Birthday Season Part III

Madi blows out 11 candles, we can't believe she's growing up so fast!

Gourmet s'mores was a total winner. While the kids LOVED the caramel centered chocolate and the cookies and cream chocolate, no one wanted to put their 'mallow' on a cinnamon graham or an oatmeal cookie. Old fashioned graham crackers were the hit.

purple and yellow soda, I loved passing by this stuff at the grocery store and feeling like I had struck gold...you can tell I get carried away with birthdays, which is one reason a 'friend party' is only produced every other year-

'rainbow tag' remains all over friend Alyssa's smiling face. This game was a riot and we will play it again and again, party or not

The girls loved being by the fire, even with drizzling rain and cold temperatures to detour them. They loved poking at the coals and feeding the fire with new wood. Being outside is so good for KIDS, we need to have them out more often!

Madi's birthday is next in the line up: though her party was a week after Lucy's due to swim meet conflicts...Madi chose a 'happy camping' theme and though the weather didn't really cooperate we had a great time with a huge bunch of 11 year old girls running through the house (and neighborhood!).

I would really like to become a better photographer so I can more 'artfully' capture the fun, but at least it is documented and you'll get the jist of all we had going on over here.

yellow, maroony-purple and silver were the colors...we used stars and balloons and big yellow checkered fabric to set a camping feel around the house. Candles in Mason jars and glittery stars were the 'glitz' that made the night feel like a party. Dinner was served; hot dogs cooked outside and other easy camping fare-and plates were fashioned of disposable pie tins (I loved that!)-fun sodas in the colors of the party were served to every guest.

After dinner we enjoyed a couple of summer camp games: rainbow tag and pass the parcel. Both were super fun, the outdoor tag especially! Even with rain drizzling girls were running and screaming from yard to yard in search of the colored face paint - one for each color of the rainbow. A 'wild card' player was to tag the girls, requiring them to wipe from their faces one of the found colors. We will play this game again and again, it was a huge hit...

For dessert, John got some great fires going in the driveway and the girls enjoyed gourmet s'mores with exotic ingredients. Each girl had embellished her own marshmallow stick (with duct tape and ribbons) and created her own sweet treat. The girls loved playing around the fire and everyone went home smelling like a trip to the canyon.

Of course, we still enjoyed birthday cake and ice cream, though most of that was left with us and tummies were full of sugar already!

A movie was supposed to be shown outside, but weather did not cooperate, so girls spread sleeping bags out on the floor of the basement and enjoyed the show.

When girls were ready to leave they went home with their own flashlight, some 'camp' treats and their marshmallow stick. It was a fun (late!) evening and I had a blast working with Madi to plan the big event.

For Madi's actual birthday we enjoyed green pancakes, made by dad (he was headed out of town that day, so it was a very special treat to enjoy breakfast with him). Our tradition is to open birthday gifts the morning of the big day, and Madi's gift was an address...somewhere she needed to go to find out what her present was. I picked her up at lunchtime and asked her if she wanted lunch first, or her gift first. GIFT was the response, so we drove to the address where Madi discovered that a newly monogrammed 'swim parka' was waiting for her (this is 'essential' swim team gear, a fleece lined water resistant long coat like jacket with a hood and zipper. Swimmers wear this in and out of team practicein the middle of winter with nothing but their suits and flip flops on besides. They are a huge investment and we wanted to be sure Madi had really chosen to invest herself in swimming before we paid the price; she's invested, so we invested). After our little treasure hunt we enjoyed burgers at Hires and a little flip flop shopping at the Mall. Once Madi was completely decked out with birthday swimming gear we returned her to school and called it a day-a birthday to be exact. And a Happy Birthday it was for Madi (and for mom, who gets the great privilege of enjoying these special fun times with her birthday kids).