The birthdays we celebrated this summer

(Last summer post! It’s appropo considering today is Faith’s birthday…frankly these summer birthdays look a little more fun than Faith’s is shaping up to be.  Hopefully she won’t figure that out till she reads the books in 8 years.)

Jessica’s birthday

• planned totally by me ahead of time.  I truly think Ryan likes me telling him what will make the day nice for me
• Friday night sushi dinner (Ryan’s not a fan so I capitalized on my birthday-ness so we could have it) with couples we love and a shopping date for new pans
• the Hiawatha trail with kids…executed completely by Ryan.  ALL I HAD TO DO WAS SHOW UP.  He’d rented the bike trailer, gotten the tickets, directions, headlamps, lunches, everything.  That was probably the best part…although the ride itself was SO SO great.  Beautiful, easy family time that went off without a hitch.  Highly recommended.
• a simple Sunday (the actual birthday) lazy day…but I made my own cake and it was awesome (ugly, but awesome).

 

Gabe’s birthday

• it was never-ending (but fun) due to family activities and constraints
• the actual day was spent at the lake houses, after our big Greg arrival surprise.  He spent the day with his buddies Braunson and Beaudry, tubing and eating and we gave him presents and red velvet cake for dessert
• his friend part was an Amazing Race theme that he basically planned.  I executed the details (invites, clues, getting yelled at by the gym owner for allowing non-members to swim, the Pit Stop mat) and it was loads of work fun.  He told me thanks a million times, which was so sweet.
• he wanted his birthday food requests on a different day than his birthday, because we were at the lake…so a week later we gorged on caramel peach french toast, appetizers for lunch (Pesto Rounds and shrimp cocktail) and Golden Corral for dinner.  We lucked out the Grandma and Bekah got to join us for the feast.  The Birthday Boy may or may not have thrown up on the ride home which may or may not be a commentary on whether buffets are awesome for our bodies or not.
• present highlight:  receiving enough birthday money to purchase the Ipod touch that he has been saving for for two whole years.   We cannot express how happy we were that he sacrificed and worked for that length of time to get the $200+ together to buy it for himself.  He’s a good kid, that Gabe.

 

Seth’s birthday

• three days after Gabe, also at the lake house and included LOTS of family visitors
• such a happy, easy to please kid…enjoyed spending the day with cousins swimming and boating
• birthday food included coffee cake, mac and cheese and hot dogs.  A cheesecake bar was his birthday cake.
• Ryan scoured Amazon a week prior and ordered some fun things for Seth that boring Mom would never have thought of:  a stomp rocket, a science kit, etc.

Birthdays are such a fun time to focus on each kid and what they bring to our home.  We love our traditions and we love those boys!