I love birthdays.  So does Sam.  He's been anticipating his birthday since the first of his older buddies turned 5 back in May.  Of course I couldn't disappoint.   Saturday was "Party Day" with Samuel's friend party in the morning.  He had designated it a fireman birthday months before.  Which was perfect, since the house happened to be on fire when Sam woke up that morning.  We had planned a big obstacle course in the backyard for our little firemen to earn their badges, but we woke up to rain and had to improvise quickly.  I shrunk down the obstacle course to fit inside, and we were still able to rescue the cat from the tree, climb through the burning tunnel, spin around on the fire engine, jump over the laundry baskets (yeah nothing creative for that part), then spray out the burning building.  We also played a Pin the Tail on the Donkey type game with dressing a fireman, hot potato, stop drop and roll, and toss the firetruck into the burning building beanbag toss style.  We had ignitable cupcakes that each firefighter had to blow out, and per request so many months ago, a pinata.  Samuel and his fire fighting friends had a great time!

That night was Chuck E. Cheese.  But first we had the traditional stop at Toys R Us to use the birthday Geoffrey dollars.  Again, lots of fun.  I love any excuse for special time as a family.

Sunday was Samuel's birthday.  He woke up to balloons and a birthday banner in his room.  He asked me for days how I got them in there, like he couldn't believe I did it all while he was sleeping.  I heard Sam was beyond giddy when he was sung to in Primary.  (First year that I wasn't in there to see, *sniff*)  Sam got to open one present while Owen napped, Cars 2.  When Owen got up we finished presents, and then had pancakes for dinner, another birthday request made ages ago.

We sure do love our funny not-so-little-anymore Sam.  He is overflowing with personality.  He is sassy and quite the back-talker.  But he is also friendly, thoughtful, and polite.  Samuel loves to ride his bike, play with his friends, watch Wild Kratts, drive his monster trucks, and learn new things.  He changes his clothes a bajillion times a day.  Sam loves pancakes, bananas, raisin bread, and "cow milk."  He loves fighting, shooting, killing, swords, and guns, *sigh.*  He still struggles to write his S and doesn't color in the lines, but he can tell you 8 different names for Bigfoot.  He is growing up and learning so much so fast.  He makes us smile, he makes us happy, he makes us pull our hair out, and he makes up laugh.  And I absolutely cannot for the live of me get a decent picture of this boy.  Happy 5 years, Sambo!!  

Five years old!  That is so grown up to me.  No more baby, no more toddler, no more little boy.  Samuel is 5!  I can still remember the excitement of waking up in the middle of the night to my water breaking.  I remember after the quick three hours of labor, the long 3 hours of pushing.  I remember how pleased I was when Erik smiled and told me, "Oh yeah, he has a lot of hair!"  I remember holding my sweet little baby in my arms, looking into his eyes, and saying, "This is Sam."  That was five years ago!  What a blessing this bright, clever, funny, tender-hearted boy has been to us since then.  Love you so very much, Samuel.  Happy birthday!!     

June 14, 2011

Only posting this one week late.  Which is ridiculous that I even get all worked up because I didn't do O's bday post ON his birthday.  I'm dumb.  But anyway.

Owen's birthday!!  Out of all of us, Samuel was probably the most excited.  He seriously loves birthdays.  Owen did know enough to sing to himself over and over, "HAAA-ppy day to yooooou" every time we said something about it being his birthday.  We kept it totally low key and pretty minimal, but still enough to make it special. 

Sam had a friend's party that morning, so while he was there O and I went to get some balloons.  I will not do a birthday without balloons.  Just won't do it.  It was tied into a pretty little bouquet, but Owen wanted them separated the moment we got home so he could run around with them.  The cutest thing was when Samuel came home, Owen said, "Here, Sam, your balloon" and handed him one . . . the GREEN one, no less! 

Owen went down for his nap, and Samuel and I did a bit of decorating, blew up a few little balloons, and wrapped the presents.  Samuel had talked about getting Owen his very own monster truck for a good while, and Erik had taken him out the night before to choose one.  So Sam was super giddy to wrap it, and then antsy for the next 2 hours just dying for Owen to wake up.  As soon as we heard O jump out of bed, Sam took off and met him half way on the stairs, excitedly handing him the gift.  Owen was pretty pleased with it, too.

A bit later, we went to Sam's t-ball game.  Auntie C and Mormor both met us there, and then afterwards we all went to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate.  The last time I went was when I was 8 or 9 and living in Virginia.  In all honesty, I wasn't super thrilled about the idea.  It just seemed to dirty and nasty and trashy to me.  But Sam has had it in his head for about 7 months (since his own birthday) that we would go there for Owen's birthday.  And he talked enough about it to Owen, that O also talked about "Chucky Cheesey" all day.  I would ask him, "Should we go to Chuck E. Cheese tonight for your birthday?" and O would grin, then do his cute laugh and chuckle, "Yeeeeah." 

So we went.  And I was pleasantly surprised.  The place was clean and nice and way more kid friendly than our usual bday haunt, Pirate Island Pizza.  We really had such a fun evening there.  We had some pizza, played lots of games, tried several rides, and when our tokens were all gone, we cashed in the tickets.  We let O choose what he wanted, then got doubles so each boy had the same thing.  A styrofoam rocket, a tiny frog, and some Smarties.  O was in heaven with his goodies clasped in hand.  He walked back to the table and then to the car doing his super duper precious happy "walk" which is more like a waddling bounce.  I can't even tell you how cute it is.

"Look at dat over deeeeere!" pointing to the singing and dancing animatronics.

The boys have played on the little "rides" before for fun at the mall and such, but I've never put money in.  So once O was behind the wheel of a police car and I popped a token in, he got so startled that he climbed out to stare at it wondering what the heck was going on.  When Sam went for a ride on this thing that went up in the air (above) I was surprised Owen also wanted to try and figured he would whine to get right off.  He didn't.  He laughed and talked the whole time.  Then he rode it at least 5 more times that night.

Samuel looooved riding this monster truck.  It revved, growled, and tipped from side to side and front to back.  He drove it several times.

Besides the clock ride, playing basketball with his Daddy was probably Owen's other favorite thing that night.

So we went back home for a few presents and then some ice cream cake.  Owen got a velcro catch game, a couple little pool toys, and a Mater Duplo set from us.  He also got some fun wooden puzzles and a jawbreaker the size of his head from Mormor.  He pretty much did not want to put that thing down, although you could tell his arm was starting to wear out from holding the massive thing.  When the cake was in front of him, O finally let go of his death hold.  We actually had'nt planned on letting O just dig into the cake, but before bringing it over, I had laid out spoons and plates.  So while we got rid of the candles, Owen helped himself.  It was pretty cute. 

After the celebrating, we put Sam to bed and let O hang out for a while longer to have some quiet solo time.  As a two year old.  Happy birthday, sweet sweet Bubba J!!

On Sunday, January 16, my grandpa turned 97.  And he’s still got a lot left in him!  Samuel and I were able to attend a brunch in his honor at the Grand America Hotel.  The band moved themselves over to our tables to play Happy Birthday, and much of the restaurant joined in on the singing.  It was a fun morning for a very special man.

This was the kids’ station.  After finding pancakes and fiiiiiinally hunting down some syrup, this was Sam’s favorite place to go back to.  He loved those fruit skewers.  I stopped counting at his twelfth.  A table between where we sat and the kids’ station starting keeping their eyes open and watching for Sam.  They laughed and waved every time he walked by with a few more in his hands.

November 13, 2010

So Saturday was Samuel’s real birthday.  The night before, I told Sam I would make pancakes . . . NOT the kind you put in the microwave.  I said I could make all sorts of shapes, like Mickey Mouse.  Samuel said, “How about a DINOSAUR pancake?!”  So I put my creative pancake making skills to the test.  Armed with an S, and number 4, a smiley face, and a dinosaur, I would call it a success. 

After breakfast we packed up the car and headed to Colorado for a quick visit.  My mom put together a great little party for Samuel and his cousin Tyson whose birthday was just a few days later.  There were balloons, birthday hats for everyone (including the dogs, per Sam’s request) and presents.  It was yummy, it was loud, it was lots and lots of fun.  Seriously, we know how to do birthdays. 

November 12, 2010

In keeping with tradition, we took Samuel to Pirate Island Pizza for his birthday dinner Friday night.  He had been talking about it for weeks.  He totally remembered the entrance that scared him a bit last year, and was even more scared this year.  He ran right through, and luckily we were there early enough that we didn’t have to wait.  But Sam stood there with his ears covered tight and wouldn’t even talk to the hostess when she tried to give him some pirate gold.  As soon as we were back in the dining room and arcade, Sam was totally fine.  Goober.  Our pirate greeted us at our table, and Sam was very happy to tell him that he was grown up now and turning four.  While we waited for our drinks, we got balloon animals.  And while we waited for our food we played some games and earned some tickets.  Owen loved ski ball and Dance Dance Revolution.  (He told me he wants to play DDR with his buddies Ben and Ethan, and see if they could ever be as awesome as their mommys were at it.)  Samuel loved anything that involved racing.  After dinner, we went back to finish using our pirate gold tokens, and used our tickets to collect the loot.  All Sam wanted were the toy soldiers, so he got 9 of them.  We made it back to the table for a little pirate rendition of Happy Birthday and a free ice cream sundae. 

On our way home, we stopped at Toys R Us so Samuel could spend his birthday Birthday Bucks that Geoffrey the Giraffe sent him.  He wanted a dragon so bad, but good ol’ Walmart bought the rights to the Dragon movie, so Sam had to ”settle” for another monster truck . . . his 11th.  By the time we got home, it was close to 8 and Owen was past done.  I took him up to bed, with a whisper to Erik, “If he doesn’t say anything, let’s not worry about doing presents for Sam tonight like we planned.”  I came back from putting O down to find Erik and Sam smirking at me.  “Sam, what were you going to ask Mom?”  “Mom, can I open my presents that you’re hiding in Daddy’s room now?!”  Fiiiiiine.   He made a decent haul.  It was so cute to see how excited and happy he was about each thing he opened.  Sam had spent the last several months talking about what he wanted for his birthday, and he had poured over catalogs and toy aisles soooo many times telling me he was going to get this and going to get that all on his birthday.  He had cut out pictures that he stuck to the fridge or hid under his pillow and kissed goodnight.  So I was a bit worried he would be disappointed when NONE of those things came his way.  But I was really proud of how gracious and pleased Samuel was about everything.  Such a sweet kid.  Erik and I let Sam stay up way too late as we both snuggled on the sofa watching our little Samuel enjoy his birthday goodness.  It had been a dang good day!

For real, he is the cutest.  This picture is my new favorite.  Love him.

November 12, 2010

Samuel totally lucked out with two full days of birthday celebrations.  We knew we would be traveling on the 13th, so we planned Friday as the big day.  Samuel woke up to decorations and a new dinosaur.  We spent the morning getting ready for his party, and playing with Auntie C who was such a doll to be there for the party and help me out.  At 11:00 the kids came a’knocking for Sam’s first official friend party.  He told me months ago he wanted a dinosaur birthday party, so I had a few prehistoric tricks up my sleeve.

As Sam’s friends arrived, they got to do cave paintings and play with dinosaurs.  Then we made some dino feet so we could go on our dinosaur adventure.  The kids had to go through an obstacle course, but stay on the “stones” so they wouldn’t fall into the “hot lava” and become “extinct.”  After that we played “Chomp Chomp, Gotcha!” which was our version of Duck Duck Goose, with a triceratops hand puppet to do the chomping.  We had a yummy lunch of dinosaur nuggets for the carnivores, veggies and ranch for the herbivores, and chex mix and goldfish for the omnivores.  We read some dino books, did some dino puzzles, colored some dino pictures.  And then it was time for a dino dig!  I tried to do it two at a time while the other kids kept reading, puzzling, or coloring, but that lasted maybe 37 seconds.  It got a little crazy, but oh so fun!  There were lots of baby dinosaurs hiding in the sand, but there was also a dinosaur skeleton for each kid to find.

By that point, I could no longer put off the presents!  Samuel was so so excited, but it was adorable to see that his little friends were just as excited as him.  After Samuel opened all the generous gifts, he handed out the thank you/goodie bags and dug into the dino cupcakes.  By 12:30, we said goodbye, put Owen down for a nap, and opened all the new boxes and bags of toys and games.  Smart Mommy that I am, I let Sam open one present from Mommy and Daddy . . . How to Train Your Dragon!  So we popped the movie in, Sam watched and played quietly and happily, and I crashed on the sofa.  It had been a ton of work, but so much fun and I enjoyed every single second of it.  So did the Samosaurus Rex.

Happy Happy Birthday to THIS beautiful talented big hearted lady who we love so very much!

Owen had a blast playing in the sand, running around after the big kids, shoving his face full of watermelon and hot dog, knocking balloons around, and investigating a few new goodies.  I can think of a few more people who enjoyed the evening, too.

It didn’t fly by.  I can believe it’s been that long.  But I love this little baby 365 times more than I did One Year Ago.  Happy birthday to the O Man, my O bubs, sweet Bubba J, delicious little shmunchkin, beautiful beautiful beautiful baby boy.