Monday 25 July 2011

Weekend Birthdays

Aah, birthday weekend... the start of the sugar buzz that rolls right on through to the first week of August. Yup, it's birthday season again! Not sure what fate smiled on us when our first born showed up smack in the middle of hubby's already too close birthday and mine, but he did. So, it's Cory, then Alex, then me. Which inevitably means three cakes in less than two weeks. Yum. Ugh.

Anyway, having almost recovered from the rich food weekend, I thought I'd post some photos of Cory's birthday and Alex's birthday party. Alex isn't quite yet 7, as that's still 3 days away, but we always throw his party on a weekend, being more convenient to our work schedules.

Saturday morning... Cory walks in the door from his 8 hour shift. The kids accost him with well wishes and gifts they've each carefully chosen. I loiter in bed wishing, yet again, that they'd learn how to sleep in on weekends. That's my qualifier... Cory looks like crap cause he's worked all night, I look like crap because I just woke up - it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he's just crossed over the halfway point of his thirties and I'm soon to.

Kirstin giving her Dad a birthday snuggle after he opened the lamp she picked out for him.


Alex being thanked for the "Spiderham" comic he picked out for his father. They've already read 60+ pages!


Alex's terrible photography skills... yeah, that's why I look so puffy! And yes, that it my super-awesome birthday gift for him (no help from http://deathofmonopoly.blogspot.com/ whatsoever) :)


And Cory trying to steal a birthday snuggle from Connor, giver of the Dr. Doofenschmirtz doll.


I love taking the kids shopping for gifts. They each have their own personalities and perceptions of what makes a good gift. For Father's Day, for example, my dad-in-law recieved a lovely red plunger from Connor! :)


After Cory crashed for the day, the kids and I set out to make him cupcakes for supper...


... proving yet again, exactly why I ask Grandma to make cakes for my children's parties! :)


And since I didn't have 35 candles kicking around... we chose to go with 1 rather large, rather tacky one. Connor was determined to blow it out before Cory. I don't think he succeeded, but the effort was cute!


Which brings us to Sunday and to celebration #2 - Alex's birthday party. My "baby" is just about to turn 7. It's pretty crazy and cliche how fast the years go when you have children. But they do. When I asked him how he wanted to celebrate his birthday, he said "Exactly the same as last year!"


Here's last year's post, if you missed it...




So... we did. Almost. We changed a few things and kept a few things. And I do believe that the children had a blast, went home high on sugar, and made a few memories along the way.


We were lucky enough to have decent weather for our party. I really didn't want to have to do it indoors, but since it's pretty much been raining since the first day of summer, the odds weren't in our favour. At 12:15, 45 minutes to show time, the rain began. So instead of setting up in the backyard, we backed the cars onto the road, moved the bikes and recycling bins, and swept out the car port. But the rain stopped and we managed to pull off a pretty successful event.

A recycled poster from last year saved me a good evening's work!



The bouncy house that serves as entertainment AND a good place to sit and eat watermelon.


The party-goers lined up with their water balloons...


...to toss at Bowser of course! (Lots of little balloon bits lodged in my tree now)


The updated Yoshi Egg on spoon race... this time forget about running in a straight line, run the obstacle course with your egg, instead. (Connor's the one in the background retrieving his fallen egg)




Kirstin is wearing her red Donkey Kong tie... we made those instead of party hats this year to differentiate between the two teams for the mini games. Half of them red, half blue.


And yet, the kids all played in one big chaotic muddle after all. Another recycled mini-game... Bean Bag Boo... too cute not to re-use!


This year instead of Pin the Moustache on Mario, we went with the classic, "Pin the Tie on Donkey Kong" instead.




And this. I'm actually pretty pleased with this one in particular. This is the pinata I built. It's not very square and it's not very pretty, but a true Mario fan would recognize it for what it is, so that's all the counts.








And then Alex got to open his gifts. Some pretty cool stuff (Eric, how about reviewing "Candyland" with Alex next time you're up?) Including a Light Sabre! Umm... thanks, Mom and Dad, Cory loves it...



And the cake my Mom made. See, compare it to my cupcakes and give me one good reason why I should attempt baking again!


Winding down after an over-tiring, over-stimulating, sugar coma kind of a day... Blowing bubbles with Grandma, a perfect tantrum taming activity.


Happy Birthday to two of the men in my world! Blow out your candles and make a wish...

... cause mine came true 7 years ago.

2 comments:

Thomas said...

With all the work you obviously put into it, aren't you glad he asked for the same thing? That Mario Party looked awesome!!!

And Dominion is great. We play with friends all the time (or did before they ejected a baby and now have less time for us).

Anita said...

Wow, you sure put on amazing birthday parties! I can't even remember parties my Mom had for me; but I'm sure your kids will remember theirs! Looks like a lot of fun (and tiring). I'm late looking at these, but I'm early to wish you a very happy birthday Laura!