Kerry's 34th Birthday

This year for my 34th birthday the gift that I bought myself and demanded of my children was having family pictures taken and having them be happy about it!  After school on my birthday we all dressed up and had pictures taken.  When we got home we got the younger kids ready for bed and the older two were going to babysit so Spen could take me out to dinner and a movie.  It was a lot of fun.  We tried a new Chinese place and went to the Amazing Spiderman.  While we were at the movie we got a phone call from the kids saying Mason was screaming.  Mason has these episodes and has this problem that usually is gross enough that only I take care of it.  It is pretty traumatic for the both of us and this was what was happening.  Spencer was on the phone with Ethan and he simply said, "dad, I got this, I'll call you when I'm done." and he took care of it himself.  There was nothing I could do but cry and worry while sitting at the movie, but sure enough we got a phone call about 10 minutes later from Ethan telling us that he had taken care of everything and was cuddling and holding Mason to calm him down. 

That was the best birthday present ever.

Ethan just took care of his brother without even thinking of what that actually entailed.  He did it and was so happy to do anything to help Mason that it didn't matter what it was.  My 9 year old was doing something that most people would refuse to do and would drive to the emergency room before attempting.  The love he has for his twin-spirit brother Mason was something that made this birthday the best of all time.

 

My kids didn't see things that way and felt like they hadn't really celebrated so they planned a surprise party for me that Saturday morning.  Spencer took me and dropped me off for a surprise massage and when I came home the house was all decorated and the kids were ready to spoil me! 

They gave me fun presents that they shopped for with Spencer.  They were very excited to give me things.  That's always fun

They were all even willing to have their picture taken with me.  That is really showing how accommodating they all were for my party.



The big activity that they were all so excited about was the pinata they filled for us to break.



The funny thing was that it was a cardboard box taped shut.  That thing did not want to break open!  It was a lot of fun and everyone got several turns before it broke!

Ezra was so funny.  He wanted his friends to come over and watch him do the bat on the candy box. 

Finally we gave Spencer a turn and he broke the box down a few too many times.  We could no longer hang it and hit it so we just had to beat it from the ground.  Still fun though.

They even made me a cake and sang to me that night.  It was a lot of fun and the best part was that I was totally surprised by everything they ended up doing.

Ezra's 4th Birthday

Ezra was so excited to have his birthday.  He couldn't wait to 'turn into 4!~'  I was pretty excited about how happy he was.  I never know with him how he is going to react.  He couldn't decide what kind of party he wanted to have for his friends.  I was excited that Spencer could come home from work during his lunch break and we could have his friend party while everyone else was at school.  They were a little sad, but it really was a lot less stressful here! 

He wanted a Cars, Monster, Batman, Spiderman, Ghost,  Superhero party.  I think we pulled it off.

 He picked out pumpkins for all of his friends to paint for one of the activities.  It was a really big hit.

 They went on a ghost hunt to start.  Ezra was really the best hunter.  He hunted for the other boys ghosts to help them.  I kind of don't think they understood the game very well!

 

 I really am happy that I got away with only having his 2 best friends come.  These boys are inseparable.  They have such a good time and get along so well.  Ezra never stops talking about them.

 

 Ezra's friend Bradley gave him a cape and a mask.  He immediately had to wear it and didn't take it off all day long.  Konrad gave him a cool Iron Man toy.  They all wanted to play with that.

 The Monster cupcakes were a big hit. 

After we painted pumkins and played all of our games we played a game my mom made for my birthday parties when I was a kid.  Pin the cupcake on Birthday Bear!  I wasn't sure if they would like it but they played it over and over again.

 For our family party later that night, we loaded everyone up and went to Chuck-E-Cheese.  It seemed like it would be a fun time and it really was.  Mason even was happy.  We had cupcakes and presents  and games and pizza!  Ezra was the happiest boy in the world.  All of the kids made sure to give him all of their tickets so he could choose the biggest and best prize of all!

We are so lucky to have our 4 year old Crazy Beans in our family.  Happy Birthday Ezra!

Victoria's Big 17th Birthday Bash~

For Victoria's 1st ever 'American Birthday' we had to go big..  She was so excited about everything and invited all sorts of friends from school.  After her birthday lunch out she came home and relaxed and I ran around like a crazy lady getting this party together!  I swear birthday parties are so much stress on the mom and the kid is totally oblivious to any of that.  It's as it should be I suppose, but I was honestly a train wreck.  I had no idea how to throw a party for teenage girls!  I don't know what kinds of things they like.  Victoria wasn't really a lot of help in the idea area so I was pretty much on my own.  I am grateful that she handled the guests and invites.  I was just a worried mom hoping any of them would show!

I decorated the basement and put out all sorts of treats.  I had a few games up my sleeve, but the one I was counting on was the Just Dance III game we were going to give her as our gift. 

We moved the big T.V. downstairs for the big party and she hung out downstairs waiting for party time.  Like I said, I was panicked because to be honest, I've never met any of her friends.  She has yet to hang out with anyone or go anywhere with anyone.  She stays home.  She doesn't call anyone and no one calls her.  Girls are always late so when no one had showed and it was 30 minutes after the time they were supposed to come, Spen and I were in knots worrying!  I think Victoria was too, but she didn't really let on she just kept looking out the window and asking me why they weren't here yet?!  I think everyone she invited came.  phew.   I have to admit it was very refreshing to see her interact with her friends.  She was a totally different person!  She was friendly and very much the perfect hostess.  It was darling.  Why in the world was I worried?! 

I planned a few games, (only one of which was a hit.)  I bought a gift and wrapped it at least 30 times and they rolled until someone got doubles.  The person who rolled doubles got to unwrap it.  This went on until the gift was revealed!  It was a lot of fun for them.  They were all so darling.  It was fun to watch from the sidelines as the mom.  I do admit though that I texted my own mom many times during this party to thank her for everything she did for me! 

My sweet friend made this delicious cake for the occasion.  It was adorable, but also amazing red velvet.  Victoria requested a vampire cake.  Naturally.

Ezra and Ethan were very interested in everything going on at the party.  Vika and her friends were very nice and included them in the fun.  Ezra had to help me with the candles on the 'Famapire cake for Feeka.'

Happy 17th!!  I'm so glad the party was such a success.

We all sang and waited for Victoria to make her big wish and blow out the candles.

A few of the girls played my other games.  Marisa was the obvious winner on stacking dice on a Popsicle stick.  No one really could stack the golf balls though.  Oh well.  It was fun anyway.

The Dancing game was the big winner of the night.  These girls danced like crazy for hours!  It was the perfect time passer for the party.  I enjoyed watching it.  My favorite thing was that Spencer placed his GoPro Helmet cam next to the TV and recorded the whole night.  We got some great video of these girls!

Ashely is Vika's friend from Matveevka, Ukraine (the orphanage) and was adopted around the same time she was.  She lives long enough away that it warranted her sleeping over after the big birthday bash.  I loved how she kept finding Mason and talking and playing with him.  So sweet.  Happy Birthday Victoria!  We LOVE you!!

Victoria's Family Party~

After this month I was so birthday-ed out!  We had a family party for Victoria to open her presents from us and from her siblings a few days after her birthday.  Our presents this year for our kids were mostly clothes.  They both seemed to like that.  Ezra of course was right there in the action helping unwrap everything.

Ethan was very excited to go shopping and pick something special out for Victoria.  All of our boys just adore her.  She's actually quite darling with all of them.
A few things I love about Victoria are:

How fun she can be.
How sweet she is with her brothers.
How thoughtful she is.
How honest and obedient she is.
How smart she is.
How beautiful inside and out she is.
How she never forgets to do what she knows is right.
How she loves to read her scriptures.
How good of an example she is to her brothers.
How helpful she is.
How great it is to finally have her in our family.

These are just a few of the things I love about you!  Happy 17th Birthday Victoria!

Victoria's Birthday Lunch~

Victoria is so funny.  She was absolutely dying that we would send her to school on her birthday.  How could we?  Well, we did go and check her out for lunch so I think we made up for it.  She was pretty excited when Spencer showed up to check her out.  We had told her we couldn't and she was pretty upset and sad.  I have no idea why she believes us all the time!  We went to Smash Burger.  We love that place.  She really just wanted to take as long as possible so she wouldn't end up having to go back to school.

Ezra is the real lucky one... He gets to join all the parties.  He was pretty excited about it all too.  He loves Smash Burger!

He's an adorable pain to take places!

After lunch Victoria suckered us into taking her to Menchie's for Frozen Yogurt.  She still won't believe that it's not technically 'ice cream.'  We will have that fight every time we go there I'm sure.  She actually succeeded with her plan and didn't end up having time to go back to school.  She was thrilled.  Happy Birthday, Victoria!

Ethan and Victoria's Combined Birthday Celebration~

When we were planning birthday parties for two kids in the same week we also had to fit in a family party somewhere!  These two decided that they would rather have it combined and have everyone come over to celebrate them both together.  Phew.

It was pretty low key, although we had quite a crowd in our little space!  We took turns opening gifts, Ethan went first because his birthday is first.  He got all sorts of great things from his extended family.

We even sang to them separately so they both could make their own wish.  They thought it was fun that I got them both different candles even.  Moms sure think of everything, don't they!?

Some of the crowd that was here.  I think there were around 30 people here for the little party!

My mom always cuddles and plays with Mason when we get together.  I'm pretty sure he wouldn't allow her to get away without cuddling and playing with him.  He adores her.  They sat on the couch and kissed a lot. 

Victoria was very excited to get to her turn.  She loved her presents.

She also loved blowing out all of the candles in the cake. 

It's very weird to have a 17 year old and a 9 year old now!  Happy Birthday kiddos!