I lied. This is the last birthday post

Presents! How could I forget the presents? I know Pearl certainly wouldn't. And after seeing how excited Cole was opening his, he probably wouldn't forget either.

Pearl's spoils: 

Pool, jacket, and Aggie blanket from Jeff's parents. I still think Jeff's mom mixed up Pearl and Jeff's birthday gifts with this one. She's been sleeping with it every night since.

 
Sprinkler (which Ruby was more excited about than even Pearl), make-your-own-dollhouse, pizza Play-doh set, and new pajamas from my parents.New dresses and a Vtech globe from David and Vickie.

New dresses and an interactive globe from David and Vickie.

Cole's spoils:

"Big trucks!!!" Wow! Was Cole excited about his "big" trucks from Jeff's parents.

New clothes and pajamas from my mom and dad. He held them up and yelled, "Roarrrr!" and "Melmo! Melmo!"

"Big stick!!!" If you thought he was excited about the trucks, you should have seen his face light up when he got a golf club from my parents.  

Can you say SPOILED? Geez!

The spread

I promise this is the last post from our combined Pearl/Cole family birthday party... I just have this overwhelming OCD to post every detail of these kind of events.

I don't tend to think we make that big of a fuss over things but after seeing all these pictures and realizing we spent an entire Saturday celebrating, I will admit that our kids are spoiled rotten.

The spread. Corn-on-the-cob, green salad, rolls, macaroni salad, grilled breaded pork, mango salsa, and Texas cake and ice cream.

Oh. And lemonade. In a brand new, gorgeous glass container. My heart has been drooling for one of these for YEARS! I figured if I was spending all of our money on party preparations, I might as well fork over another $26 for this 3 gallon bad boy at Costco. Yes, $26! Isn't it fabulous?!

Note to self. I still owe Emily a tub of mango salsa from Costco.

Cake anyone? If you're wondering, yes, I let my kids run around in their swimming suits all day. It's hot. And let's face it, if I felt remotely attractive in one, I'd have been in my swimming suit too.

Water fight

Grandpa and Grandma Spring saved the day with a new pool for the kids' birthdays!

(I'm still trying to figure out how Pearl, Cole, and Ruby could have been bored given the ballerina party earlier in the day and the toys strewn about the house while waiting for the family BBQ later that night. I guess it was pretty dang hot though, and none of the adults really wanted to do much entertaining.)

The second all three saw the present was a pool, they squealed with delight and starting stripping their clothes off. Luckily, Ruby-juby and Pearl are the same size so they can share swimming suits. Even Fern was more than excited to have a "poo" to play in. It brought back memories of my own childhood with the exact same kind of pool. And it still takes just as long - and the water is just as cold - to fill up.

I'm not sure how things went from a leisurely dinner to a full-on water fight but it did. Bringing back even more memories of a summer of notorious water fights on my Dad's side of the family. I swear, every time we had a BBQ someone started a water fight with something as simple as "spilling" their water on someone. Pretty soon everyone, grandkids, adults, and grandparents, were soaking wet. I remember my cousin climbing on the roof with a huge bucket of water and waiting for my grandpa to walk outside... after changing into dry clothes for the third time!

Awesome.

Roy is the biggest kid of the bunch. I knew he couldn't make it the whole fight without finding a way to "trick" everyone and get them all wet. Little did he realize, he's not as fast as the rest of them! 

Notice how Cole manages to stay nearly dry the entire time. He just wandered around, right smack dab in the middle of the action doing his own thing.

My brother, Kurtis, is the biggest stud. He is such a fun, sweet, nice, good boy. Seriously. He is awesome. He always plays with my kids and never pushes things too far with stuff like a water fight that can quickly escalate into people getting angry or not playing nice. He was soaked clear through his skivvies!

 

My grandpa told him he couldn't go home in his truck soaking wet like that so I had to find a pair of Jeff's basketball shorts (aka, his jammies) for Kurt to wear while I tried to dry his clothes. Oh, Jesse too. The wuss doesn't like his feet touching the ground so he sort of lingered near the water fight for 45 minutes before finally giving in to temptation and joining the fun. He had to get his clothes dried too. Jeff was mortified that I'd let my brothers go commando in his jammies!!! I had to promise all three of them that I'd wash them IMMEDIATELY! Men.

I kind of wish I wasn't such a fuddy-duddy and had let my brothers soak me too. I mean, it was really hot outside. But all I could think about was trying to get two little wet people to bed and one big wet mom to bed after everyone left. 

Maybe next time....

Sweet moment

I watched the sweetest thing.

Cole sharing a piece of Texas cake with my grandparents.

Having my grandparents at Pearl and Cole's birthday party last Saturday was a blessing in and of itself. I wasn't sure if they'd come to the party or not because my grandma is really struggling and has had another bad year. Not to divulge too much personal information on my family, but my grandma has struggled off and on in her life with severe anxiety and clinical depression. She got sick about a year ago again. My grandpa is so sweet to her and takes such good care of her. I wish there was more I could do to help. Mental illness is something you don't get to put a bandaid on and call it fixed. It can feel pretty helpless for everyone in that person's life.

Anyway... back to the sweet moment.

I gave Cole a piece of Texas cake and he took it right over to the table my grandparents were sitting at. He kept lifting up his fork with cake on it and telling them, "Cake. Cake," with a big grin on his face. He carried on a full conversation using only these two words. My grandpa just sat and smiled at him and even my grandma started to eat her cake with Cole's prodding.

 

 

I had to hold back the tears. I hope my grandparents enjoyed this quiet moment as much as I did.

Ballerina birthday party

I remember reading on a friend's blog that they do big "friend" parties for their kids when they turn 5, 8, 12, 16, and 18. I thought it was a great idea to celebrate these bigger milestone birthdays and so did Jeff. Not only does it save me the heartache of disappointing my kids every year for the next eon with my lack of party planning ability, but it might save us some $$$ in our bank accounts too. Not that they are any less spoiled because of it, but Jeff and I get to keep some of our sanity.

Well, the big "5" came. 

I asked Pearl for weeks what kind of party she wanted to have with her friends. She had a whole list of things she wanted to do. But then said, "I want an Angelina Ballerina birthday party." And she didn't change her mind.

I have to admit I tried talking her out of it. I am NOT a dancer! And Pearl hasn't taken dance lessons in over a year so it kind of came out of the blue. But she insisted she wanted a ballerina party. That's where Google (and Zurchers discount party store) comes in handy... to help the party planning and ballerina impaired moms like me.

Since her party was on a Saturday morning, right before lunch, I talked Pearl into letting me try making cake pops for the first time instead of cake and ice cream. I didn't want to load the kids up with sugar right before lunch. She also requested blueberry muffins and juice. Only Cole, Parker (one of Pearl's friend's little sister), and the adults ate the cake pops. Apparently the kids prefer the sugar rush to my "delicate" dance-themed foods. One little girl even asked me, "Do you have other food?"

We did the whole nine-yards with ballerina plates, napkins, cups, table cloths, party favors, balloons, and a Happy Birthday banner. Everything was pink, purple, and white. I was quite pleased with how the table turned out. 

When eight (plus two more later) little ballerinas arrived, they ran around the yard and bounced on the trampoline. We colored Angelina Ballerina pictures and played games like "Ballerina Ballerina turn around" (the song Teddy Bear Teddy Bear turn around but with ballet actions instead), "Ballerina Says" (basically Simon Says), musical chairs, ballerina races, and a ballerina slipper toss (which I made and painted purple myself). I made my brother, Jesse, climb in it to get pictures of the kids' throwing their ballet slippers. And as incentive for them to get the slippers through the holes!

Then it was on to present opening, reading an Angelina Ballerina book, and more playing on the trampoline and sandbox. Half of the kids played the games while the other half just ran around the yard. But they all seemed to have fun, so who cares, right? We only had a few tears shed because someone was mean to someone else and said she couldn't play with her new birthday toys. I guess too much excitement and anticipation had built up.

Those ballerinas - especially the new five-year-old one in the hot pink tutu - better have had fun because I was exhausted!