Birthday Weekend

Thank you all sooo much for the sweet birthday wishes to Adelaide and Andrew!!! It was so thoughtful of you to take the time to write to us :)  I read several of your comments to Andrew today, and he just beamed!

I thought I'd share a few pictures from our birthday weekend! 

It was strange to remember that the same weekend, a year ago, I was in the hospital with newborn Adelaide.  Have you ever had that happen to you too?  Flashes of memory from your time with your little one in the early hours of their new life?  It happened quite a bit this weekend and I just looked in awe at her, how she's grown. 

So this year, I took advantage of actually being able to plan some birthday treats and had a lot of fun planning and decorating :)

I created the ballerina cupcake toppers using my cousin Wendi's art.  You can see her art here...she has both kits you can buy as well as some adorable free clip art (and stamps!) (I bought Andrew some Pirate and Dinosaur stamp kits for his birthday...he's in love!) I've always been a big fan of her art...I grew up rescuing the art she scribbled out,  ha ha! She has a ton to choose from :)

I also made my own poms by following this tutorial. If you have a party coming up, make 'em! They are great!  I considered buying some poms off Etsy (there are some super cute ones out there) but then I thought how awesome it would be to know how to do it myself.  Plus, I was able to make them for a fraction of the cost.  Now that they party is done, I'll probably hang these poms for decoration near Addi's nook.

Since we have two birthday "squashed together" ;) I was trying to juggle two party themes on one table.  I made ballerina tutus for all the girls (Addi, Sydney and Amy) and bought pirate hats and swords for the boys. 

Here are the stars of the birthday party :)

Andrew...can a boy grow up in one weekend? It sure seems like it. He is definitely five now.  He loves his new presents! He's got all kinds of new Playmobil toys to play with and even a Playmobil pirate movie to watch. Thanks family!! :)

Here's Addi :)  Grandma and Grandpa Peterson bought her a tea set, Kate and Josh bought her a doll and Grandma and Grandpa Brown bought her an adorable ballerina book and other sweet girlie goodies.  Its so fun to have her own box of PINK toys in the playroom/boys bedroom besides the usual boys' toys (although, she loves those too, and that's great!)

Here's Dan's little sister Amy...isn't she a cutie?  She looked adorable in her birthday tutu!

Addi had no trouble with her birthday cupcake.  She plowed right into it.  It was so funny to watch!

We're soo happy that my parents, Kate, Josh and Sydney, Dan's parents and Amy could come to the birthday party!  It meant so much to us to be surrounded by so many wonderful people to celebrate with us.  Amy was a sweetie to share her birthday with two littles.  She was so gracious and took such an interest in them.  We love and miss her very much!

The lighthouse that Andrew got for his birthday was a hit!  Dan was so nice to put it together.  When the instructions are more than two pages, my eyes glaze over, ha ha! I'm glad someone has the patience for the technical stuff around here ;)

On Monday the Petersons treated us to a marathon day of fun!  Just after we woke up they took the kids to Pump it Up (which is a place with all kinds of fun things to bounce and jump on).  Sydney was fearless and the first of the kids to brave the very tall inflatable slide.  After seeing Syndey, Forrest took courage and followed suit.  Drew made it up the slide but wouldn't go back down.  Can't say I blame him though, that thing was fast!  Forrest plowed into a couple of other boys coming down.  He always finished with a big smile though :)

After all that fun exercise we all went to the Wooden Shoe Tulip festival.  It was a beautiful day and the fresh air and view were spectacular!

Dan and I were in heaven.  It was gorgeous!

Forrest reminded us that a good day is measured by how much mud is on your shoes at the end of it.  

Isn't that what mud puddles are for anyway? :)

Me and baby girl.

After the tulip fields, the Petersons kindly treated us to lunch at Gustavs (a family favorite). Forrest loved the cheese fondue.  He just kept eating more and more of it! Can't blame him though...it was delicious!

Then, we headed back to their hotel for swimming. Andrew has turned into quite the little fish (as Grandma Peterson calls him :)  He loves swimming! 

Then they took us all to How to Train your Dragon, which was a lot of fun!  Adelaide actually let me watch most of the movie.  We only had to sit in the aisle for the last ten minutes :)

We had a blast with the Petersons!  We're so glad they came to visit!  Our kids were so lucky to have both sets of Grandparents at their birthday party.  What a rare treat!

We're excited to see the Petersons again this summer when they are treating us to a week on the coast! Yea, we're pretty excited about that! :)

Thanks again everyone for the kind comments!  It is always so much fun to hear from you and it makes it feel like you are not so far away :)