He crossed two items off his bucket list before leaving the “5s”…
1. Getting stitches–OUCH!
If you think this picture is too graphic, be glad I didn’t show you the “before” picture!! 7 (blue!) stitches!
and 2. Learning to ride his bike without training wheels! Yahoo!!
If you’ve been following Elliott’s birthdays the last couple of years, you will know that ever since he was turning four, he has had his parties planned out for the next several years. This year, it was “Wood Crafts.” The way to this child’s heart is truly through wood crafts.
We’ve frequented The Home Depot’s free first-Saturday-of-the-month quite often as the kids love to build and paint. So when I found out they ALSO do *free* birthday parties, I tucked the idea in the back of my party brain for “the Wood Craft birthday year.”
Elliott and I sat down together in February and planned his party. Oh my, he is a boy after my own heart! I don’t know anyone else on the planet as thrilled as I am to surf through a hundred fonts and pick the best ones for our task, haha! But he sat on my lap and we surfed until he gasped with delight when he found the perfect one :). I love him :). We planned out the snacks and the treats and designed the invitations. He had a construction birthday when he turned 3, so I re-used the banners and signs! I just had to change some “3s” to “6s” and we were set!! WIN.
We arrived, set out the food, hung up our banners and waited for our guests to come!
There are SO many fun food ideas for construction parties! Elliott and I had a blast planning these out and making the signs for them! We had a refueling station, boulders, nuts + bolts, wrecking balls, and 2x4s (which Brian not-so-subtly pointed out that they are actually 1x1s…oh well!)!
The sweetest lady ran the birthday party. She was great with the kids. Before everyone arrived, she pulled out the ORIGINAL Home Depot Kids Apron (it is actually made of cloth!) with every pin of every project they’ve done! The kids were fascinated as they were sporting their aprons with their completed project pins proudly displayed.
Party guests arrived and got to sign a hard hat for Elliott! How cool!! Nice touch, Home Depot! 😉
The week before the party we talked to the coordinator and got to choose the wood craft we would be working on. He selected the helicopter. Karen from The Home Depot led the kids through each step.
First step: sanding
Second step: put on goggles, assemble and hammer
Side note: Do you see Selah in this bottom right picture? She is TOTALLY in to being a statue, especially when someone is taking a picture. When I saw this picture I laughed out loud…especially with her “I heart my truck” tattoo on her hand…it’s the perfect photo bomb–LOL!!!
And, done!
Look at these cute kids and their helicopters!! What a blast!!!!
He just couldn’t wait to open presents, so we did that next :).
When Elliott and I were planning out the party, he jumped at the idea of doing some sort of “build-your-own” dessert. He opted for Dirt Cups which, ironically enough, I’m not sure he’s ever eaten before?? I explained what they were and he was super thrilled at the idea. So was this baker-challenged Mama!! They were SO easy and a huge hit with the kids. I gathered all the kids when it was dessert time and excitedly explained to them that Elliott really wanted mud for his birthday treat, so we dug some up from our back yard for all the kids to eat! It was a CLASSIC kid reaction: “EEEEWWWWWWW!!!!!” they all screeched in unison. I went on to show them the dirt, the rocks, the 2x4s, the pebbles and the worms they could put on their mud cups! They laughed and squealed and “eewwweed” some more…until it was time to eat! Then all I heard was, “Mmmm, this is delicious!!” So cute. I love kids!!!
The kids each got to take home their helicopters, a Home Depot apron, and these simple favor boxes filled with a couple tattoos and sticker and a construction vehicle eraser.
Elliott got a few more celebrations as well…dinner at Red Robin one night, birthday treats for his class another day, and of course–his actual birth day celebrations!
Okay this moment completely cracked me up!! He has been eagerly awaiting the moment the Red Robin peeps would sing to him for his birthday…and then he got all shy on us! And pretended like he didn’t even notice they were singing to him! I guess it was super important that he re-fold his menu in THAT particular moment, hahahah!! I love him! 🙂
But he didn’t have a problem scarfing down his ice cream as soon as those singing people left him alone!
Birthday day: presents from Erika, Grandma & Grandpa, Selah, Mommy and Daddy, a birthday cake-shaped pancake with 6 candles, the park, and Grandpa’s famous mud pie!
Well, we tried to keep it simple this year and therefore brought two ponies to our house for Selah’s 4th birthday! #palmtoforehead #itried #ilovecelebrating!!!!!
Sometime you’ll have to ask me how the story unraveled, but I’ll just say somewhere in the middle of the story Selah became unwavering in her conviction about wanting an animal birthday party. When I asked her what was most important to her about an animal birthday she replied, “Well, I’d like to do a giraffe craft…and another giraffe craft…and I want a giraffe to come to my birthday.”
So…after a lot of thinking and chatting, we settled on ponies. MUCH simpler than giraffes, right?!! Right.
The clincher was (as I talked through the party options) Brian saying, “Ponies!!?? It’s every little girl’s dream to have a pony birthday party!!!” Done. 🙂
The night before her actual birthday, we celebrated Brian’s and her birthday together at Red Robin. On the way home, her balloon popped which (obviously) caused major birthday drama. Thankfully, Grandpa came to the rescue…he mended her broken balloon into a teeny tiny new balloon :).
On her actual birthday, she opened up some presents and then Brian and I took her out to breakfast at her breakfast place of choice, which also happens to be MY favorite breakfast place :). Our pager number was #4!! She was very bold about telling everyone it was her birthday, and when the manager sat us she asked, “Are you going to put candles in my pancakes?” The manager was very sweet and said, “Hmmm…well let me see what I can do!” And Selah said, “FOUR candles. Pink and purple.” I elbowed her urgently with each demand request whispering, “PLEASE!! Say PLEASE!!” She was a girl on a mission alright! Then when the waitress came by to take the order she said, “Can you make my pancake into a dog?” And she said she could try to do Mickey Mouse. The manager, the waitress and two other women brought her plate out with four pink and purple candles sticking out of a Mickey Mouse shaped chocolate-chip pancake, singing Happy Birthday so sweetly. I held back tears as Selah did what she always does when put on the spot: buries her face into me. Sweet girl. She was so blessed!!
That night, my family had the monthly/quarterly birthday celebration so she had a little party that night with Nonna and Grandpa and her cousins. She got a CAMERA from Grandpa and Nonna and I’ll just say…she hasn’t put it down since!! When I found her that night all ready for bed, in her bed, taking pictures (of her ceiling?) I texted my mom the picture on the right and said, “She hasn’t put the camera since she opened it!” And my mom responded, “Like mother, like daughter!” Haha, she is totally right!!! I hadn’t even seen it ;).
Her actual birthday party was the following weekend. Some of her favorite friends arrived for a morning filled with everything ponies!
“Trot this way to Selah’s birthday!”
Here’s a little funny for you: we decided to hold the party entirely in our back yard and I was praying for WEEKS that the weather would be nice and that it wouldn’t be too windy as the party was mid-October. WELL, not only was the weather NICE, but it was SO HOT that we ended up needing to move the party inside!! HA! So our son, whose birthday is in the SPRING, had to last minute reschedule his party because there was a blizzard on the original party day, while our daughter, whose birthday is in the FALL had to move her party inside due to extreme heat. Oh my. I love Colorado :).
We had all sorts of crafts and activities set up in the backyard for the kids:
“Rope a Pony” (Pony built in about 5 and a half minutes by Selah’s awesome daddy!)Pony crafts! Everyone got to decorate paper horses and stick a magnet on the back for their fridges. There were also lots of pony coloring pages that kept kids busy along with a Playdough Pony Play station!
Grooming station: complete with nail polish, nail files, and horse tattoos.
Those of you who have been around our kids know one thing: they are both terrified of “slightly timid” around animals. Yet both of them requested an animal birthday when they turned four. So we honestly had no idea how she was going to do around the ponies, as even hearing the word “dog” can send her into a tailspin. But here is her very first time climbing up onto her birthday pony…and as you can see, she looks like a natural :).
The little farm that brought the ponies also brought another one to “groom”. The kids could brush her and braid her mane and put bows in it. They had a blast!
The “lead” cowboy who brought the ponies was just awesome and really got into the party. At one point he said, “Do you girls want to paint the pony’s nails??” I looked at him with big eyes, but he insisted…”Come on over! Let’s paint her hoof!” You saw it here first, folks:
The next time you see a pony walking around with pink, purple and blue nail polish on his front hooves…you’ll know he was the pony at Selah’s party!
Do you see the braids and the ribbons in the pony’s hair??? I love it. 🙂
Every kid had tons of time to ride the one pony and to groom the other. Selah was the most excited to ride the pony over and over and at one point she insisted on mounting him all on her own. On the left, she’s telling Brian to let go of her…and then she got up all on her own! Look how proud she is :).
We are so blessed to be the parents of this beautiful, horse-riding 4 year old little girl!!
Look at this sweet group of friends :).
Once the ponies left, we played “Pin-the-tail-on-the-pony” (obviously). 🙂
And by then everyone was so hot and sunburned that we opted to move the rest of the party inside!
Hot dogs for the main course and Hay Bales, Trail Mix, and Ranch on the sides…
And then, of course, the CAKE. Selah really wanted cupcakes which I was super thankful for…I am terrible at making cakes, but I can turn cupcakes into just about anything!!!
Since I was taking pictures she had to hide behind Brian while everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to her. But she warmed up when it was time to blow those candles out!
The favors consisted of a little pony, a horse tattoo, horse stickers, rainbow stickers (because “rainbow” is Selah’s fifth favorite color, after purple, pink, blue and green). The girls also got some ponytail holders for “their” ponies…
It was a wonderful day celebrating our sweet 4 year old!! Thank you, Lord, for this precious gift of a daughter!!!
Elliott turned 5 on March 20–a phrase he has been telling EVERYONE he has met for the last 8 months or so: “Hello, my name is Elliott and I’m turning 5 on March 20th!” To which the person would almost always respond, “You’re 25?” To which I would jump in and correct, “He’s TURNING 5…” Hahaha! I think we’ve had that conversation at least 100 times with various strangers in various places!!
He requested going to breakfast at Mimi’s (“I want to go to the breakfast place where we sat by the emergency exit and had apple sauce!”). We wrapped up a couple presents for him and Selah helped wrap hers. He got to open one first thing in the morning and then we hid Selah’s present and our other present for him in his car seat to find on the way to Mimi’s.
Can you see the train Selah drew on his present? She and Elliott are sleeping in the back. I was so impressed! We made him his very own return address labels, personalized with his name and a picture of him at Lego Land!Elliott’s new favorite color is blue-ish green, with navy coming in at a close second. I had just found this shirt on the clearance rack At Gymboree for $2!! Win!!!! Perfect birthday shirt!!!
That afternoon, special guests Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Angela drove in! We packed them back up in the car and headed to Grampa & Nonna’s house for the Mauss family birthday celebration.
Happy Birthday, dear Elliott!
Now, for his actual birthday party…this is the party he’s been planning for well over a year. Last year I was thinking he would want to have a Lego birthday, but he approached me in January telling me he wanted to have an animal birthday party. When I suggested a Lego party he responded, “I would like to have an animal birthday this year and a Lego party next year when I turn 5.” What can I say…the child has my party-planning blood in him!!!! So the last time we were at Lego Land, I was sure to take lots of pictures of our boy in preparation for his 5th birthday party!
One afternoon I showed him lots of pictures from various Lego parties and we talked through what exactly would bless him at his party. He has very strong opinions about what he wants! 🙂 One of the first things we did was design this shirt together. He told me exactly what he would like (a light blue shirt with a dark blue lego guy, but with a hat, and he wanted the lego guy to also have a light blue shirt). I designed the CUTEST little Lego guy with a hat, but Elliott didn’t like how the bill went to the side…so we ended up with this…which I tried to strongly urge him to go with the sideways hat instead, but he was insistent on this, because “the bill goes in front, not on the side.” I think it looks like a helmet 🙂 but he loves it! So…win!
Elliott and the helmet Lego Guy!
The next thing we did was make a zillion lego crayons out of all of our crayons for party favors.
His favorites were the multi-colored ones, so we made sure that everyone got one of those, too.
Next it was time to work on invitations. Oh my, these were too much fun to design and the kids had a blast making the outsides look like Legos. One of the things Elliott was insistent on was that the party colors were: blue-ish green (turquoise), light blue and dark blue. So everything from the invitations to the decorations were in those colors. We had a picture of Elliott with Emmett and Brian figured out how to make the background transparent and I put together this little ditty:
Elliott punched out the dots with my circle punch and put foam stickers on them. Selah played around with the dots for a while and then helped attach them to the actual invitations :).
Next up, we worked on painting this Lego Man together, and of course, the kids had to make sure he “worked”! And, as you can see, we decorated the doors to our craft room to look like Legos, along with our front door.
I convinced Elliott to let me draw the hat “sideways” so it actually looked like a hat :). I sketched him out on a box that I had painted white, and Elliott painted (most of) him inside the lines I sketched.Next up, I printed off tons of pictures of him from Lego Land and put them on Lego brick backgrounds, and then the kids “built” Lego towers out of the pictures on the walls.
Brian framed these two pictures of Elliott at Lego Land out of Legos!
And how can you have a Lego Birthday party without Lego soap??
We saved jars for a couple of months and made them into Lego Heads…
I think they are adorable!
I printed off the Happy Birthday Lego sign from here. I covered our t.v. and two boxes with Dollar Store tablecloths, then wrapped paper bowls with the tablecloth scraps and taped them onto the boxes. And thanks to the Blizzard that blew through on Elliott’s birthday party day (more on that in a minute!) I got the idea to cover up the picture that normally hangs on our mantle with the last tablecloth I had left and printed out the Elliott 5+ sign. Also, we used the scraps leftover from his birthday invitations to make the multi-blue colored Lego banner.
And with that, our living room was ready to go!
And THEN…a blizzard blew in on the morning of his birthday party!! On the third day of Spring!! And it was a bad one…we realized within a couple hours of waking up that no one should be on the roads. So a hundred text messages later, and we were able to move the party to the next afternoon. Elliott was pretty sad, but after agreeing to let him put together a practice Lego Man (the first craft activity of the party) he was in much better spirits :).
And Aunt Angela makes everything better 🙂
And THEN…he got to open his gifts from Grandma & Grandpa and Aunt Angela…..
A sand box and sand toys! The kids had a BLAST playing in the sand box on our kitchen floor…while the snow and wind beat on our house outside!
Which meant I had all day to keep thinking of new Lego ideas and finishing up the old ones I had had…it’s a good thing we didn’t have TWO snow days or this party would have been out of hand!!
We got the favor bags all ready to go. I designed, printed, and cut out the Lego circles with my Silhouette and Elliott attached them to the bags with foam stickers. Each friend got a lanyard and Lego badge with their name on it, a laminated tag with their name, a Lego notebook, Lego crayons and a Lego coloring book that I put together.
We set out the food and drinks. We looked through several different types of Lego cakes, and Elliott really wanted the kind with M&Ms on them, and he really wanted it to be blue. Brian is *highly* opposed to food coloring, so after doing a little research we picked these up at Whole Foods. They are made from vegetables so there is nothing artificial in there. I thought they worked out great and were a great alternative to food dye. The colors are not nearly as bright and bold as regular food coloring but they totally accomplished their purpose! These Lego Brick cakes were definitely challenging for me to make as I’m not super gifted in the baking arena and the frosting didn’t turn out as smooth as I had imagined it would 🙂 but Elliott loved them and that’s all that matters, right!! I also whipped up some Rice Krispie Lego Treats to have a gluten free option on hand.
Elliott wanted a Lego man on his brick, and he picked a firefighter…in case the candles got out of hand, the fireman would be there to assist 🙂We wrapped juice boxes to look like Lego bricks (downloaded from here) and Elliott and Selah built the fork and napkin holders!
And now for the actual PART-AY!!!!
Guests arrived and Elliott handed them their Lego badges to wear. The first activity was creating your own Lego guy, which I cleverly re-named “DO YOU WANNA BUILD A LEGO GUY?” in honor of the Blizzard the day before. (Get it??? Sung to the tune of “Do you wanna build a snowman?”!!)
We had yellow Lego guy cut outs (thank you, Silhouette!) with shirts, pants, hats, stickers, googly eyes, crayons and markers so the kids could decorate them. They didn’t put as much effort into them as I thought they might (note to self: most 5 year olds are not as into crafting as my son is!) and some finished as quickly as possible so they could play in the bin of Legos on the floor :). We also had several Lego coloring sheets set out as well.Here are some of the finished Lego guys sticking up out of their bags…cute!!!
Next up was Pin the Head on the Lego Guy. This game is always such a hit!!! The kids each decorated their own Lego head and then took turns trying to pin it onto the headless Lego man. Everyone was cracking up!!
Then we played Lego Bingo. I downloaded the Lego Bingo cards from someone else who had designed them, but we changed up a lot of them because, as Elliott puts it, a lot of them “don’t bless God.” It’s true. What is with the terrifying Lego pieces that are out there? Anyway, it was cute because we used pictures of Elliott at Lego Land and it made the game a lot more fun and personal.
We used Legos for our markers and this game was also a big hit!
Then we had a spoon race…which team can carry the Lego pieces on a spoon into the Lego head the fastest?
And finally, Lego Creationary: each child builds something out of Legos and the other kids try to guess what it is! This was fun!!
Then it was cake time!
And I almost forgot on the day of, but thankfully Elliott reminded me! Presents!
And everyone got their photo in the Lego man, of course!
What a fun group of kiddos!!
Our Big Man!!And of course Selah wanted a picture up there, too 🙂
5th Lego Birthday Party SUCCESS!!
And as if we hadn’t had enough fun, that night we went to Red Robin for his free birthday burger!
Happy 5th Birthday, our beloved Elliott!!!
(And in case you’re wondering…yes, he already has his parties planned out for the next 4 years!!!HA!!!!)
It’s incredibly hard to believe that our baby girl turned THREE this year!! Here are the highlights from her birthday and birthday party…
She woke up with a room full of purple balloons……and the first present to open of the day…a dress I personalized for her with the word, “three”!She got dressed and went downstairs for her next surprise…a huge 3 in purple balloons!!Grandma & Grandpa were in town, so we took Elliott to preschool together. Here she is outside of his preschool, in all of her birthday glory! She picked out this dress for her birthday and would have stayed in it day and night if I would have let her…Then we stopped at our favorite coffee place for a birthday hot cocoa…and the barista put a candle in her whipped cream and everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to her!!
She went to gymnastics and then Grandma, Grandpa, Selah and I went to go pick out a cupcake from a bakery. For weeks I had been asking her what she wanted for her birthday, and her ONLY response was, “A cupcake.” I tried to tell her that I was already making cupcakes for her birthday party, but she could think of nothing else she wanted. The day before her birthday, she reminded me that she would like a cupcake for her birthday. I reminded her we would have one on her birthday party day a few days later. She looked at me as if I had not heard the 1 million times that she told me she wanted a cupcake for her birthday and almost burst into tears. So :). We decided to let her pick out a special cupcake for her actual birthday.
After naptime, she got to go into the basement and see her special gift picked out and put up by her Daddy…he added a SWING to her beloved birthday present from last year–the gym in our basement.
Needless to say, she LOVES it…(and her Grandpa, too!!)
We went to Red Robin for dinner (her choice) where, of course, they sang her Happy Birthday and she buried herself into me as she normally does when put on the spot!But she definitely enjoyed her ice cream when the singing people went away :).Us!And then she had her long-awaited cupcake at home afterwards!!
HER BIRTHDAY PARTY:
Selah is our super tactile child. She LOVES playing in rice and sand and squishing play dough between her fingers. So we decided to party hard for her 3rd with play dough, her favorite friends, and her grandparents.
Our most wonderful Selah Bean is turning three!
She’s our silly, hilarious, playful one (as you know),
To you, her favorites, she asks: “Will you celebrate with me?!”
Join us for a party with games and PLAY DOUGH!!
We decorated our craft room with purple!Made favors for our friends!Personalized an apron for every kid!Decorated cupcakes with sprinkles!And waited patiently for our friends to arrive!
Our friends arrived and put on their aprons!Here’s everyone ready to create with play dough!Selah was overjoyed to have play dough in her hands and her favorite girlfriends by her side!Happy birthday girl!
The first challenge was to create a cupcake that Selah would like to eat for her birthday.
Elliott’s cupcake creations!Quinn’s delicious goodies!Charlotte’s yummy looking cupcakes!Selah’s dough-light-ful birthday cupcake!Ava’s cupcakes definitely took the cake 🙂
The next challenge was to create a playdough version of Selah. Here’s what we got:
Pretty good!!And Elliott’s playdough Selah is very creative!The dearest friends!!!!
The kids played with play dough for a little while longer until it was time for cake!
My darling girl and her cupcakes with sprinkles!Happy Birthday to you!Selah and her Nonna, who usually always wears purple, to Selah’s delight!!She opened some super fun and thoughtful presents from friends and family!Happy Birthday, our dear Selah Bean!!!
If you’ve made it this far :), here are some extra special birthday bonuses…
Here she is in the “three” dress that I made for her…
And THIS is a picture of ME when I turned 3, alongside of Selah on her birthday. My mom made this sweet Care Bear for me for my third birthday, and here is Selah with it as well!!
Towards the beginning of January, Elliott suddenly said to me, “Mommy, I would like an animal birthday party.” I hadn’t talked to him about a party theme, but I will confess that I already had his entire birthday planned out in my head–with a different theme! I’m not used to my kids being able to articulate their desires like this :). So, I’ll admit–it took me a couple days to be inspired, but thanks to some help by Pinterest, I was fully hooked in no time. And it was SO MUCH FUN to do something that was initiated by Elliott!
When I asked Elliott what was most important to him with the animal birthday party, he said, “I want REAL LIVE ANIMALS there!!!!”
The hilarious part about that, is that Elliott is TERRIFIED of animals. Seriously. He’s always been utterly fascinated by them, but he doesn’t want to be anywhere near them. Selah has acquired the same fear. We’ve definitely had some breakthrough over the years, but both of them are still terrified.
Going to the zoo itself just wasn’t practical this year, so we decided to have the zoo come to us! I pressed and prodded Elliott, reminding him that he’s often “a little” scared when he’s near animals, but he insisted that he wanted to see real live animals. When we got everything arranged and I told them we would have “REAL, LIVE animals” coming to our house, he was so excited. And when I asked him what type of animal he would really like to see, he boldly exclaimed, “A LION!!!!!” 🙂
So…party preparations began a few weeks prior to his birthday, because the kids and I made all the decorations. Oh my, it was SO.MUCH.FUN preparing together! Elliott L-O-V-E-S crafting and so it was incredibly special for him (and Selah) to be an integral part of the decorating. It was so awesome spending a few weeks making animal crafts and for the kids to watch our home slowly transform into a little jungle…
The first thing we made were my absolute FAVORITE decorations…I can’t get over how adorable these turned out. Both of the kids made each type of animal, so we had two of each kind–one big and one little. I just cut a Trader Joe’s bag into rectangles, and they stamped their hands right on each one! Then I added the details.
We hung our animal handprints around the house amidst jungle vines…
We printed off pictures of animals and found their heights, and put them up next to our growth chart so the kids could see which animal they were as tall as. Then, we decided to turn the growth chart into a tree! The kids cut out most of these leaves by themselves, fringes and all, and then put their thumbprints on them to make a few different types of bugs crawling through the trees!
He’s as tall as a tiger!Can you see the bees, ladybugs and ants crawling on the tree leaves?
I cut out this grass, but Elliott drew all of these little bugs! Aren’t they adorable!?!!
Tis little pony bead alligator and elephant were cheapo crafts from Michaels. The kids LOVE pony beads, so these were a hit.The kids each made a couple of these monkeys that we kept finding hanging around the house!!! (See the little banana in his hand?!)They’re everywhere!They each made birds that could REALLY fly! 🙂We made suncatcher butterflies to hang from our sliding glass doors. I think they turned out beautifully!!After mixing together colors to make orange for the orange handprint animals, Elliott just painted the rest of the paper plate so the whole thing was orange. Then he asked if we could turn the orange plate into a lion. So we tuned it into a lion mask! Then I thought it would be fun if we gave everyone a chance to “be a lion” so we put the mask up on the mirror in the entryway and drew the rest of his body…Elliott LOVES penguins, so I thought it would be fun to turn everyone who went to the bathroom into a penguin…so Elliott and I did this on the bathroom mirror :).This is his goofy penguin face, hahaha!!
Right after we decided to do an animal birthday party, I found Elliott in his room during quiet rest time making the coolest cage out of his straw builder things (or whatever they’re called, ha!) I said, “Hey! Should we make this into a zoo cage for all of your stuffed animals?!” He loved the idea, and he and Selah went to work the rest of the afternoon building a cage. Then, he painted this sign all by himself!!! (I did help him with apostrophe…)
Elliott’s Zoo!!We loaded our mantle with some of our favorite animal books, Daddy’s monkey from when he was little, and a zebra 4!The day before the party, Elliott helped me make the cupcakes!
The day of the party…
We found wild animal tracks leading up to our front door!!!The party room is all ready! You can’t really read it, but the banner strung up says, “Happy 4th Birthday Elliott” out of various animal print papers.Elliott had a few super special guests fly in for his birthday! His cousin Micah, Uncle Kevin, and Grandma and Grandpa!
All of his other friends arrived, and they started off by doing the thing that Elliott loves–crafting :). They each had a paper bag set out for them and they got to decorate it using animal stamps and stickers.
Here’s everyone working hard on their crafts. I love this special moment that I caught between Elliott and Auntie Suz :).
Then, they got to use they same supplies to decorate the covers for their very own binoculars. While the adults assembled binoculars, the kids got to make these cool snakes out of pipe cleaners and pony beads…again, one of Elliott’s FAVORITE crafting supplies.
These are Elliott and Selah’s snakes. We talked about patterns and they had a great time creating these!
And THEN it was time to hunt for animals using their binoculars! Elliott and Selah hid tiny plastic animals all over our living room and all the kids set out to hunt for them.
Selah would look through her binoculars and say, “I SPY YOU!!!!!”Here’s the Mighty Quinn, on the hunt!!Look what Micah found!!!
Then we went downstairs for a little “pin-the-tail-on-the-giraffe”…while half the kids were playing the game, the other half pretended to be monkeys and swung around on our gynamstics equipment in the basement!
We let Elliott go first and he put the tail EXACTLY where it should go! Ha!! He looked at me afterwards like, “Um, why was that so hard?” Hahaha!!Our buddy Malachi!Sweet Fable!Dramatic Selah 🙂
Then, it was time for lunch! Highlights included: pigs in a blanket, zebra popcorn, lion veggies, goldfish crackers, animal crackers, penguin gummies, mice-infested meat and cheese tray and meatballs :).
After these wild party animals had their fill, there was a knock at the door…the REAL LIVE ANIMALS had arrived!!!
The first one was a three-banded Armadillo!!You can tell how my kids felt about him!!Elliott even had the chance to feed it a live cricket! (It’s hard to see, but he’s holding long tweezers with a cricket pinched inside.) It’s all fun and games until said birthday boy accidentally lets the live cricket loose…It was all we could do to encourage him to take a picture with it :).
Next up was a real live SNAKE!!
Fable’s face says it all!!! HA!!And then, a TURTLE!And last, but not least, a Chinchilla!
The kids all got the opportunity to touch each animal and it was such a fun experience!! Elliott was FASCINATED with the animals and couldn’t stop talking about them…he just still didn’t really want to be near them…as I suspected :).
After the animals left, we had cake and opened presents!!
Animals…behind pretzel cages.Elliott helped me decorate…and sprinkled some with “grass” and left others white so they would look like snow.Blowing out his four candles!!Everyone devoured their cupcakes, including this wild girl.Elliott’s friends were so generous and thoughtful and he got some super fun gifts!The party animals!The Moberg Pack!Such a fun day celebrating this wild 4 year old!!!
Get it? Like tutu…but TWOTWO…? Haha…okay, moving on :).
We spent A LOT of time thinking and talking about what would really bless our little girl on her birthday this year. She doesn’t really have any friends her age, because most of her friends are 3 and 4 year old boys! What she loves most is to jump, swing, climb, hang and tumble. We recently enrolled her in a gymnastics class to help grow her natural talent and love for gymnastics, but we ultimately decided the best thing to do for her birthday was build something in our basement where she could swing and climb and hang to her heart’s delight any time she wanted to. We looked into buying them and wowsers–they are NOT cheap!! So, Selah’s UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME Daddy designed his own set for just the cost of a 2×4 and a few simple rings, bars, ropes, etc. to hang from it. So impressed :). Pictures below…
So, we had a super simple birthday party for our sweet Selah B this year. The colors were purple (her FAVORITE color) and gold (because isn’t everything better with a little gold glitter?!). I made her a special outfit, Brian made her the INCREDIBLE new gymnastics play set in our basement, and we had the grandparents over for dinner. It was a special afternoon/evening, followed by a birthday dinner at Red Robin on her actual birthday. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE celebrating?!! Such a joy to celebrate our little girl.
The morning of her birthday celebration, we let her open up her first little gift:
Nail polish!This is the very first time I’ve painted her nails!I love when her little bottom lip sticks out like this…the moments that she’s concentrating REALLY hard…Purple with sparkles, of course :).
She took a nap, and Brian helped me decorate like crazy. She woke up to this:
Purple & gold!Her TwoTwo cake!And her TwoTwo outfit. Shirt and skirt made by yours truly! (Well, I bought the plain cream shirt but added the bling myself ;)).Brian brought her down the stairs…She was so sweet pointing and naming everything she saw…“2!!”This is such a classic “Selah” snuggle…a shy little smile and she snuggles into you when she’s excited about what she sees!She LOVES her Nonna!!I took her upstairs to put on her special TwoTwo outfit, and she just LIT up…along with lighting up the room!!Then we brought her downstairs to her biggest birthday surprise…Needless to say, she was VERY excited to see multiple objects that she could hang from hanging from the ceiling!!This is what she saw!And this is what she did!This is our little gymnast!!She could eat, sleep, and live like this…seriously!She loves the rope ladder!…and the rope swing!We also got our thrill baby this little roller coaster :).Um, she loves it :).Periodically she would stop her tumbling and swinging and go hug someone :).Or stand on her head :).Time for cake!My darling two year old!Twins with her cake!Happy birthday to you!She conquered those two candles!!The out-of-town grandparents!The in-town grandparents!Y la familia 🙂
HER ACTUAL BIRTHDAY! The morning of her birthday we went to the park with some friends.
Because there’s nothing like a little excavating on your birthday!And who WOULDN’T want to crawl inside a giant hippo on your birthday?After her nap, she laid on my bed with me and just SNUGGLED me for soooo long, which is not something my active little girl usually likes to do :). I was so blessed.We blew up a purple balloon!
Daddy got home from work and Grandma, Grandpa, Elliott, Selah and I all loaded into the car…
…and brought this bright 2 year old to Red Robin!We ADORE her….
She got several super sweet gifts, but I won’t include every picture I took from her birthday here :). One of her favorites was this baby doll we got her. She ADORES real babies, and so we wanted to get her a “real-looking” baby doll. She was IN LOVE immediately. (That is, until her Aunt Amber, Uncle Jeff, and cousins got her a DIFFERENT baby doll that has far trumped this one, haha!!)She studied every detail on her baby……including how her eyes opened and closed…
Then, she went downstairs to discover that Grandma and Grandpa had gotten her two play mats to put beneath the swinging things!
She was SO thrilled, and ran and jumped on them with her baby in hand.And did a somersault……with her baby in hand!She showed her baby her new roller coaster.But did set her down to do this :).
What JOY to celebrate our wonderful two year old!!! I think she was blessed. She certainly slept well that night…
I will admit, I sort of dreaded March 20th this year. I am definitely a little sad that my baby boy has left the TWOS. I have LOVED watching him grow this year. Whereas when they are one I learn so much about their personalities, it is while he was two that I got to see so many glimpses of his heart blossom. Yes, I realize that I will only get to see more and more as the years go on, but it was a sad farewell for me on March 20. This past year, I have watched his passions ignite and his heart soften. I have watched his love for people increase and his hunger to know the Lord and His word grow. He still carries a unique love for balls of all sorts but is fascinated with big trucks and wants his daddy to tell him about every truck he sees. “Daddy! Know this truck ‘dues’?” he asks each time. He still LOVES to read and could sit and have you read to him all day. He could be in the middle of almost anything, hear one of us reading to Selah in another room, and he will come RUNNING to snuggle in next to us and listen. He has memorized a few of his (long!) books and will often “read” them to us. He is still a puzzle genius. He loves applesauce. He always wants one of us to “sit close by me!” during meal times. When Brian eats his breakfast “on the go” (which happens often), Elliott will say, “Daddy, will you please sit down? Close by me?” I’m usually his dinner favorite 🙂 and it’s not enough to be sitting about a foot away from me. He’ll turn to me and say, “Mommy, please scoot me close by you?” and I will pull his chair over until it is touching mine. Usually what follows is a sweet boy cuddling up to my arm, looking up to me and saying, “Mommy I ‘yove’ you. AND I ‘yike’ you.” He melts my heart and amazes me every day.
A big three-year-old hug! (Drool and all…)
One of his favorite things to do is be a “Working Guy.” For months and months now, he’ll put on his hard hat, grab his tools, announce, “I’m a working guy!” and go “fix” something that’s “broken” in our house. It’s usually the chairs around the kitchen table that need fixing…almost daily :). So we decided to have a Working Guy birthday party with 3 of his favorite buddies (unfortunately, his friend Mookie couldn’t make it at the last minute but I’m sure he’ll be over soon to be a working guy with Elliott) and then we had a family Working Guy birthday party where he got to (start) building his very first REAL Working Guy project with his daddy…a soccer goal!!
I tried to keep it SIMPLE!! Yay, me!! 🙂 Parties just bring out this addiction in me (seriously, I think it might be an addiction!!!) that makes me want to go all out. I LOVE to celebrate and I LOVE a good party. So, being as we decided a week and a half before his birthday to have a party I was really forced to keep it simple. I’m pretty proud of myself :). One of the best parts? USING MY BRAND NEW SILHOUETTE CAMEO!!!! Seriously, this thing is amazing. Definitely added to the “life-changing” list. With just a few strokes on the keyboard and the click of a button, the machine cut out ALL of these signs FOR ME!!! Oh, it’s a brand new day in the party-planning world :).
Welcome to the Party!Elliott’s first present and his friends’ gear for the party!Come on, now…how adorable are these? Each Working Guy (and Selah the Working Girl) got his/her very own tool belt complete with tools and personalized hard hat for the party.The birthday boy, wearing one of his daddy’s old shirts from when he was a kid, eager for the party to start!That morning, we asked Elliott what he was most excited about now that he was 3, and he said, “I get to eat CAKE!”The foreman, reviewing the projects of the day.Elliott opened his first present from us (a REAL working guy outfit!) and then equipped his working guy friends with their working gear. (**Note: I thought the tool belts and hats were the COOLEST things ever but there was never even ONE moment, literally, during the entire party where they all had on their gear at once, haha! But I did catch one moment on camera where they were all at least wearing their hard hats (you’ll see that below)! Things you learn after throwing a birthday party with three year olds :))Here’s the whole crew–Elliott’s best buddies. Selah, Malachi and Justus (we missed our buddy Mookie!!).They “helped” Brian build model machines and then painted them to their liking.Here is Justus meticulously painting his hanger plane gold.Selah INSISTED on doing everything the boys did, and so after not falling for “pretend painting” we finally gave her some real paint to paint with, too. 🙂Next, we had the ring toss.Each boy got a ring around the cone at least once!They hammered golf tees into foam (for SURE the hit of the party…get it?? “hit”?? Haha…)This working girl learned the ropes from her big birthday bro!They built towers…
And lastly, they refueled with some yummy lunch and, of course…CAKE!!
How old are you, Elliott? “THREE!!!” (plus 5??)Mmmm…Those working guys needed some CAKE!Us.
A few days later we had a “family” birthday for Elliott with both sets of grandparents there! Elliott started construction on his very first REAL working guy project…a soccer goal made out of PVC pipes!
All the grandparents!Checking the plans with Daddy…Measuring the correct length…And sawing with Daddy and Grandpa. WHAT a WORKING GUY HE IS!!Once a working guy, always a working guy…
There are few things more fun in life than celebrating the life of your children. Yes, I DO celebrate them every day of their lives…but once a year, a super special date rolls around, and I get to go a little above-and-beyond. My baby girl only turns one once!!!
A few good friends flapped on over to join us, and Brian’s parents even flew over for the festivities! What a joyous day!!
“It’s TWEET to be ONE!”
Let’s get this party started!“TWEETS”
Selah Beans, Ruffled (Feathers) with Bird Droppings, Boiled Bird Eggs (read: Deviled Eggs fail!), Bird Beaks, Bird Seeds, Fruit From a Big Green Egg, Bird Nests, and a Bird Bath
My, oh my, how the first year flew by! Put the Selah Birdies in order from month 1- month 12!Selah’s Birthday BannerThe Birthday Girl!!!!
Everyone ate the “bird food” and the big kiddos got to do a craft.
Here’s Miss Ava, showing off the awesome bird she created! (You can’t see it too well, but she is feeding the bird a gummy worm!) 🙂
Time for CUPCAKES!!
My friend Tish did all the cupcake baking for me! They were AMAZING!!!!
We couldn’t wait to see how Selah would react to her very first taste of sugar! I think this is my favorite part of the 1 year old birthday parties :).
As everyone sang, she didn’t even noticed the flaming pink and chocolate yumminess that I was holding for her. She just stared at everyone…studying everything! Maybe we were off key??Elliott helped her blow out the candle.…and then she carefully inspected the foreign object in front of her.“What on earth is this squishy sponge-like substance?”“Okay, now it’s on my hands…eww.” (In other news…Like father, like daughter; like mother, like son…look at each of our faces, haha!!)So when she wouldn’t take a bite, Brian finally gave her a taste……aaaannddd she wasn’t super impressed :).“What did I do to deserve THIS? Is this a rite of passage for turning one?”“Mama, can we have a little talk about this cupcake thing? Privately…in another room, please?”“Maybe if I offer it to someone else with a cute smile on my face, they’ll fall for it…hee…hee…”“I’m full now, Mama…may I please be excused from eating this pink and brown sponge?”
PRESENT TIME!
Selah was lavished by our friends and familyElliott was a VERY good helper and VERY willing to help Selah open all of her presents. Such a servant :).Selah has a slight obsession with hats and shoes. Since we live in Colorado, I thought it only appropriate to get her a cowboy hat and boots. We couldn’t WAIT for her to open it up! Here she is trying it on for the first time.Our friends the Sundbys got Selah this AWESOME giraffe chair, without even knowing that her favorite passtime is throwing herself without caution onto floors, couches, pillows, beds, etc. This giraffe chair has provided HOURS of entertainment as she lounges, rolls, somersaults, climbs and throws herself on top of it!
Some of our FAVORITE PEEPS:
So grateful that Selah gets to walk alongside of Miss Ariel as she grows up. What a beautiful, tender-spirited, kind, already-godly 9-year-old role model!Family photographer 🙂 and dear, dear friend… Auntie SuzSweet Charlotte teaching Selah how the doll she gave her works.Playing peek-a-boo with Kari and AvaThere she is!“Your turn!”Finally getting to meet Sara and Emmy!The guests who traveled the farthest to celebrate our Selah Bean…Grandma and Granpda!!Us.The favors
We celebrated a couple weeks later with my family down in the Springs. Her super special birthday gift was this beautiful, hand-made blanket by my mom.
What a gift to be treasured!!
October 8, 2013: HER ACTUAL BIRTHDAY!
The night before Selah’s birthday, I was on my way home, thinking about the day that Selah came, and I just began to cry…how had one year FLOWN by already…It was Brian’s birthday, and I vividly remembered every detail of where I was, how I was feeling at that VERY MOMENT one year ago…resting in such faith, knowing that The Great Shepherd was writing her story. There were so many unknowns. And oh, how faithful He was, and how faithful He has been…to guard, protect, and guide her life. It’s a crazy concept to grasp, but nothing could be truer: God loves her more than I do. Whew.
So, eyes wet with tears, I came home to such a fun sight: Brian and his dad putting together the play kitchen that his parents got for Selah. We were so excited for her to wake up to it on her birthday!!
Brian and I turned in for the night and began to relive those very moments in time, one year ago. And as I blubbered through my mess of “He was just so faithful to us!!” Brian burst out, “Let’s go sneak into her room and write her an email!!”
I love it. If you don’t know already, both our kids have email addresses (and they’re waiting to hear from YOU!). We write to them regularly, often attaching pictures off of our phone from the day’s events. So we snuck into her room around 10 at night with our little lap top in hand…It was PITCH BLACK and HILARIOUS as we fumbled about, trying to be quiet but without ANY source of light. We finally got the computer on and began to type to her as we listened to her breathe. It was perfect. And a million times more fun than the labor I was in one year earlier at that very moment :).
And many hours later, our baby girl awoke…as a ONE YEAR OLD!!!!
And both the kids got right to work!!Thrilled to be one, thrilled to be in Daddy’s arms…This shirt is SUPER special because, besides the fact that it is adorable, it is a hand-me-down from Kari’s girls, Ava and Charlotte…who wore this shirt for each of their 1st birthdays, too!We celebrated by doing the thing that Selah loves most–going to the park and going up and down the slide OVER AND OVER AND OVER again…She just loves to be thrilled!!!After the park we got out her other special present from us–a stroller! With a super sweet baby doll from Auntie Melisa!She walked with it for a minute or two, until……she realized it was the perfect object TO CLIMB…“I think I’m starting to get the hang of this stroller thing…do you think the doll minds that I’m stepping on her face?”“Okay, this is AWESOME! NOW I see why you got me this toy!”And, finally, we tried round 2 of the whole “cupcake” thing. She was much less cautious this time around…And even looked like she ENJOYED it :).Happiest 1st birthday, Baby Bean…what a JOY to celebrate you!!!!
Although it’s our joy to celebrate our son every day of his life, I love when birthdays come around because it’s an excuse to celebrate him a little over-the-top!
His birthday celebrations started on the Friday before his birthday at “preschool” (Elliott attended a little preschool 2-3 mornings a week with his other YWAM buddies). His teacher, Miss Jennifer, said she thought it would be fun to do a little celebration for him! So I baked up a little treat, Brian, Selah and I surprised him at preschool, we all sang happy birthday, and he got to try (what I think was) his very first brownie.
“And you’re saying this is just the BEGINNING of my birthday celebrations?!!”
There was no doubt in our minds that the best way to celebrate our ball-loving boy was to have a ball!with his favorite friends. So the next day, Saturday, we did that very thing. Grandma and Grandpa Moberg even made it down for the festivities! I jumped on Pinterest for the first time, came up with a few of my own ideas, and had a ball planning his celebration! Because *someone* took WAYYYY too many pictures for an ordinary blog post, I’ve decided to just put “a few” up here, and I posted the rest in a gallery. Feel free to click at the very bottom to see more pictures from all his birthday celebrations!
We started off outside playing ball games.
So happy with balls in his hands…So happy that his good friend Louie was there to play, too.The pre-games game. The point was to bounce the ball into the holes, but Elliott preferred to sit and throw :).
Brian and Elliott explain the first game–the Ping Pong ball hunt. Brian asked Elliott to hold up a ping pong ball, and Elliott held it up the ENTIRE time that Brian explained the rules. So cute. What’s a Ping Pong Ball hunt, you ask? Well, what would YOU do if you were a boy and you knew that 144 ping pong balls were hidden in the surrounding area? HUNT THEM, of course!!
The challenge was, they didn’t get the privilege of using anything to hold all their ping pong balls except their helper adult that they chose. The adults had to get creative so as not to disappoint. Here’s Declan and Brodie!
Next game: Carry the ping pong ball to the bucket with a spoon!
Lil’ Louie, such a pro!“Carry the ping pong ball to the bucket while it’s on the spoon? No problem!”
Here are Noah, Hunter and Elliott all running toward the bucket. Noah is the only one following the rules :). But I love how Hunter and Elliott have created their OWN unique way of getting the ping pong ball to the bucket, ha! 🙂
Next, Brian set up a little bowling game for the boys. And after all of that wild running around and ball playing, it was time to EAT! I actually had a super cute ball craft that I found on Pinterest that I wanted to do, but everyone was hungry :). Oh, well…next year! 🙂
So we continued to have a ball indoors…
The “Let’s Have a Ball” banner I made, with the annual birthday banner hanging on top!What do you do when your son’s birthday party is right in the middle of a big move and all of the shelves are empty because everything is packed up? That’s right, you line them with balls! Balloon balls, that is! I came up with this idea–drawing on balloons with sharpies!
Ball-themed food, set up on a football field! Thank you, Pinterest!I came up with these little football field posts to mark the food!
Round drinks with pinterest-inspired straw markers that I made.
Other Special Guests:
Grandpa with Selah B!
and Grandma!Jamie, baby Madison, Amanda and Korrin!Bonnie, Brodie and the Ninos!Bex, Malene, and Jennifer…England, Norway, and America all representing at Elliott’s “very American” ball birthday party…in MEXICO! I love it!
So we all ate…
“Apple juice, a ball bib, AND I get to drink out of a baseball straw with my name on it?!? I LOVE having a birthday!!!”
…And Elliott opened presents!
“Hmm…I think I’ll open the one shaped like A BALL first…”The MOST exciting race car from Tio Giezi and Tia Amanda! (You can tell the “like” factor by measuring the length of drool hanging out of his mouth…)
And then, of course, we had cupcakes!
Thank you, pinterest! My favorite part…icing these babies :).
SO excited to blow out his baseball and football candles on a soccer ball cupcake!
Um, I love him.Brian let him blow out his candles three times because he loved it so much! HA!Time to dig in!
Louie, Elliott, Declan, Noah and Hunter!“Hope you had a ball!” with hacky sacks for party favors 🙂Our family with a WIPED out Elliott, wearing his new hat, with his new basketball in arm’s reach :).
Elliott was SO BLESSED by all of his friends and family that came out to have a ball with him!! When everyone had left, he took a nap while Brian, Ken, Marilyn and I started packing up the rest of our house. Two days later, we were completely moved out of Mexico! Ken, Marilyn, and the kids and I spent two days in San Diego while Brian started the drive to Tacoma. We flew out on March 20, the day Elliott turned 2! (Which, ironically enough, meant that we had to buy him his own ticket!)
The night before his birthday as I was tucking him into bed, I explained to him that he would wake up the next day and be two! (I started to tell him about the day he was born, but then I stopped because I want to see if he can remember his birth story without me telling him when he turns 3…I know I’m crazy, but I’ve heard IT’S POSSIBLE!!) So I told him how special that day was, when Daddy and I got to hold him in our arms for the first time. He asked about Selah, and I told him she wasn’t born yet. 🙂 Anyhow, the next morning I was awoken extra early by Elliott’s voice in the other room saying, “Two! Two! Two!!” Melt my heart.
I searched long and hard to find Elliott this birthday pin so everyone on the plane would know it was his birthday, but he refused to wear it most of the day. He really wanted ME to wear it, which is SO like him :).
March 20, 2013!
Periodically I would ask him if he wanted to put it on, and this time he said, “yes”!! So I stuck it on him and snapped a picture!Buckling Elmo in…AFTER he had buckled himself in, of course :).Missing Daddy on the plane. But SO BLESSED to have Grandma and Grandpa there to help with the kiddos and all the luggage!!
So AS IF having cupcakes at preschool, a super fun birthday party, AND a plane ride weren’t ENOUGH for this two year old, he had birthday celebrations in both Tacoma and Colorado with family!! What a blessed kiddo!!!!
The Tacoma Festivities
Ken made his classic Mud Pie in a round pie dish so I could decorate it like a soccer ball!! Elliott was getting very used to being sung to, and was soaking in every minute of his new favorite song, “Happy Birthday!”
He got so many fun presents, including a super cool t-ball set from Aunt Angela!The whole Moberg clan!The Moberg cousins: Selah, Taylor, Micah, Elliott and Hailey!
And on to Colorado, to celebrate with Uncle Doug whose birthday is just a couple weeks after Elliott’s.
“You snooze, you lose, Uncle Doug! I’m the fastest candle snuffer in town!”Never-ending presents…
Grandpa and Nonna with most of the grand kids (we missed you, Andrew and Courtney!!)
Well, I hope you had a ball celebrating vicariously through this blog post with Elliott!! If you haven’t had enough yet, feel free to click on Elliott’s 2nd Birthday Gallery to see more pictures from all of his birthday celebrations!
Happy, happy birthday to our big TWO YEAR OLD!! What a JOY it is to celebrate YOUR LIFE!!!!
My sweet baby boy turned one (yes, 6 weeks ago, but that’s beside the point), and we were so excited to celebrate him!! Although this post is quite late, I wanted to get it up anyway :).
Due to the fact that the majority of our resources–time, energy, and money–for Elliott’s birthday were dedicated to his House Build, I committed to keeping the party itself SIMPLE. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t have some fun :).
We had Elliott’s Birthday Banner up the whole week preceding his birthday. Melisa and I designed and made this banner several months ago for Elliott out of the same material that my friend Amy made his quilt and wall hangings out of. We’ll add a new photo each year!
The Birthday Banner!
Let’s get this party started!
We went with a construction theme (of course). And with a few sheets of yellow cardstock, a Sharpie, our printer, some balloons, and some Spanish “Caution” tape, we had our decor.
THE DECOR
Construction signs everywhere!Some of our guests relaxing before lunch (American tacos, of course) is served.The party game…putting Elliott's photos in order from 1-11 months old!Brian designed the cupcake construction signs himself!Cupcakes galore
THE FIRST BITE OF BIRTHDAY CUPCAKE!
Lighting Elliott's cupcake…me and the baby bump 🙂Everyone's singing "Happy Birthday," and Elliott is LOVING it!!Trying to explain that he has to blow out the candle…"Mom, that's the silliest thing I've EVER heard!!""Seriously, Mom? No way! I'm feeling a bit candle shy today…""Helping him" blow it out before he grabs onto the flame…"Now what do I do? ""Oooh…I've never felt anything like THIS before…""Ehh…let me touch it with my right hand, too."When, after a few minutes of poking and prodding this strange sugar phenomenon, it was clear that Elliott had deemed this object inedible, Brian helped him out."Whoa. Now that was different.""Let me try that again. Is everyone still watching? Good.""Wow. That is REALLY something.""I'd better try one more bite."
Now, when Elliott really likes something that we’ve given him to eat, he either does one of two things: he smiles so big and waves at us, or, he wants to kiss us over and over again. As you may or may not know, Elliott’s kisses are VERY open-mouthed. So after about three bites, apparently he decided he liked it, and leaned in to give me kiss…
*Melt my heart*We BOTH had a chocolate mustache after that smooch!!
He kissed me two or three times in a row, and every time he did, all of the party guests (of course) went, “Awww….” I think he really liked that, so after every kiss, he broke out into joyous applause for himself. It was awesome.
So pleased with himself for kissing Mommy. 🙂My goodness, I love him!!!
Brian and I tried to take advantage of his smoozing with the camera to sneak in a family pic. Little did we know that Elliott had very much moved on already.
"Alright, alright…enough kissing and clapping. Lemme have another bite of that awesome goodness!"Finally got a family birthday picture in there :)."Mmmm. Now THAT was good. Talk about about satisfaction!"
THE GUESTS!
FamilyMost of our DTS familyMark, Korrin, and two of their boys–Noah (who apparently is camera shy) and Declan. Elliott looks up to these boys so much! We are grateful for these new friends who are on staff here for the next 2 years!Louie, Taylor, Micah, Declan, Hailey, Elliott, Noah (Hunter had already gone home to take a nap)Grandma & Grandpa Moberg with all the grandkids
You know, it wasn’t easy thinking about the fact that Elliott’s first birthday would be far, far away from the people whom we love most dearly and from the people who love our sweet baby boy so much. But I am so grateful for how the Lord came through and made Elliott’s birthday lacking nothing. Don’t get me wrong–I missed my family tremendously and all of my dear friends spread across the globe. But Elliott’s birthday was rich. Rich with friendship, with love, with giving to a family in need. We are so grateful that Brian’s family could come down for the weekend, and that our DTS class adores Elliott and were all so excited to celebrate him. We are so grateful that Elliott has new friends here–Noah, Declan, Louie, Hunter and Parker–and most of them could make it to his party! We are grateful.
Happy 1st Birthday, Elliott Brian!!! What a joy it is to celebrate your life!!!
