The Birthday Storm Continues

Well, I was going to blog about each of the fun birthdays and chaos that consumed my time last month.  But, well, I think we better go for the quick recap.
My handsome cowboy's big day...

This was at the beginning of summer and boy! did those boys need haircuts!

  My writing group met the night before Ryan's birthday so I picked him up some yummy pastries at The Pastry Pub and left them as a surprise for him with a note in the fridge.  Yes, if I was a super wonderful wife I would have gotten up at six in the morning and made him a fabulous breakfast.  Alas, I am not that great. 

He had to work...shouldn't your own birthday be a holiday? Although I did buy licorice and a bouquet of balloons which I delivered to the office.  He was still out in the field so he got a nice surprise when he got back to his desk. 

Later we had hamburgers and then it was time for presents and cheesecake. 

Yes, Ryan is always on a mission for his birthday to be simple and easy.  He doesn't want to go anywhere.  He doesn't want me to be busy in the kitchen. He wanted an easy no-bake cheesecake.  He just wants us to have time to hang out.  It doesn't always seem to work out that way.  But we always try. 

His biggest want was a Red Dot Scope.  And, look, I made his dreams come true...

heh heh. 

I didn't know what kind he wanted!  So, he'll just have to go pick out the real thing for himself. 

Zoe's big day...

I made her a Rapunzel dress to wear.  To say she was excited is a MASSIVE understatement.  She has since worn this dress as often as she possibly can.  To bed. To the library. To the Renassaince Faire.  Everywhere.  And then she brings it to the laundry room and asks me to wash it so she can wear it the next day. 

I used the pattern Simplicity 5695 as a starting point for her dress.  I changed it up by sewing the pink strips of ribbon to the sleeves, adding the purple bodice piece to the front and then more pink ribbon criss-crossed over front. I only sewed the ribbon on the sides of the "corset". Next I simply added the purple over skirt. Also, instead of making casing for the elastic in the neck and sleeves, I simply sewed the 1/4 inch elastic right into the neck and sleeves. So much easier. Oh, and I serged all the hems. I have to say...I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.  I wasn't sure if it was going to work. I was totally winging it. Oy. I sure love that pattern. 

We had a very full day.  Storytime at the library, picnic and playing at Discovery Park and later pizza, presents and a pretty pink rose cake...

But the biggest surprise for our sweet Zoe was the project my handsome cowboy and I had been working and working and working on.  In fact, Ryan even came down with the flu and he had to paint it and put it all back together!  It was crazy.  But he is an amazing dad and husband, what do you expect? 

Anyways, I found the idea for this on Pinterest, of course.  I made up a series of clues that led Zoe all around the house and into the backyard.  At each spot she found another gift.  And they all were kitchen-related things.  Hmmmm....but she is 4 so she didn't even begin to figure out what we had in store for her. 

Then the last clue led her to the garage because we hadn't brought our project into the house, yet.  And she found this super fun present waiting for her....

It was worth all the time and energy we put into it.  She was thrilled.  And her brothers were, too.  They all instantly began playing with it.  Someone grabbed the play food and pots and pans.  They gathered up her kitcheny gifts.  And next thing I knew the boys were on their scooters and Zoe was "cooking" up food they could "deliver".  So cute, right? 

We have a few things we need to finish on it.  Still.  We need to put on the knobs for the stove burners, a towel rack and...mmmm, wait. That might be all.  Oh, and the curtain up above the sink so it looks like there's a window behind it. 

I'm so happy with how it turned out though. So. Happy.

I did a little Tangled Movie party for her and a few friends a bit after her birthday. 

We made frying pan necklaces (they make an excellent weapon, right? :), ate flowered cupcakes, munched on treats and enjoyed the movie.  I sent the cute kids home with a box of watercolors and pictures to paint. 



The invitations encoraged the girls to dress up. At first I thought this sweet girl, Elina,
decided to wear the baby towel as a cape.  Nope.  It was her rapunzel hair. *grin* At one point, I heard
her telling another child, "don't step on my hair!"  ha! What a cute little character!

 Next up was Weston's big day.  12, wow, right?

Zoe is still wearing the Rapunzel dress.

He wanted scrambled eggs and biscuit ring for breakfast.  That biscuit ring is pretty darn popular in our house. I stenciled him this shirt to wear on his birthday (we like funny shirts)....

Then Weston had a band concert since it was the final day of Summer Band Class where he'd learned to play Percussion and LOVED it.  The concert was very fun.  He played the practice pad, bass drum and bells. 

Then it was out to lunch at Pizza Hut.  Weston loves their pizza buffet.  We all got super stuffed on pizza and then the waiters and waitresses came out to sing to him and gave him a plate of chocolate dunkers.  Mmmm, they were very yummy. 

Then it was back home for some down time, nap time and such. He requested French Dips for dinner and then I worked on This Cake that he wanted.  Hmmmm, something must have gone wrong.  Because..erm...well, it was not good.  All of the various parts were good seperately, but somehow together it just didn't work for us. It was way too sweet.  But oddly enough, Sam liked it. 

Next on to the presents. Four of them were clues to a very big present.  It was something he'd been wanting for awhile and he was saving up for it but then the price had gone too high on Amazon.  But I decided to see if I could find a better price on ebay and YAY!  I managed to find it for the original price he'd been saving up for. 

So, I snagged it and it was a HUGE surprise for him.  He didn't think there was any chance he would ever get it. 

The Lego Galactic Enforcer.

I let him stay up late that night and he spent three hours putting it together...until midnight! So. Fun.

He had a water party with a bunch of friends a week or so later.  Weston has such a fun group of friends.  Two older boys even tried to crash the party with a measly collection of water balloons.  But Weston and his friends retaliated and the older boys got drenched.  And then they stayed for root beer floats, homemade pretzel bites and games of water balloon steal the flag. 

One cute girl wrote a funny card about how they were giving Weston Night Cream so he would look radient on his birthday.  Then she gave him a big baby wipes box.  It was super heavy.  He unwrapped it to find a little Burts Bees Night Cream box (with loads of rocks in the bottom).  ha!  Inside she'd put money.  So funny!

The pretzel bites were very popular!

I can't believe my oldest is 12.  It's so bizarre. But also, pretty darn awesome. :)
Wooh.  The Birthday Storm has finally passed.  We are safe for another year.

And it was fun but I'm glad life has returned to normal.  Or as normal as it gets around here.