Category Archives: birthday party

nella’s 3rd birthday party (an elmo party)!

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My kids have come down with colds, so while I’m snuggling a sick baby on my lap, I thought it’d be good to use this time for a little catching up on here!

Nella was very excited about her birthday party this year, and although it was perhaps one of the simplest celebrations we’ve had, I know that she had the absolute best day. As soon as she woke up on her party day, she kept asking, “Happeh Birbeh?”, meaning that she was ready for us to have cake and presents.She was even a really good sport about getting her picture taken! She smiled and let me take quite a few before she tired of it, which is really unusual for her. She had been undecided about having either an Elmo or a Daniel Tiger cake. They are both her favorites, but ultimately, I ended up choosing Elmo, which was a lot simpler. She was yelling, “Yaaaaaay!” the moment she saw me put the frosting on. She was so shy when we sang “Happy Birthday” that she wanted Daddy to blow out the candle for her.

He got frosting on his nose and she licked it right off, haha.It was just our immediate family, but it was actually nice to just have a small, easy party. Nella definitely didn’t mind, as long as she had cake and gifts. I love this silly girl so much. Kaya took this picture. She’s getting pretty good at it! Nellie wanted to skip eating the cake and open presents first. We had just three things for her, since her Grandmas and Grandpas had already given her their gifts at Kaya’s birthday party when they were in town. I also made this Elmo t-shirt, which she absolutely loved. She had waited so long to have her own Calico Critters, and she was so happy when she opened them! We got her the baby treehouse, monkey family, and guinea pig mom with babies. Her sisters were just as excited because now Nella won’t take their Critters all the time! She had early presents at Kaya’s party two weeks before!Elmo undies! She was so excited about these that I think they really helped jumpstart potty training.A plush Elmo and Elmo books! TWIN BABIES!!!I sincerely hope she grows up to have lots of real babies. She just loves them so much.We went back to the table to eat cake. This is true happiness right here:The way she eats cake always cracks me up. At least she used a fork this time!
She played Calico Critters with her sisters for the rest of the day. I loved seeing our Birthday Girl happy.

We love you so much, Nels!

kaya’s 7th birthday party (a rainbow cat party… again!)

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Kaya’s 7th birthday party was bright, happy, and beautiful, just like our girl. She had requested a “rainbow unikitty” birthday cake this year, but when I made the little gum paste cat cake topper, he was just so adorable as he was that I wanted to leave the horn off. Kaya was okay with that- she was so in love with this little kitty and never wanted to eat it. I’m slowly getting better at these little animal figurines, and I’m really having a lot of fun doing them.MEOW!Four years ago (how was it that long ago already?), per 3-year-old Kaya’s request, we had a “rainbow rainbow cat” party. It was fun to take that same theme and kind of recreate it.We had spent the morning at the zoo (a dream come true for Kaya), where she had her face painted as a kitty. How perfect! Grandma Debbie, Grandma Gina, and Grandpa Skip were all able to be there, so we had quite a pile of presents on the table for this party.When I see this picture, I can’t help but think of our first pictures together with her as a baby, and as a new family of three. Can the years please slow down a little? She is growing into such a wonderful person, but her birth day still feels like yesterday, and I just can’t figure out where all the years went. She actually blew out the candle on the first try!

Mmmm chocolate cake!I had to put our little Dalmatian girl in here, too.Dalmatians like cake.We had some present time…A silver Hello Kitty necklace……a Fingerling giraffe……tights!…Reese’s!…shoes!…books from The Good and the Beautiful!…the perfect shirt from Grandma Debbie……panda jammies! Do they make these in my size?And perhaps her favorite… Smokey the cat! …and a Hatchimal baby!There were many thank-you hugs all around. This girl is sweet.The best part of all was that she told me her birthday was even better than she imagined it would be, and her favorite part was the special cake. That means the world to me.

We love you, Kaya! Happy 7th Birthday!

michael’s 32nd birthday!

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The girls helped me make a perfectly simple birthday celebration for their Daddy. They were so excited to put everything together for him before he got home from work, and I just love their enthusiasm and joy over celebrating each other on our special days.

We had a playdate in the morning, and then I took all of them up to the closest grocery store so we could load up on cake-making supplies. We wanted to cover his birthday cake with candies, so we raided the candy aisle like we never had before, which made the girls so excited.I don’t take them all out shopping often at all, but every time I do, everyone else always stares at us or says something. My kids are generally very well-behaved, so I’m not sure if the onlookers are just amazed to see that many kids with one mom (I get, “Are they all yours?” a lot!), or that they are all girls or what. Anyway, we had a successful shopping trip!We made a homemade Hershey’s chocolate cake, and Kaya and Kaelyn had the best time decorating it with as much candy as I’d allow them to use. Nella was so excited about having the party that she didn’t want to nap, but she went to sleep for a little while, and she was very happy to see the cake when she woke up!YUM. I think we need a repeat of this cake.Then, we got to sing happy birthday! This seems to be everyone’s favorite part. Eve was ready to dig right in!

Of course, there were some shenanigans from the birthday boy. The girls made him all these homemade presents and even wrapped them up, like leaves on paper… …some custom artwork……and REESE’S!!! Because we didn’t have enough candy, obviously.I also surprised him by signing him and the older girls up for a day of indoor rock climbing. Everyone was pumped and couldn’t wait to go.This was the moment Nellie waited for all day. She gave up on the fork, but when you’re two, no one minds much. I can’t wait to see her excitement over her own birthday soon.The next day, Michael, Kaya, and Kaelyn went to the climbing gym and had a great time. I’m glad they could spend some special time together. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEST FRIEND! We are so lucky to have you and love you so much. (P.S.- You’re officially older than me now, old man!)

eve’s first birthday (a monkey party)!

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I’m very loosely calling Eve’s first birthday, “a monkey party”, mostly because the only monkey there (besides the wild and crazy birthday girl) was this little gum paste figure on the cake. I decided to make a monkey cake topper at the very last minute, because one of Evie’s biggest personality traits is how loudly she can yell! She’s also really great at climbing and just getting into everything in general… so what would be better for her little cake than a monkey?This “cake” was actually a giant brownie that I made in a springform pan. It was easy, and we actually like brownies more than cake, anyway. The only downside is that frosting doesn’t really stick to the sides of a brownie-cake. It still works in this case, since the brownie just looks like the dirt under the jungle grass! Someone was excited to party!!! This was possibly the smallest party we’ve ever had, since none of our extended family could make it (Michael and I also had colds, so we were all for keeping it simple, anyway). It was still just as special.Yay!Watching a baby’s reaction to dessert never gets old. Eve put her fingers in it immediately!See that smudge of green frosting under her chin? She also wore the same special birthday shirt that my mom bought for Nella when she turned one.Nella was pretty excited for the party, too.We didn’t actually light the candle, but we sang and let her get nice and close to the cake… I think she likes birthdays.

I love you, Evie.All her sisters were incredibly excited. I’m just glad they wanted to get in a picture!She dove frosting-first into the brownie! She loved it, but she still gave me some pretty funny faces.Grandma Debbie was here the previous week for Kaelyn’s party, and she brought Eve a few birthday gifts to open early.A toy phone… Eve’s favorite thing! She is always stealing our phones and remotes.And a couple of cute outfits that she’ll be able to grow into! Grandma Gina and Grandpa Skip came to visit two weeks after her birthday, and brought her a bubble machine!She also got the biggest container of bubbles I’ve ever seen!Happiness! I know she won’t remember her first birthday, but I hope that one day, she’ll look back at the pictures and be able to tell how special she’s always been to us.

We love you, Eve!

kaelyn’s 5th birthday (a dalmatian party)!

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My sweet, special five-year-old girl had been planning her Dalmatian party for about a year. She has been absolutely in love with Dalmatians for quite a while now, and since I was also obsessed with the 101 Dalmatians movie when I was her age, it’s been very fun to watch her enjoy them, too.Kaelyn wanted a Dalmatian cake, and after looking at so many ideas online, I ended up making an extremely simple design. I really wanted to create a 3D Dalmatian for the top, though, so I bought some gum paste and watched some video tutorials before coming up with this little doggy. He wasn’t perfect, but she loved him.She had counted down to her birthday for months, so when it was finally time to sing and have cake, she was beside herself with excitement! I kind of can’t believe we were putting a number five candle on that cake!We sang to her twice and let her blow out the candle a few times. It’s always more fun to do it more than once! Her joy is my joy. This was my usual chocolate cake recipe, and it was a hit, as always!We were so happy to have Uncle Karl and Grandma Debbie here to celebrate with us! The only thing better than cake time is… present time!!!Grandma Debbie gave her these easy-reader books from The Good and the Beautiful. She absolutely loves reading them, and has even told me “the pictures are so pretty!”Grandma also gave her her current favorite stuffed puppy, who she named “Pokie”!There is nothing like the true happiness of a child.She gave hugs when thanking each person for her gifts. So sweet.Kaya made her a coloring book, full of Dalmatian pictures printed from the computer. I was proud of Kaya for being so thoughtful. Mini Hatchimal eggs from Uncle Karl! Dalmatians from Mommy and Daddy!And… the one thing she’d been asking for for months, a Robo Dog! She was a little overwhelmed by how “energetic” the puppy was at first when we turned it on, but she quickly warmed up to it. She named it Gracie!We spent the rest of the day just relaxing and enjoying time together. There’s no one who just “gets” me like my own brother, and I’ve missed him!I love my family, and I’m so grateful they could come celebrate Kaelyn!
Fun fact: Nella and Eve aren’t in any of these pictures because they napped through the entire party!Kaya and Kaelyn were so excited to play with Uncle Karl that I don’t think he got much downtime while he was here! He was really great and goofed around as much as possible. That’s what an awesome uncle is for!Daddy had taken Kaelyn to the Dollar Store to pick out some balloons before we had the party, and since they didn’t have any Dalmatian ones, she chose her other favorites: Mickey, Minnie, and a unicorn! We took a few pictures outside to end the day. I made her shirt for her! I loved seeing her light up when she finally saw the finished product. It definitely wasn’t perfect, but it was my first time making a shirt with multiple layers of vinyl, so it was still a win in my book. Seeing her happy was all that really mattered!Happy 5th Birthday Kaelyn!!! We all love you SO much!

my birthday! (2019)

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My birthday this year was so simple, sweet, and special. My girls and my best friend planned a few activities for the evening, and it was just perfect for me.

Kaya and Kaelyn were so excited about my birthday (probably more than they ever have been) that they were jumping on my bed the night before it, yelling, “It’s almost Mommy’s birthday!” They sang to me first thing in the morning, and after quiet/nap time, Kaya came out of her room with this very thorough “birthday festivities” list she had written all on her own (with some brainstorming from Kaelyn).I love these little ladies and their enthusiasm so much! Kaelyn insists that any birthday girl must wear this birthday crown that Grandma Gina gave her for her 4th birthday, so I had fun being the “Birthday Princess” for the night! (Also, is it just me, or do they happen to look like teenagers here?)Michael brought home some Chinese- one of my favorite dinners! Mmm.
After dinner, Michael banned me from the kitchen so that he and the oldest three girls could bake a cake. I nursed Eve, and then she rolled around on the floor while I folded laundry and listened to a podcast. It was actually pretty great to have quiet time!Michael’s life lesson from this cookie cake: don’t put the candles in until it’s completely cooled! There was a lot of wax in the middle, but we cut that part out. It was sooo delicious!
I love this picture so much. This is a true Nella face for sure!Mmmm.Now, I know almost everyone would say presents are the best part of a birthday… but these gifts right here truly came straight from my girls’ hearts. Kaya’s own sheet of Hello Kitty stickers, cards from both Kaya and Kaelyn, and something that Kaya wanted to spend her own allowance on for me (she also wrapped it herself)!Kaya immediately hopped into my usual role at their birthday parties… the paparazzi! Look behind her, and you’ll see Nella holding her Beagle up in an attempt to make me smile, just like we often do for her!A rare voluntary picture with Nellbells…Homemade cards and homemade hugs! 🙂New slippers from Kaya!The best part of this gift was seeing how happy she was when I opened it. She’s got a heart of gold.So comfy.I just loved all these cards so much. “I LU” is how Kaelyn writes “I love you” right now.They really know how to make a day special.

nella’s 2nd birthday party!

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We celebrated our sweet Nellbells’ birthday two whole months ago already… but I think I’ll likely be playing catch-up on here forever, so here it is! We had her party a little later than we usually would, since that was the only weekend Grandma Debbie could come up. It was a simple little celebration, but our girl definitely felt loved and cherished, which is all that matters.

She had no idea that the entire day would be full of festivities just for her. Daddy and I picked up three mylar balloons for her that morning, and she was instantly happy when we came home and surprised her with them.She liked hiding in them……and most of all, bouncing on them! Unfortunately, bouncing on your balloons does make them deflate faster! I made her a simple cake, with no particular theme this time. Roses on the top and sprinkles on the sides!She started to catch on that this day was just for celebrating her and how precious she is to our family. She was even a good sport for some pictures, which is not an easy feat for any two-year-old! My sweet sweet angel. We sang to her, and she sat there so calmly while she waited for us to finish. She had no idea she was supposed to blow out the candle!Daddy helped her the first time! Then, she surprised us by doing it all on her own! I still can’t believe she’s big enough to do things like this. Mmmm, chocolate!Nella dug right into her cake! She made a huge mess and really enjoyed herself.She definitely ate more cake than either of her sisters did at their second birthday parties.Grandma Debbie was the only guest for this party (everyone had just been here a couple of weeks prior, so I knew we wouldn’t have many visitors this time)! She enjoyed some Evie snuggles.After cake, Nella was actually excited to open her presents!Grandma gave her a small Mickey Mouse and a couple of outfits! My Mom and I went in together on a nice doll stroller for her (I’m done with all the $10 ones that break after a couple of months)…. Daddy put it all together, but Nella cried because she wanted to sit in it herself (I guess it looks too much like our real stroller)! She’s since figured it out and really enjoys it, but that first day was rough!We love you so much, Nellie Bellie. These two years with you have already gone by so fast, and you might not be a baby anymore, but you’ll forever be our Sunshine Girl. Happy 2nd birthday sweetie!

kaya’s 6th birthday (a unicorn party)!

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We celebrated Kaya’s birthday at the end of September (postponed by a week due to the uncertainty of hurricane Florence’s effect on our region), but I’m so excited to be catching up and sharing some of her special day.Kaya is perhaps the most birthday-enthused person in our family (which is saying A LOT, because I’m pretty into birthdays myself), so it’s always a little extra fun to surprise her and make her wishes come true. Ever since her 5th birthday, she’d been counting on having a unicorn-themed party for her 6th. She wanted her cake to be rainbow (for the 3rd year!), so I obliged, but switched things up a little with some rainbow rosettes. My attempt at a fondant unicorn fell flat (literally) late the night before the party, so I ended up printing a unicorn, laminating it, and attaching it to a popsicle stick. I was worried she’d be disappointed, but when she saw the finished cake, she unexpectedly threw her arms around me, squeezed me tight and said, “You did so GREAT!” It was my favorite moment of such a wonderful day.We had unicorn headbands for our three oldest girls (although Nella napped through the entire gig).Have you ever seen anyone happier on her birthday?We let her blow out the candle six times. Why not? Whenever we take these birthday pictures of just the birthday girl and us parents, I can’t help but remember the first picture we ever took with her. It seems like yesterday and forever ago all at the same time. Chocolate cake! Not to brag, but I think this was the best-tasting cake I’ve made so far. It was moist and rich, and the frosting was the creamiest. It had chilled in the refrigerator, so the coolness of the cake was delectable. Uncle Jeff, Auntie Lelia, and Cousin Bryce got to come up and celebrate with us! We were so happy to have them here.Grandma Debbie was here for the party, too!She’s already getting to that age where she asks for more expensive items… so that means she had just a few things to open. I liked the simplicity of it. Hatchimals from Grandma Debbie! She has been talking about these for over a year and was so excited to finally have her own!Kaya had already guessed what this one from us would be…“ROBOTIC PONY!!!”And some money for her 529 from Uncle Jeff, Auntie Lelia and Bryce! It was so funny to hear her read her card aloud as soon as she opened it.Grandma Gina and Grandpa Skip arrived close to dinnertime, so Kaya got to enjoy a second round of presents. A book light!And slippers!We waited until the next day to open her Hatchimals, since we knew it could take a while for them to actually come out, and we were all pretty exhausted by the end of her party. Kaya had so much fun tilting and rubbing the egg, and when they finally broke through, it was pretty exciting. She named her new babies “Flappy” and “Cuddly” and has loved taking care of them.

It was so wonderful to celebrate our girl and have so much of our family here to do it with us. These birthday weekends are some of my favorite memories.

Happy 6th Birthday Kaya!

kaelyn’s 4th birthday (a paw patrol party!)

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I’m finally getting caught up on pictures from just before Eve joined our family (it’s been a little busy since then!), so I’m really excited to post about Kaelyn’s birthday party! We kept it very simple, but she definitely felt special and loved, so I’d call it a huge success. We were really lucky to have both Grandma Debbie and Grandma Gina there to celebrate with us, too.

We had her party the weekend before her actual birthday, just in case the baby decided to come early. I wanted to be sure she had a day just for celebrating her.

As soon as she woke up on party day, she immediately ran downstairs to see if we had put up any surprise decorations. She loved theses Paw Patrol streamers!Daddy took her to our favorite local donut shop for a special breakfast treat! Getting donuts on birthdays is now an official family tradition. Confession: this is the first one of our girls’ birthday cakes that I didn’t make. My pregnant self was too sick to do much of anything at all for the entire week leading up to her party, and I had no idea how I would be able to get the cake done. I ended up ordering one from the Kroger bakery, and honestly, it was a huge relief (although I did still feel a little guilty for not doing it myself).I put her toy Skye on top, and also had a brand new Everest puppy that I put on there to surprise her. She always says all the pups are her favorite, but I think Skye and Everest are really her most favorite favorites. She was beyond excited! We spent the morning relaxing until Grandma Gina arrived in the early afternoon. Kaelyn had been asking us if it was time to start her party all morning long, so she was ready to go as soon as Grandma arrived!I asked her if she wanted to open presents or eat cake first, and she said she wanted gifts first, because, as she stated, “I don’t want to get cake on my presents!” I knew she’d answer that way, though, because she was pretty excited to see if she had gotten anything on her wishlist.At the very top of her list was this Furreal Friends Talking Charlie dog! She had been talking about it for months, and her smile upon opening it definitely did not disappoint.“Charlie!!!”Grandma Gina supplied her with a bunch of Paw Patrol figurines, cups, sandals, and M&Ms!Grandma Debbie brought her a Rubble truck and a Minnie Mouse dress-up puzzle!After her gifts, she rushed back over to the table to blow out her candle. I just love her happy smile so much.We let her blow it out a few times, just for the fun of it (and because it’s also fun for me to get a couple of different shots of her doing it)! It was chocolate cake with buttercream frosting, and it definitely didn’t disappoint. To be honest, the girls ate more of this cake than any other we’ve ever had.FOUR YEARS OLD!A few days later, on her real birthday, we had some leftover cake and sang to her again!Kaelyn is also currently obsessed with Dalmatians, so we borrowed a few 101 Dalmatians books, as well as the movie, from the library and put them into a gift bag (along with this plush that we already had) just so she’d have something fun to open on her actual birthday.At church the next Sunday, we watched the entire Primary sing to her. She was so excited to get the special “rainbow lollipop” that each child receives on his or her special day (she and Kaya have been talking about it all year)!We love you so much, Kaelyn Grace! I still can’t believe you’re four years old now! You wear one of your Paw Patrol shirts almost every day of the week lately, and I wish I could just freeze time and keep you so sweet.Happy 4th Birthday Kaecakes!

a sunshine birthday party (nella’s first birthday!)

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I’m still doing some serious catching up on here, but I’m so happy to finally post about Nella’s birthday party! It was definitely the simplest first-birthday party we’ve thrown so far, but it was perfect for our easygoing baby girl.Only Grandma Debbie was able to travel up for the party. We enjoyed having her here for Nella’s special day, and I’m sure she enjoyed not having to share all the baby cuddles. My mom is always a big help. She even brought Nella’s super cute birthday onesie!Before Nella was even born, we called her “Baby Sunshine” (mostly due to Kaya deciding that that absolutely had to be her new baby sister’s name). Once she was born, the moniker fit her so perfectly that we continued to use it. She is so full of happiness, and she shares her joy with everyone around her. Clearly, she just had to have a sunshine-themed first birthday party.
Confession: the cake… was actually a giant brownie. I’ve probably said it too often already, but we really just aren’t “cake people”, and after having spent so much time on Kaya’s birthday cake just two weeks previous, I really wanted to do something easy that everyone would actually eat. (I loosely based the design on these cupcakes.)It was delicious, but people….there’s a reason it’s traditional to decorate cakes, and not brownies. Cakes are so much more porous and better able to hold frosting on. It was difficult to get it anywhere close to smooth-looking, and no frosting would stick to the sides. Still, I don’t regret switching to a brownie this time- it tasted heavenly, and everyone was happy! She may still be little, but there was no mistaking it, this princess knew that all this was a celebration for her. She just couldn’t stop smiling and squealing! Too little to blow out the candle, she needed a little help from Daddy! We all love you so much Nellbells!Finally! She’s the first of all three kids to dig into her birthday treat and actually enjoy it!She may have had her doubts at first, though… …but then it was true love. Nella + cake!My mom brought her a whole new wardrobe, which has been so nice to have, since so many of the older girls’ things from this age are pretty worn out.
Nella definitely had a lot of helpers for opening her gifts!She was actually better at ripping the paper off than I had expected! I think I’ll always swoon a little over baby girl clothes.Nella loved the boxes and paper more than the actual clothes, I think.Happy Birthday sweet girl!