Lily turns 8.

We went shopping together before our New York trip to plan for her party.  Lily stumbled across an EMOJI party pack & she was hooked. So emojis it was... it turned out really cute.

On the day before her birthday, we ran out to Party City to complete her party favors & treat bags--- maybe her favorite part of her birthday.

Birthday Decorations in place...

I found this felt banner and party balloon in the Target dollar bin maybe around New Years and knew it had her name written all over it.  Mike ran out after bedtime to pick up this emoji balloon.

Peter loves to draw so his contribution is that he colored and cut out 8 emoji faces for her and put them all around the house.  She had to find them on the morning of her birthday- so sweet.

 Aunt Becky sent Lily some popsicle molds & recipe book.  The perfect gift for her, as she loves sweets, loves concocting things, and is alllllways hungry.

Goo & Pop gave her a big Lego Friends set.  This was also a perfect gift because she and Peter could bond over it (hard to come by these days) and she needed to ask him for a little help.  Then they could pretend together- and oh, blessed self forgetfulness. 

 It has lots of bags so lots of building. 

The day after her birthday, for her "party", I took her and three friends to paint pottery. 

Afterwards, we hit up the Sonic drive thru (our favorite this summer) for Slushes.  

All of them got blue raspberry with pop rocks- I loved that they all agreed and got the same thing.

Back at home, Maw had arrived with Lily's lemon flavored emoji cake. It was so cute and delicious!

Pizza first...

then eight bright candles!

Ben's 3rd Birthday

Ben's birthday weekend was packed, in the best of ways.  

We had our neighborhood picnic on Saturday, which my neighbor and I plan and had on our cul de sac.  We ate BBQ and listened to the neighborhood kids sing "God's Not Dead".  A month or two ago, they found Mike's drum set under the house and have been faithfully practicing since then to make a neighborhood picnic debut. 

So Sunday afternoon, we gathered the grandparents, our friends, our neighbor friends, and celebrated our big three year old!

~The Spread~

 ~Guests~

 ~Drink Table~

 ~Joy & me ~

(I think we have an unofficial kid's bday pic tradition)

 ~lighting the candle~

I love that all of the kids are seen & packed in this pics.  He is so loved among our neighborhood kids. :)

 ~Post-Party help with gifts~

 

On his actual birthday, we took CFA to school to have lunch with Bubba & Sissy.

Getting birthday mail :)

And birthday cake on this bday eve.  

~Being celebrated at preschool~

He is such a joy to us.

Happy Birthday to our big boy! 

Love you so much, BenBen!

Peter's 9th Birthday

Hopefully, Peter won't mind sharing this post with August Birthdays first! :)

We celebrated Mike's birthday a weekend early, at the river with my parents, Holly & Glenda.  Holly had this amazing, delicious cake made for him.  It was lemon blueberry- Yum!

He is easy to celebrate.  Sweet, generous, laid back, and endlessly kind to us!

He continuously grounds us all in our faith, reads us the Bible, calms us, hugs us, holds us all, helps us worship, and reminds us of the big picture. We love you, Mike. 

 We had a shared celebration of Mike & his mom at our house, with spinach and artichoke enchiladas:  my favorite new recipe from the summer.  

Moving on to Peter's big day.  I also let him plan his party.  I offered a sleep over, thinking that could be less work than our parties of the past.  And it was.  Three friends came for the evening party and two of those slept over.  It was honestly less stressful than the years of throwing big parties with adults too. It was sweet to see interactions with his friends (not that it was perfect) but I'd rather see it than not. :)

First, there was a water balloon fight!

He wanted a little free play inside to do Legos, snap circuits, etc.

Then pizza!

Then presents!

The boys were in bed by 8:30/9 and asleep by 9:30/10pm.  We had pancakes the next morning and pick up by 9am.  It was a fun party and not too jarring for our first sleepover.
Happy Birthday, sweet PT!  We hope and pray 9 is a great year for you!

Lily's 7th Birthday

We drove home from NY again during the late night/early morning.

It freed us up to have an extra day with Mike.  And we went kayaking as a family.

It also allowed us to visit with Mike's sweet granddad who passed away in mid-July.

He was a loving, sweet man & I feel so blessed to have known him for 14 years!

On Lily's actual birthday, Mike's sister was in town so we decided to take my two big kids and her kids to Busch Gardens.  It was a lot of fun & it made Lily's actual bday feel FUN!  It was also really HOT, but I love me some summertime.

On the Saturday after Lily's birthday, we'd planned a party and invited maybe 8 girls to come.  My dear Lily Bug has a birthday one of the best times of the year (one of my faves- July 4th week) so turns out, others love this week too and its a great week for everyone to vacation.  Which doesn't bode well for our birthday girl.  Her party was going to be 4 friends. One of them had to back out on the morning of :( so it was our next door neighbors and one friend from school- plus Peter. :)

Lily was such a good sport about it.  We may need to do a half birthday party for our girl to add some cheer to humdrum January. 

So this year, for the big kids birthdays, we let them plan them out how they wanted them (a party at home) & then we went shopping together (for minimal things- we are not big bday spenders).  They essentially were group play dates of their favorite things.  I wish I had taken a pic of Lily's list:  It included things like craft, sprinkler, dance party, cupcakes, ice cream & sprinkles.  And party planning is Lily's dream job so its a win-win.

Lily and I went out together one evening to look for her craft.  We landed on perler beads: teeny colored beads that you put together into a design or shape, and then you iron them to melt them into a little plastic trinket.  They have been a fun summer activity to have.  We were still learning at the party so I am not sure that anyone's attempt was too successful.  The process was fun though and sitting together to talk and work was sweet.

  I stayed up late the night before straightening up and getting everything laid out (kinda like I am doing now to get anything documented).  Does anyone else do this?  Sometimes (often!), its the only way I can get things done.

 As girly as possible!

Confetti Balloons- we had these all over the house so we were sweeping confetti all summer :)

 Since there was a little of a confetti/sprinkles theme, we found and had to get this confetti blaster for Lily.  It was so neat!  It may need to be an annual thing! :)

Happy Birthday to our sweet Lily Bug!  You fill our life with joy & sweetness & little acts of service.