Birthday Bashes

Phoebe has anxiously been awaiting her 8th birthday and finally awoke to a room full of balloons!  

It's just hard to believe this little firecracker is already EIGHT years old!  She brings just such joy and delight just by being her.  

Since her actual birthday fell on a Saturday and Maverick had a party to attend, she chose to spend time at a local park with one of her best friends.  Carissa even wore her "soccer" socks because Phoebe loves to play.  

They requested a stop on the stage so they could "perform" a bit.  I think this means we're in trouble in the very near future...

Phoebe chose to go to Olive Garden for dinner so we met YiaYia, Papou and Auntie to continue the celebration.

I count us extra lucky that we get to see Auntie on a fairly regular basis.  She is our kids' biggest cheerleader and they love her to pieces.

And they laugh a LOT when they're together.

Phoebe told me before church on Sunday that if your birthday falls on a Saturday that you get to celebrate ALL weekend long.  That being said, she chose a chinese buffet for lunch (barf).  The worst part is that the kids love it simply because they get to eat jell-o!

We had a birthday party for a kiddo in our small group later in the afternoon so we took a hike to enjoy the sunshine and get some fresh air.

We arrived at the party 90 minutes late (iCalendar is not always my friend) and came in time to help open presents.  

The following Saturday, we had Phoebe's birthday party planned at Arctic Zone.  We had the rink mostly to ourselves because who ice skates when it's mid-70s and sunny outside?

Birthday girl had a blast hanging out with all her friends.

Maverick enjoyed this visit a lot more than last year's experience on the ice - he got pretty fearless at the end - I'm grateful we left with no broken bones!  Just a few bruises and sore muscles!

This neighbor is heading to Seattle for a year or two while her dad is on assignment for work.  We'll miss having her in our backyard and try to soak up every moment till they leave in June.

We came home and promptly opened presents.  The last couple of parties Phoebe has been to, they've opened presents at the party and she always thinks the recipient doesn't like her gift.  Such tender hearts at this age...we had a little drama with one of her friends at the party getting upset because another friend was also trying to help "teach" some of the other friends to skate.  She was SO upset that she told Phoebe it was the worst birthday party she'd ever been to.  I was mortified that this kind of stuff was already happening.  Phoebe wanted to "fix" it and kept trying to reconcile everyone so they all had a good time.  Lots of stomping off the ice and pouting by the offender ensued until I finally told Phoebe to just ignore her and enjoy her party - that girl was just grumpy and shouldn't ruin everyone else's fun.  OY.

Josie was dropped off about an hour later and we went out to BoomBozz for another birthday celebration.

Taking selfies with their American Girl dolls.

Trying to wind down before bed.

And up and at 'em before church! 

Sunday afternoon, we celebrated Maverick's 5th birthday at Ninja Zone.

We had friends from school, the neighborhood, small group and preschool even.  

Preparing to run the obstacle course.

I think Phoebe had just as much fun as Maverick!

Celebrated with a donut cake because who doesn't like donuts?

As soon as we got home, our neighbor was washing the mud off his jeep and the kids wanted to "help" with water guns. 

We didn't make it back inside till 7:30 so we got a quick bath and heated up the leftover pizza and watched this guy finally open his presents.

This one will keep us on our toes indefinitely but we are SO happy God gave him to us to raise.