As most of you know 3 out of the 4 of us have birthdays within 2.5 weeks of each other...it can make things a little crazy! Since Andy was turning the big 30 this year we wanted to have a real party for him which was super fun. We had everyone meet us at a local park and we had a huge game of capture the flag (by huge I mean huge, way too big in fact, especially considering it was 95 degrees outside:). Lots of people came, lots of babies came (we had a realization that we have a lot of friends with babies now!) and we all sweat together. We then shared in some Costco pizza, salad, cheesecake, and the birthday boy's request, homemade cookie dough/brownie ice cream cake, delish!
Before you see pictures let me just say THIS WAS NOT A PINTEREST PARTY!!! Had it not been for my dear friend Jennifer Lynch we would not have had any decor at all (thanks Jennifer!!!). We just had a good ol' fashioned good time!
Myla and Sophie get mistaken for eachother a lot at church:)
Some of the ladies! It took about 6 shots to get all of them looking somewhat the same way and not talking...go figure;)
Enjoying pizza:)
Friends! Avery, Dawson, and Levi.
Malachi photobombed!!!
Post game, enjoying the pizza
Delicious cake
Every baby's dream...to be held by grammy while eating cake:)
Me and my birthday boy...nice and sweaty after a super fun game. Wish we had taken a group picture...oh well!
Since we were camping on my actual birthday Andy had set up a fun plan of me being able to go out with my lady friends for a night of what we would soon call "frivolous fun" (thanks meg;). We went out to sushi and then headed over to a place called "Canvas and Cabernet" where you drink wine and learn how to paint, it was a super fun night and I'm so grateful to everyone who helped celebrate.
Heading to dinner!
Meg, Jen, and Christine so excited to paint!
Christine and Elizabeth:)
My beautiful seestars!
Sweet Kathleen...it was so hard being next to her because she is truly an amazing artist!;)
All of us...almost done!
The final products! Whoohoooo!
I got the day off to celebrate Avery's actual birthday which I was very happy about. Andy and I snuck in the night before and filled her room with balloons so she had quite the suprise on the morning of her birthday. Then we had a yummy breakfast before us ladies headed off to the nail salon (this is becoming an annual thing for her birthday...I love it cause she feels so special). Then we headed over to Meg and Jim's for lunch, home for a nap, woke up, did stuff around the house and had her little "birthday party". The only thing she requested was pink bubble gum ice cream so I went to my handy dandy ice cream maker, made some homemade strawberry icecream, and threw in some sprinkles and gumballs for the birthday girl, it was a hit!
Balloons were a hit!
So excited to pick out her color:)
Her face lights up when she gets her nails done...worth every penny!
Somehow they started doing Myla's nails too...
So excited about her ice cream!
A close up of the homemade goodness...a little melty but oh so delicious!
The last of the birthday celebrations was Avery's princess party...what started out as a low key hang out at the house turned into something way bigger (who was I kidding?;). One friend just happened to own a bounce house in the shape of a castle and also has the ability to make amazing cupcakes, and we found a scavenger hunt idea online and decided to roll with it which made the party super fun for the little girls that were there.
A friend from work made Aves this sweet birthday outfit...here she cannot contain her excitement!
There were people everywhere!!!:)
We weren't messing around with the food:)
More princesses for the kiddos!
My friend Liz even made frogs for the little boys!
Brittany and I being silly:)
The kiddos jumping
Trying to get a good shot of this many kiddos is nearly impossible:)
Let the scavenger hunt begin! The point of it was to help Cinderella find her lost shoe:) It started going into our bedroom where each little girl got to pick out a princess dress and shoes to wear. There were about 6 stations where each child had to complete a task to get the next clue with fun surprises like ribbons along the way. Andy and I came up with all of the clues the night before, they were super cheesy but rhymed beautifully! The first task we're doing here is playing princess bingo, and Aves won!
The next "station" was a coloring station.
Then the kiddos had to put together a princess puzzle (they did so well!:)
eagerly awaiting the next clue...
Avery's face here is priceless...they had to dig through a treasure chest to find their very own princess wands, one of them had a clue attached.
Then they headed to the kitchen for some tiara decorating time.
Picture break for the adults:) Brian, Brendan, and Christine!
Jim, Andy, Mark, and Brittany.
The Rohrs with new baby Elia:)
Love this one (you look so beautiful Jill!) Dawson had such a specific plan for his crown...I loved watching how each of the kiddo's brains worked.
Caitlin and Elizabeth.
Sweet baby Franco had his suspenders on for his cousin's party:)
Christine, Brendan, and Ed.
All the ladies after decorating their crowns!
The last stop was in Millie's room where all the little princesses had to put on earrings and rings...Aves put a ring on every finger!
The shoe they were searching for was in a very obvious place but it was really cute to watch them walk by it a million times looking for it:)
Singing happy birthday to Aves...this didn't go so well. She got very overwhelmed and it ended with her running away crying...:( In hindsight...we're quite bummed we didn't get it on camera:)
Myla Bea was there too!:)
I was very nervous about her opening presents...you never know what comments are going to come out of her mouth but we practiced, set some ground rules, and she did AMAZINGLY! She took her time, thanked everyone for her gifts, and loved everything she opened.
The last thing she got was a big girl bike with training wheels from Nana and Pop-pop, she couldn't have been more excited. It's pink and purple with princesses all over it (as Chas said it looks like a princess threw up on it:)
One happy/tired family! SUCCESS!
