A tale of two birthdays

If it's October, then that means it's the birthday month at our house! :-)  Miss Buttercup turned 5 (FIVE!) two weeks ago, and Oliver turned 7 (SEVEN!!) on Saturday. They are getting so big!!

We were crazy this year and had two separate birthday parties . . . at home . . . on consecutive weekends. Oy. Buttercup's party didn't have a real theme, since she couldn't decide on one, but we did have a big princess bouncy castle. :-) 

Miss B also wanted her friends to make glittery pumpkins, so we did that, too!

I think one of the biggest hits of the party was when Granddaddy decided to make himself some popcorn . . . which turned into a big bowl of popcorn for the kids, complete with sprinkles and chocolate chips. :-) 

It didn't last long!

 Buttercup also wanted to play a game where the kids stuffed marshmallows in their cheeks and tried to talk to each other, but everyone was happy jumping in the bouncy house, so we decided not to do it. Oliver still wanted to try, though. :-) 

Then we had cake! And that was it. Happy birthday, Buttercup!

The following weekend, we had Oliver's party. He wanted a MacGyver party, so he and I came up with an idea for an obstacle course that would (in our heads) mimic a MacGyver-type mission. (Trust me, it was much more awesome in our heads!!)

I made these super cute fang cookies for his party: 

While I was taking pictures of the cookies, Theodore came into the kitchen and said, "Cheese!", so I snapped his picture. However, neither of us were expecting the flash to come on! So the first picture looks like this:

And the next picture looks like this, because he wanted me to take his picture again, but also didn't want to be blinded by the flash. Ha ha ha!!! I love that silly little boy!!!

Anyway, back to the party. The morning of, Oliver helped Dennis and me set up the obstacle course. Needless to say, he loved using the mallet. :-)

Thankfully, there are no pictures of the kids (and me) doing the obstacle course, ha ha! I think they had fun though. I know Oliver did! He really enjoyed it. The objective was to get the map from the bad guy headquarters, and involved 1) attaching a grenade to a trip wire with putty, 2) making a "smoke bomb" (baking soda + vinegar), 3) dodging Nerf bullets shot at them by the bad guy (Dennis), and 4) maneuvering through a laser maze. 

The obstacle course took a couple of days to figure out, 1 hour to set up, and the kids were all done in 14 minutes! Ha ha! Thankfully,my friend and I had some science experiments ready to entertain the kiddos until it was time for food. 

Theodore liked playing with the baking soda on the driveway!  

Finally, it was time for cake! Oliver wanted a bomb cake, so that's what he got. :-)

Happy birthday, Oliver! We are so blessed to have both of these kids in our lives!!

Two years old!

Theodore is TWO today! Can you believe it??? This is such a fun, fun age....I want time to stop so we can really enjoy every moment of it! He is just so fun to be around. Such a sweet, funny little guy, with a sweet little voice and squishy cheeks. He does and says so many adorable things every day! We are so blessed to have him in our lives. :-)

We had Theodore's birthday party last weekend at one of the sprinkler parks around here. About 2 months ago, I rented a pavilion at the park for his party -- and good thing! The park was packed!   

It was pretty windy when we were setting up, with huge gusts of wind coming out of nowhere.  All of our stuff was blowing over:

And the mean old wind kept blowing away the birthday boy's balloons! 

:-(

 Thankfully, the birthday boy has an awesome big brother who is always ready to save the day!

(Only one of his many trips to rescue the stray balloons.)

Ah, reunited at last!

This is what happens when you ask a 7 year old to smile for a picture:

This is what happens when you ask a 6 year old and a 7 year old to smile for a picture:

And this is what happens when you ask a 6 year old, 7 year old and almost 2 year old to smile for a picture:

We had the usual antics from Heather and Anna:

This is Theodore's BFF, Analiese (or, "Ahh-wee", as he pronounces it):

Theodore showing off his best balloon-dancing moves:  

Since the party was at the sprinkler park and there were lots of grownups around to supervise the kids, I planned on taking pictures of the kids playing in the water and having fun. But, as things usually go, I ended up putting my camera away "for a minute" at the beginning of the party and never taking it out again. The only reason we have pictures of kids eating cake is because my sweet friend Jessica asked if she could take pictures for me, which was very nice of her and for which I'm very thankful! :-)  

Happy birthday, Theodore! We love you!!