Isabelle's 13th Birthday

Back track a couple of months, and we celebrated Isabelle's 13th birthday!! Yes, we have our first teenager in the house! We had a small celebration with grandparents on Isabelle's birthday, followed by her spring choir concert the same night. To celebrate with friends, Isabelle invited her friend Cassidy to eat lunch with us at The Melt and she had a few friends over for pizza and ice cream cake. Two of the girls spent the night (Heidi and Cassidy), which was our first official slumber party.

"Caffeine Cake" by Grandma Barb

Opening gifts

She's 13!!

We dug up this fun photo from Isabelle's second birthday, and re-created it for her 13th birthday. She's grown a bit!!

Seth's Party for Friends

Near the end of January, we had another birthday party for Seth with his friends. He invited four friends, Bryce, John, Tommy and Tristan, to go with us to Dave & Buster's. The boys had a great time playing a lot of games there. After games, we stopped and ate at Donato's Pizza.

Tristan, John, Bryce, Seth and Tommy

Seth Turns Double Digits!

Our Seth is 10!! For his birthday, we celebrated a day early by going to Panda for lunch as a family.

On his birthday (a Monday), Shane took Seth to White Castle. Since they are the only two in the family who can handle White Castle, it was a dinner for just the two of them (hence going out to Panda the day before). We had balloons, brownies and presents for Seth at home.

The following weekend, we had a family birthday party. Our guests were both sets of grandparents, Cathy, Steve, Jacob, Lori, Sarah and Connor. Seth requested an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.

We decided to postpone a friends party this year, so hopefully we will get to celebrate with his friends soon!

Happy Birthday Seth!!!

Parker's 5th Birthday

We had a very busy few days celebrating Parker's 5th Birthday! His birthday fell on a Monday this year. That meant he would be at preschool for the majority of the day. To make the day special, I sent a chocolate cake to preschool for them to celebrate. It was actually another boy's birthday at preschool too! So Parker and Caleb both got to celebrate turning 5 at school. Their teacher, Ms. Carissa, made a poster for them and all the kids signed it.

The cake for preschool

Left to right: Gwyn, Elijah, Caleb, Parker, Declan, Braxton

Parker's piece of cake at school

That evening, Parker received his gifts from us. Isabelle gave him a Tsum Tsum stuffed toy (three peas in a pod). Seth picked out a toy bear for Parker to add to his animal collection. And from us he received a set of MagnaTiles (all pictured below).

For his birthday dinner, Parker chose to go to Big Boy. He was excited to let our server know that it was his birthday.

On our way home we stopped for frosties at Wendy's. Parker had a great day and was so excited to turn 5!

On Friday, as part of "Birthday Week",  Parker and I went to Build A Bear. This was Parker's first time there and he picked out a black and white dog to make. He used his own money that he had saved.

Stuffing the dog

Here he is!

Bathing the dog

Heading home

Parker named his new friend Happy Smile Dog. The name seems pretty appropriate!

While at the mall, Parker picked out a double doozey cookie for a treat. We had a fun afternoon together.

Saturday, we had a birthday party for family. Both sets of grandparents, Cathy, Steve, Jacob and Christy were able to help us celebrate. Parker is really interested in trains and outer space. For his party, we decided on a train theme. You can tell from the pictures how happy and outgoing he was the entire day!

Thomas cake

Opening presents

Aunt Cathy

Grandma Diane and Grandpa Clyde

Grandpa Steve and Grandma Barb

Aunt Christy

Playing with the new train

On Sunday, Parker invited some friends to celebrate with him at a candy shop in Grove City called The Lollipop Stop. 2 friends from preschool (Declan and Elijah) and 2 friends we have known for a couple of years (Derrick and James) were able to come. When the kids arrived, we had them color a picture. This was an awesome picture that Shane drew of The Lollipop Stop! The owner asked to keep a copy of it.

Here's Seth's finished picture:

Each kid got to pick out a flavor of ice cream and add candy toppings and sprinkles to it. We also had brownies for them. They loved it!

Next, Parker opened presents.

Opening presents

James (blurry), Derrick, Parker, Elijah Seth and Declan

Finally, each kid got to fill a goody bag with candy. As you can see, there were many, many kinds of candy to choose from.

Picking out candy

It was another great day for Parker!

At age 5, Parker likes trains and outer space (as mentioned previously), and he likes to build things. His favorite color is white and his favorite season is winter and he says his favorite animal is dogs. He loves stuffed animals and watching "The Magic School Bus" cartoon. He has become pretty outgoing and he loves to snuggle, give hugs, laugh, sing, dance and go just about anywhere. He likes to help with things like doing the dishes, folding laundry and feeding the cats. Parker is just a great kid with a sweet demeanor and loving heart. 

Isabelle Turns 12!

Yes, Isabelle is 12 years old!! We celebrated with a party with family (with both sets of grandparents, Cathy, Steve and Jacob), birthday dinner at Chipotle, a free birthday drink at Starbucks and a party with friends.

"Caffeine Cake" by Grandma Barb 

Grandpa Clyde, Isabelle, Grandma Diane

Grandma Barb, Isabelle, Grandpa Steve

We love this girl!

Time to goof off!

Homemade ice cream cake for friends party

Friends left to right: Sodani, Heidi, Izzy, Erika, Allie, Lauren

Seth Turns 9!

10 days after Christmas, we celebrate Seth's birthday! Before winter break, we sent invitations to every student in Seth's class (22 in all). Seth's party was scheduled for Jan. 3, which was 2 days before returning back to school. We think many kids and parents forgot about it, because only 1 friend came to Seth's party. Seth didn't seem to mind, though! He and Wyatt actually had a really good time!

Parker, Seth and Isabelle posed for some photos before Wyatt arrived:

We had a Spiderman pinata full of candy in the basement. He was really hard to defeat!

Wyatt takes a swing

Wyatt and Seth

On January 4, Seth's actual birthday, we had Diane, Clyde, Steve W. and Jacob over for snacks, cake and ice cream.

The kids posed for photos again:

Isabelle and Jacob

Happy Birthday, Seth!