water.  Most of the marbles were white.  Then they got to put their puzzles together then go on a treasure hunt for the "allspark" (glow sticks).  Even though I absolutely had no time to plan this party with canning this week (peaches, pears, salsa, tomatoes, freezing peppers, attending a reception in Salt Lake, writing a talk for today, etc) it turned out so fun and the boys had such a blast. Most importantly Andrew had fun and loved it.

9!

 

I can hardly believe she is 9!  We found out that she is now technically a "tween," who knew?  For her birthday this year she got an mp3 player and Hannah Montana & Jonas Bro. CD's, let's just say Mom & Dad did good this year.  I'm not sure she has removed them from her ears voluntarily yet, other than when she is letting someone else listen.

For her party this year she wanted a Mary Poppins movie party.  This is the easiest party I have thrown.  When they (9 girls) arrived they drew chalk pictures like Burt's in Mary Poppins.  And then they opened presents (lets just say we are now well versed in "Webkins") and ate cake & ice cream.

Her umbrella Gluten-free cake, everyone got a piece.  Now to freeze the remaining in portion sizes for other birthday parties and lunches.

Then the girls went downstairs to watch the movie.  I have to admit they didn't watch too much of the movie.  They were too busy playing dress up and other such things.  I told the girls they couldn't change out of the dress ups until I got a picture.

 

Here they are trying to be cute.

Then I asked them to make funny faces:

Notice there isn't too much difference. 

The biggest surprise of the night was Karissa losing another tooth while eating Swedish Fish.

 

Not sure how she eats, I don't think she has many teeth left in her mouth.  I think 4 are currently growing in.

When it came time to go home they each got a "carpet bag" that I made from some upholstery samples I got years ago.

 

 Each item had a Mary Poppins related not.  The chalk: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"; the candy corn: "Feed the Birds, Two pence a bag.  Two Pence, Two Pence, Two Pence a bag"; and the pixie stix: "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down."

Even though I can hardly believe Karissa is 9, and that the party was a little crazy, I loved listening to her with her friends and how they all played so well and got along.  I remembered being their age and how much fun it was just to be a kid.

It's the Birthday Girl!

Three years ago yesterday we were blessed and shocked with a beautiful 10lb 1oz baby girl with a head full of dark brown hair. After a few not so great days in the NICU Alexis came home to our family and has been making us smile and surprising us all the time.

Yesterday we celebrated her birthday with Grandma & Grandpa W and her cousins. My sister, Jennifer, is having her baby on Wednesday and thought it best not to make the trip so the kids came with Grandma & Grandpa. Alexis is very much into kittys and she wanted a kitty cake. She even informed me which of her kittys the cake should look like.

The birthday girl blowing out her 3 candles.

One of her favorite things is her "twirly dress" I made Karissa a few years back. Since she is always wanting to wear it I figured I'd make her a new one. I actually cut out two but only had time to finish one -- next weeks project. She also has a Dora doll she loves so we dreamed up a dress for her as well. Grandma also made Dora a dress, lucky Dora.

Don't they look cute. I have been informed, however, that the dress is too long, so tomorrow it is being shortened a bit.

The cute girl herself. Gotta love her!