Happy Birthday to Madelyn!

Madelyn turned 6 years old on July 29th. It is hard to believe that our little girl is so big. She thought long and hard about what kind of birthday party to have. She decided on a butterfly party.

So I learned a new skill (facepainting) and we had fun. Each girl designed their own butterflies color scheme.


We played caterpillar, caterpillar, butterfly (duck, duck, goose). We had a butterfly hunt in the yard (for hidden foam butterflies). And of course cupcakes and icecream!




Here she is writing all her thank-you notes!

Julianne's 10th birthday

Can you believe she is this old??? We can't either. Double digits!

Catherine's 8th Birthday

Hard to believe 8 years have come and gone! She had a great birthday with lots of friends and fun! She is really growing up!

My three year old boy!

There are just not enough words to tell how sweet Adam is. He is just such a happy, fun, nice boy. He loves being a boy. He loves balls, cars, trains, dirt, airplanes, motorcycles, boats, and mud. He loves being with his sisters, and he loves teasing them relentlessly.

That it is even possible that he is already 3 years old is unbelievable to me. Enjoy these photos of his big day!

Madelyn turned 5

Almost 2 weeks ago, Madelyn turned five years old. She is such a sweet girl. She is excited to start Kindergarten and go to school with her big sisters. She wanted a Hello Kitty party. We invited all her friends and hoped for good weather. But like most days here this summer . . . we got a lot of rain. So we had a big indoor party.

One of our birthday traditions is that after our kids open their presents, we set them aside and don't play with them or unpackage them until that evening. Then we put all the other kids to bed and just the birthday girl stays up late and gets to play with her new toys all by herself (or with Mom and Dad). It is really fun to do. I tell them they can stay up on their birthday as late as they want. If they make it to midnight, I inform them that it is now no longer their birthday and that they stayed up as late as they could on "their birthday" and then they go to bed. Madelyn made it to midnight. She honestly did not even seem tired, but as soon as her head hit the pillow, she was asleep.

Enjoy the pictures of her day!

The Pet Party

For Catherine's birthday party she wanted a pet theme. So at her party, we enlisted the help of our neighbors and friends to bring their sweet pets to show everyone at the party. We had 5 dogs, 1 kitten, and 1 bird come. It was a hit. The kids were so good and calm. Enjoy the pictures.

Adam's 2nd birthday

So, Adam's birthday was pretty low key. It was on a Friday and I had big plans to celebrate at home that night . . . but then Trent missed the New Canaan train and would have had to wait an hour for the next on which would mean that all the kids would be asleep. So, instead, Trent hopped the train to Stamford (because there is one every 10 minutes), we all hopped in the car and we picked him up and went to eat at California Pizza Kitchen. We had a great time, but alas . . . NO PICTURES since I was in a hurry to get to the train station.

Here we are on Saturday morning. Instead of birthday cake, we had pancakes. Instead of candles, we had matches. Instead of extended family all gathered round . . .

we had Skype video phone calls.

And you know, Adam didn't seem to mind one bit!

Catherine's 6th Birthday

Catherine was so excited on her birthday morning when she opened the garage and found a brand new bike waiting for her!!! Then it started to rain, and she did not get to ride it to school that day. She has ridden it now several times and she sure can go fast!















Here are her birthday cupcakes. The whole party was tinkerbell themed with the colors green and yellow. As the girls arrived to the party, they got sprinkled with pixie dust (glitter lotion and glitter fingernail polish) so that they wouldn't scare away the fairies. We played Fairy, Fairy, Human (Duck duck goose) and Red Fairy (just like red rover, but I made up this poem. . .
Red Fairy, Red Fairy stop being so scary; Send Catherine right over before things get hairy!

Then we walked to this field by our house that has a lot of trees. I had printed 21 pictures of Tinkerbell and my sister had tied them to the trees. All the girls had so much fun hunting for fairies. They ran and ran and ran. Then we played hide 'n' seek in the fairy forest. The kids all seemed to have a great time.



Did I mention that there were 20 -6 year old girls at the party? That means that there was a lot of screaming and squealing. Little girls are sure cute, but they are noisy!
















Opening some of her presents!

Barn Park and Barn Cake

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Here are Trent and Adam "fully invested" in the BYU Cougars who were playing after Adam's little party. Cute Boys!






We had family over for a small get together to celebrate Adam's first Birthday. We took them to the Barn Park. It has traditional park equipment and also a splash pad. Julianne is enjoying the splashing. I love this photo of Madelyn because it is perfectly mid run-- neither foot is on the ground. Also notice the ominous clouds in the back. The clouds kept the temperature cool and the people away, but it was very pleasant to be out there.



So, here is his 2nd cake . . . this time my interpretation of a barn cake. Let's just say it involved a lot of red frosting. Don't you love how we are all helping blow out the candle?

Happy Birthday to Adam!

Adam's birthday was Wednesday the 26th. I can't believe my baby boy is a year old. He sure is the cutest thing ever. He is so sweet and happy. I hope all the rest of the years can be as happy as this one! Doesn't looking at him just make you want to smile?

It's my interpretation of a train cake.

Turning 3

Madelyn celebrated her 3rd birthday more than a month ago. Deciding on a theme for her party was rather difficult. Everytime you asked her what kind of party she wanted, you would get a different answer. The 3 top choices were pink, princess, and barbie. I decided to forget all of them and go with a swim party at one of our neighborhood pools. But the weather was not on my side (Has it been on anyone's side this summer?), and at the last minute I was pulling together a princess party. There are a lot of advantages to 3 girls. Here are a few . . .
1. I have made princess cakes before and have saved the princess figurines.
2. We own 4 different princess dresses and were able to outfit Madelyn and her 3 friends quite nicely.
3. We have a large selection of Disney Princess dance-alongs.
and
4. We have a very large Cinderella pop up tent.

All in all, it was the easiest party I have ever thrown. Madelyn had a great time. It is hard to believe that she is 3 years old already. I just can't say enough about how sweet she is. Right now she has a few funny expressions. Whenever I ask her to do something she does not want to do (put away a toy, eat lunch, get in the car, etc. . .) she folds her arms and looks demurely down and says rather pathetically, "but my tummy hurt me". That excuse must have worked at some time and so now she tries it for everything. Another one is if she is ever crying and you ask her what is wrong she immediately replies "my sissy being mean to me". She says that even when they are not home. Oh she is too funny.

The Hannah Montana cake!

Both Madelyn and Adam needed to go to bed early tonight (by 7:00) because they were so tired. So we play a little game. All of us get ready for bed and pretend to go to bed. As soon as they are asleep we get up . . . and it actually works! Madelyn just cannot settle down if she thinks anything is going on. But they were both asleep by about 7:05. Yeah! And then Catherine and Julianne helped me decorate the cake for Julianne's birthday party tomorrow! I think it turned out pretty good. I always have made the cakes myself and think they are quite tasty, but I was worried enough about the Hannah Montana theme that I at least inquired at HEB and in case you are wondering they do not make a Hannah Montana cake . . . yet. So here is our version. I think it looks like her logo pretty good (you can scroll down a few postings and see the actual logo). It is 2 layers of Chocolate with strawberry filling in the middle and chocolate buttercream frosting. I think it will be delicious!