Praise the Lord for getting to celebrate another year of our daughter’s life!
Selah asked to have her closest friends over for a day and a sleepover this year, so we made it happen. Year after year I am overwhelmingly grateful for these precious friends God has gifted Selah with. They are just truly my favorites, and I couldn’t have thought to ask for more!
I planned nothing other than food. Selah led it all. The girls pulled out all of our crafting supplies and went to work creating varies projects. I happened to be in the next room during this time and it blessed my heart to hear them singing hymns and an ancient Hebrew song in rounds in between giggling and laughing and crafting. Such a delight.
Then they had a picnic on our dock, went on a UTV ride, and played games. We had homemade pizza and Caesar Salad for dinner. Selah requested homemade milkshakes for her dessert. The girls all spent the night though I am not sure they got any sleep (obviously). The next morning was Sunday so we had a feast of a breakfast and all headed off to church together!
The day before she turned 12 she cut just over 12 inches off of her hair to donate.
On her actual birthday, we celebrated with French Toast for breakfast and Chicken Alfredo for dinner. She took Grandpa, Daddy, and me on a UTV ride and spent the rest of the day playing games with Elliott, Grandma, and Grandpa.
Perhaps the biggest milestone that occurred on this birthday was this:
Selah has always been an inch or so behind Elliott each year. But at 12 years old, Selah is a quarter of an inch taller than Elliott was when he turned 12. You have no idea how victorious she feels over her big brother.
Selah has been counting down the days until she turned 12 for one reason: so she could be old enough to work in our church nursery. 🙂 This is somewhat ironic because pretty much every mother in the church has wholeheartedly trusted Selah with her babies for years. Selah *ALWAYS* has a baby in arms on Sundays. She told me once that she has a specific rotation as soon as the service is over for how to get to every single baby. She first visits the ones whose families leave the soonest, and then she moves on to make sure she can hold each one before the day is over. It is surprising to NOT see Selah going through the potluck line with a plate in one hand and a baby on her hip. But, now she is allowed to officially be a nursery worker. She’s delighted.
Selah is 2/3 of the way to 18! I am so grateful for the spunk, joy, and zeal that explodes out of our tenderhearted girl. Just as her name suggests, she truly sings her way through life, wafting the sweetest melody of Christ’s fragrance in her wake. She brings so much joy and love into our lives!!
Selah’s birthday landed on a Sunday this year, which, in my kids’ eyes, always makes life extra special. When special events fall on a Sunday, that means we get to celebrate with our church family! Our church is quite small–we have around 120 each Sunday–and so it truly feels like family. And in this small church of ours, there are FOUR people whose birthdays fall on October 8th like Selah! To make it even more extraordinary, two of those people are a mother-son pair. Wouldn’t it have been amazing if Brian would have been born one day later, and then we would have had a father-daughter pair as well! Our friend surprised the quad with a yummy birthday cake and everyone sang happy birthday to them at lunch. It was so special.
Though the sweet little boy in the top picture absolutely adores Selah, he wasn’t particularly keen on everyone singing so loudly 🙂
We ended up taking home Selah’s best friends from church and having a party that afternoon.
I ended up planning an “Escape Room” type party for her…I had very little capacity, but with Elliott’s help we totally pulled it off. It was so much fun planning everything out with him! And he even said it was more fun planning it than actually experiencing it! We did some internet searching and he helped me orchestrate everything.
The girls arrived to our living room, which was filled with balloons of many different colors, a Lego clue on the coffee table, and two locked suitcases in the corner.
They had to figure out that the Lego board was a clue, which meant they had to pop the balloons in that order (green, yellow, pink, red) in order to find a number in each one. Those numbers put together created a four-digit code, which opened up the smaller blue suitcase.
Inside the suitcase was a riddle that read: “What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?”
Selah knew the answer immediately–a towel. They tried the guest bathroom towel first, but when they didn’t find anything they ran upstairs to the kids’ bathroom.
Pinned inside the towel was a message that needed decoding. The decoder was also pinned inside. The girls found it immediately and got right to work.
The code read, “Sometimes when you get in this, you might choose to sing a song, you can get wrinkly fingers, if you stay in this too long.”
They raced back to the bathroom and pulled open the shower curtain. There was what was supposed to be a bath bomb…it was more like a glob of baking soda/water, but it worked! They cracked it open and inside the bath bomb was the key to our UTV. As soon as Selah realized what it was, the girls ran (screaming) downstairs and outside to the UTV. Unfortunately, I did not realize that nobody (except one girl) thought to put their shoes on. Total mom fail.
They ran to the UTV, where Elliott happened to be waiting, and found this taped to the dashboard:
In case you don’t want to take the time to decode the top puzzle, it reads, “How many Austrian Pines did we plant?” The girls had to solve that puzzle and direct their chauffeur to bring them to the trees to count it. Second mom fail was that I couldn’t actually remember what the correct number was, and the girls kept coming up with different answers. I had to call Brian so he could confirm! Once we all finally figured out what the correct number was, they had to plug it into the equation in #2. Can you tell that Elliott came up with that?! Once they got THAT answer, Selah had to figure out that the answer to #2 was a code that opened a lock, and the lock was located under the biggest pine tree that we planted, as indicated by clue #3.
There’s nothing like walking across a property riddled with cacti WITH NO SHOES ON. Once they unlocked the padlock, they opened the suitcase to find the following code:
The answer was “a flag,” and we were hoping Selah would connect that Elliott just bought a flag to put up next to his fort. He has spent years working on this underground fort! She figured it out and we headed to the fort, where she immediately began searching. With no shoes on.
Pinned to the bottom of one of the pieces of plywood was the following riddle:
They had a LOT of trouble figuring this one out. With a few guiding questions, they finally figured out that the answer was “tomorrow.” When I asked where they thought they should go next, Selah immediately knew to go to the kitchen calendar, where she found the following:
In case you don’t know, Jill the hedgehog has been Selah’s pet since February. A picture of Jill on “tomorrow” directed the girls to Jill’s cage.
This was a bit of a stretch, but they needed to find the paper that said, “Pull here.” That paper was attached to a long piece of yarn. At the end of the yarn was a magnet and a piece of paper that read, “Tall when seated, short when standing.” They had to figure out that the answer was a dog. (That took a few minutes!) Selah has about 101 dogs in her room, but I placed one of her sitting stuffed dogs next to a jar of dyed water on her desk. They had to figure out to use the magnet on the end of the string to get the key inside the jar.
Once they retrieved the key, they knew it went to the lock on the suitcase in her room. Inside that suitcase was a printed out photo of our home library book shelves. Also in that suitcase was a piece of parchment paper. Elliott had cut a corner off on the upper ride side of the photo. They had to match the parchment paper, which also had the upper right corner cut off, over the photo. If they did so correctly, they could see where there was an “X” drawn on the parchment. The “X” marked our box set of The Iliad and The Odyssey.
The girls ran down to the library and found those books. They pulled them out and found the final clue inside–
They pretty quickly realized that this must be the clue that opened the other locked suitcase in the living room, where they began. There were two locks on that suitcase, and they had to figure out that they needed to type in 1008 (for 10-08, or October 8) on one pad lock, and 2012 (for the year she was born) on the other pad lock. Working together they eventually figured it out and found their awaiting prizes inside. Each girl got a nice wooden logic puzzle, two small metal logic puzzles, two spy pens and two notebooks, and these cute little hedgehogs! Each hedgehog base came with stickers that the girls could place on him. There were acorns and pumpkins and fall leaves–could anything be more perfect than little fall hedgehogs?! I just couldn’t resist.
Selah had requested English Muffin Individual Pizzas and Caesar Salad for dinner, so I set up a pizza bar, complete with English Muffins, pizza sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, olives, pepperoni, canadian bacon, and homemade bacon crumbles. The girls built their pizzas and then went out side to play while they cooked in the oven. They had a grand old time building obstacle courses and eating outside on our lawn. Then they enjoyed some ice cream for dessert.
Here are a spattering of other special photos from her birthday:
Elliott got her a stuffed hedgehog 🙂At her request, I made mini fruit tarts to share at our weekly church pot luck on her birthday. Her new stuffed hedgehog helped her blow out the candles on her birthday mud pie.
Well, my friends, we officially have a pre-teen for the first time ever. What a marvel to watch these little people on their journey towards adulthood, growing more in the grace of God and the image of Christ with each passing year!
As I’ve mentioned in the past, Elliott has declared that the only thing he ever wants to do for the rest of his birthdays is have Epic Capture the Flag parties every single year. Each year it has become a bit more epic, and I will say this year was definitely the most epic year of all. I am not sure I can handle if his birthdays become any more epic, so perhaps this is the climax of epic-ness. (I know….unlikely…and that’s okay.)
Elliott continues to be the child who, just like his mother, always wants to invite EV-ER-EEEE-BOD-Y. That “EV-ER-EEE-BOD-Y” was taken to a whole new level this year when 83 people came to his party. Yes, that was not a typo. EIGHTY-THREE persons graced our property on that chilly, yet perfectly gorgeous Colorado day. (Eighty-seven if you count parents who did not stay to hang out, but just dropped off/picked up.)
We had over 50 kids playing Capture the Flag and it was, may I say, EPIC.
We had a dozen or so more kids join after the group photo that was taken towards the beginning. Good thing we got smart this year and procured a megaphone for the big day!
You can see them scattered about our property in the above picture. After a couple of games, everyone headed back to our back yard for lunch and ice cream.
On his actual birthday, he got to open some thoughtful presents from his parents and grandparents. I just love watching my kids open presents. The expressiveness of their gratitude never ceases to delight my heart. I love how Selah’s expressiveness just magnifies Elliott’s.
As a family, we celebrated with waffles the morning of his actual birthday, leftover croissant sandwiches from his party for lunch, and pulled pork BBQ and baked beans for dinner. And, obviously, mud pie for dessert!
We have had those cone candles since he turned 3, and have used them almost every year since! Think they’ll last till he’s 18?
Our “big” present to him this year was to allow him to foster a red-eared slider. She was in need of a home and our neighbors wondered if she would enjoy our pond. Elliott has long wanted a turtle to keep as a pet and so Brian and I decided to give it a shot, knowing that if it didn’t work out we could set her free in our pond. Elliott was over-the-moon.
Meet Pickles, the giant red-eared slider.
What we didn’t know when we agreed to take her was how HUGE she was. She would really need her own 50-75 gallon tank and you probably know that Elliott already has one of those filled with fish. Our house is not big enough for two 75-gallon tanks! So we enjoyed her presence for a couple months and then decided to set her free into our pond– a space we knew she would enjoy much more.
It occurred to me that “twelve” marks being 2/3 of his way to 18. It’s just so hard to believe!! Look at this little guy at one year old, six years old and twelve years old. It’s just amazing to watch, as a parent, how your child can grow up and change SO MUCH and yet be EXACTLY THE SAME as you remember him as a baby. He has the same joy, the same smile, the same personality, and yet he has GROWN tremendously. A true and beautiful paradox of life.
*You probably noticed, but our website is officially UNDER CONSTRUCTION! Woo-hoo! So pardon our mess as we rebuild it, but for now at least you can finally read our blog clearly!!*
Our big girl turned 10!
We celebrated by having a PARTY! PARTY! More specifically, a DOUBLE DIGITS PARTY PARTY! This was really fun. I feel like there is so much more you could do with this theme than we had time for!
This was a big year, and Selah made a big decision–to invite all of her closest church friends, rather than just one. What a treat!! What a joy!! So we started the PARTY PARTY around 5 pm on a Friday with pizza and salad. Yes, I know I’m the only one in the world who cares about making the food match the theme, but come on–that’s awesome, right? Get it? piZZA and sAlAd!! Double Z and double A!
Next, she opened presents. She was so blessed!
We got her a gift that kicked off the DOUBLE DIGITS PARTY PARTY games: Pass the Pigs. You guys. Have you ever played Pass the Pigs? As I was trying to come up with games that had a “double” theme, this one popped into my head. Where has this game been the last decade of my life? I know we used to play it…I have a memory of playing it in our home in Tacoma…but I had completely forgotten about it! I couldn’t remember much about it other than I remember laughing A LOT. So we got it for Selah with high expectations for the first official Double Digit game.
And oh my, how these kiddos roared with laughter over these two little piggies! I also forgot how many gambling tendencies come out when playing the game so…oops! Man, it is hilarious. Enjoy it vicariously through these pictures. Notice how it starts off quite calm as they’re learning to play…and within just a few minutes, all calmness flies right out the window!
NEXT, we had deSSert: Double Dice, Double Scoop Sundaes. This was probably the highlight of the whole thing. Everyone got two scoops of ice cream and two spoons. I came up with 10 different toppings that corresponded with the numbers 2-12. #10 was a free choice, in honor of our 10 year old.
So, everyone took turns rolling the two dice. Then they got to put the topping of the number they rolled onto their ice cream! I think we went through three rounds and then I just let them all have free choice. That was a LOT of fun and a LOT of sugar! At least two asked me if they had to finish their ice cream, ha! #doublethedigitsdoublethesugar
Of course, then they had to eat their sundaes with two spoons and two hands!
At this point, it was pretty much time to wind down and go to sleep. This was Selah’s first multi-friend sleepover. And may I just take a moment to relish in and testify to God’s abundant grace over Selah’s life to provide these dear, dear girlfriends for her? This is a group of girls from ages 8 to almost 13. And they all LOVE each other dearly. There is no tearing down, no sassy talk, no cell phones, no worldliness. They all love the Lord and thus, love each other. There is just JOY and sweet fellowship and the love of Christ. WHAT A GIFT, not just for Selah, but for her mama who has prayed for this for so long. WHAT A GIFT.
The girls got their beds and stuffies (who were, of course, also invited to the sleepover) all ready and spent a while crocheting and doing each other’s hair.
I told the girls I would pray for them and then we’d turn out the lights. One of them responded with, “Can I pray, too?” And then another, “Me, too!” and “Me, too!!” So we all took turns praying and every one of them thanked God for Selah and her friendship and her life. WHAT A GIFT.
We finished praying and then the girls said, “Would it be alright if we took turns singing hymns to each other before going to sleep?” Most likely a delay tactic but, come on–who would ever say, “No” to that request?!! WHAT A GIFT.
We started out the next morning with a humongous breakfast. Shout out to Grandpa, without whom I never could have pulled it off. We had blueberry pancakes, homemade hash browns, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs and orange juice.
Two of the girls had to leave by 10 am so we really only had a short amount of time to play some double games. We started off with Double Doodle Art: in this game, each kid got a piece of paper and two markers. They each folded their paper in half to create a line of symmetry. Then, holding a marker in each hand, they had to draw a symmetrical picture. Every single one of them completed their first drawing and asked to do a second. It’s kind of addicting!
Next, we played Blind Partner Draw. Each child drew a picture, only using basic shapes. So, for instance, if they wanted to draw a tree, they would need to draw a rectangle with a triangle on top. Then, their partner grabbed a blank sheet of paper and partner #1 had to describe his/her picture to partner #2. “Draw a rectangle in the middle of your page. Draw a triangle on top of that.” At the end, they compared their pictures to see how well their instructions worked! It was very fun.
Then, we went outside to play a few classic games that require partners.
First, the Balloon Head Race. Hold a balloon between yours and your partner’s head and race to the other side. The kids loved it.
Second, the three-legged race. This is one of Selah’s favorite games. She’s always asking to play it as a family. I didn’t think through how to tie their legs together ahead of time (oops) and my last-minute grocery sack idea was a failure. But they had fun anyway!
Third, we were planning to play cornhole (another of Selah’s favorite games) but it was 10 o’clock and two of the girls had to leave. However, the kids got to play cornhole with Grandma and Grandpa later that day, so we checked it off the list!
The remaining three jumped on the trampoline and played until lunch, which was homemade Double Cheese Mac and Cheese and veGGies.
The party favors were a pack of Doublemint Gum (obviously) and two pens.
“Double the digits, Double the gum! Double the pens, Double the fun!”
Oh, my darling double digit daughter! We love love you so so much. You are our joy joy. Happy happy double digit (birth) day!
It was just an ordinary Thursday. (It also happened to be Brian’s birthday, which, if you know him, means it was–quite literally–just an ordinary Thursday.) We were planning on celebrating Selah’s birthday that evening with a friend when–*gasp*shudder*scream*–the birthday present we had gotten for her was GONE!!! In its place was a ransom note with a clue.
We immediately contacted Nancy Drew, whose novels Selah devours at alarming speeds, to ask for her help. Unfortunately, she was detained in Europe and could not come to our aid. She felt terrible, but after hearing that Selah had read almost all of her books, she was certain Selah could solve the mystery with the help of her two fellow sleuths. Nancy studied the ransom note, which we had faxed over to her, and mailed a letter to Selah (it arrived that same day, all the way from Europe, if you can believe it!!) giving her detailed instructions for how to proceed.
Elliott, Selah and Aspen piled into the car after school and I burst into uncontrollable tears, telling them what had happened. “Your present was…STOLEN!!” I blubbered. “Our house has been turned into a crime scene!!!” I handed Selah the certified, Top Secret, Confidential letter from Nancy that had just arrived because I was too upset to say any more. She opened it, and with wide eyes (and lots of giggles, I might add, though I didn’t think that was an appropriate time for laughter) read through the instructions and the attached ransom letter. Perhaps one of the most important instructions was that they were not to enter a room unless the clues led them there or else bombs would detonate that would destroy crucial evidence or, worse, the purloined birthday present. (“Or worse,” Elliott added, “our house!!”) Thankfully, the thief had, indeed, left behind a number of clues and Nancy prepared to set Selah, Elliott and Aspen on several missions to track them all down.
Thankfully, Nancy also sent along some Pop Secret snacks for these hungry sleuths!
The ransom note read:
Your birthday present is gone!
What should you do?
You’ll find that I took it
And hid it from you.
It’s hard to believe
but a mystery is due.
The best way to find it
is to get all the clues!
Your first clue…
What has a face and two hands but no arms?
They solved the riddle on the drive home and once we got to the crime scene they immediately found the first envelope tucked behind the family room clock and they set off to accomplish their first mission, which was to crack the code to figure out their aliases.
Working as a team, they DID figure out the code and discovered their code names: Singing Puppy, Speedy Glowfish and Sneaky Turtle. Aspen was SHOCKED when she discovered her alias, saying over and over (and over and over), “But I HAVE a glowfish!! How did she know??!!” There was one more code tucked in the envelope and after they had solved their names, they solved the extra code which said, “Minn of the Mississippi.” Singing Puppy immediately figured out to check inside that book and found the first letter (L) with a riddle written on the back of it, which said: I never ask questions but I am always answered.
It took them a little while to figure this one out, but they finally did and found the envelope attached to our doorbell.
Once they reached the vault AND made it back up through the lasers again to the landing level, they opened up their needed supplies.
Each sleuth received a magnifying glass, glow sticks, spy glasses that let you see behind you, spy pens and a notebook. They would need each one of those things to solve the mystery. At the bottom of the vault was a bag containing the second letter (O) with a riddle on the back: Some people take me in the morning, others take me in the evening, but one thing you should know—that when I’m taken’, I don’t really go anywhere.
It did take them a little while to figure out it was a bath, but since we only have one bathtub in our home, they knew where to go immediately. And they were very careful to not open any other doors…
They opened the envelope and read the mission and as soon as they entered the bathroom, the door was shut behind them! Somehow, the light switches didn’t work (I’ll have to look into that…) and since there are no windows in their bathroom, they were forced to use their glowsticks. So this was DEFINITELY the hardest of all the missions but with a little help from yours truly (good thing Nancy and I speak the same language) the sleuths cracked the code. The clue was written with a scytale—so there was a long strip of paper with letters on it and they had to match the arrow on the piece of paper to the arrow on the paper towel roll and then wrap the paper around it to read the word. They knew the piece of paper with the letters was important but they couldn’t match it with the paper towel roll. So once we solved it together, it led them to our home library where they found the 4th mission on the side of a bookshelf. The 4th letter (S) was scattered among the items in the bathtub so they also had collected that.
The envelope was filled with small squares of paper with lots of very random things typed out on them in size 2pt font. They read through each and every one with their magnifying glasses until they could figure out which one was the clue. One of them said, “Happy Birthday to You!” by Dr. Seuss and that just happens to be one of the books on our bookshelf. Inside the book was another letter (A) with a clue written on the back: I am alive without breath and cold as death. I am never thirsty but always drinking. What am I?
They ran up to Sneaky Turtle’s room and found the 5th mission attached to his fish tank. Unfortunately, they also found something very fishy indeed… a dead fish. That terrible thief! Must have scared the fish to death! But, undeterred and undaunted, the sleuths carried on and read the mission at hand. How Nancy knew that a birthday version of Headbandz was Selah’s one request for her birthday, we’ll never know. It was a personalized birthday/detective version and, let me tell you, it was just the perfect game for Singing Puppy and her fellow sleuths. They worked together and laughed hard and the very last clue to guess was a teal balloon. There were balloons scattered all over the living room but only one teal one, which contained the next letter (M) with a clue on the back: I begin with T, I end with T, and I am mostly full of T. What am I?
Inside the bag was a bowl of cooked noodles. Once they had all reached inside they guessed, “noodles,” and Singing Puppy knew to go to our pantry and look inside the noodle bin. There, she found the next letter (H) with a clue on the back: When I was invented you could look through walls. What am I?
Speedy Glowfish immediately thought of looking out the window…
They came inside to accomplish this mission…
Working together, they got 10 shots and then Singing Puppy ran to the target, intuitively knowing to check behind it. She found the letter (E) with the clue: What has to be broken before you can use it?
Inside the mission envelope were lots and lots of oddly shaped pieces of paper with pictures and words and sentences written on them…in invisible ink. They had to use their spy pens to read them and then decide which one was the clue. One of them said, “Your favorite breakfast to eat with whipped cream and strawberries.” Singing Puppy ran to the pantry containing the waffle mix, where they found a letter (S) with the clue: “I don’t speak, can’t hear or say anything, but I will always tell the truth. What am I?” They finally figured it out…
Once they found the paper plates in the cabinet, they had to unscramble them to figure out what was for dinner. I loved the moment Singing Puppy realized the plates spelled out “Pizza.”
The exhausted sleuths ate and were merry…and then Singing Puppy found a clue underneath her slice of pizza! (Can you see it in that lower left picture?) It was a letter (O), wrapped in aluminum foil, with this clue written on the back: “I sometimes have leaves, but I’m not a tree. I’m sometimes bedside, and sometimes coffee.”
Brian and I figured it out right away but, come to find out, none of these three children knew that a table has “leaves.” However, as Speedy Glowfish leaned back in her chair, scratching her chin to try to solve the riddle, she happened to glance down and see that the last mission had fallen to the floor from where it had previously been taped to the underside of the table. And so it was very easy for them to find it on the floor at their feet, ha!
Inside the envelope were tons of pieces of paper filled with quotes from Nancy Drew and/or other detectives in very small font, backwards. So they had to hold the papers up to the mirror to read them. Somehow, and we will never know how, the very last paper that held the clue had dropped to the floor without them noticing. (See it on the floor in the bottom left photo?) That paper read, “The last letter is found where the clothes go round.” And there, in the washing machine, was tucked the final letter (R).
Here are the letters they received. Can you solve the case??
LOSAMHESOR
Okay so the unscrambling of the letters was a WEEEE bit difficult for these sleuths. Thankfully, I was able to help them crack the case with a few hints (I’m guessing it’s two words…let’s think about who this day is about…) they finally got “Selah” and were left with OMORS. And finally they put it all together to get…SELAHS ROOM.
The purloined birthday present was a DESK!!!
The thief had–very conveniently, I might add–dropped the stolen loot in HER BEDROOM!! WHEW!! I breathed a sigh of relief for the first time that day.
Singing Puppy, Speedy Glowfish and Sneaky Turtle all celebrated.They each gave Selah wonderfully-thoughtful gifts and we enjoyed some mud pied cupcakes together. (And yes, I fussed and at the very least gave Brian a candle in his since it was, indeed, HIS birthday!)Her Aunt Angela and Uncle Tony sent her a compass and #11-20 of the Nancy Drew series. These are just some of the faces that accompanied the opening of these amazing presents. It’s like she struck gold. (Which, really, she did!)
Selah also got to celebrate her big day with Brian’s parents and some of the Mauss family. Thankfully there were no more crimes that needed to be solved during those festivities!! If only Nancy could have joined us for some mud pie…maybe next time!
Well happy birthday to our darling Singing Puppy Selah. The mission to turn 9 years old was, indeed, ACCOMPLISHED!
Wow, we have seen the fruit of the Lord working mightily in our son the past few months. What a joy it is to watch him GROW UP, not just as a boy filled with zeal and joy and wisdom and wonder, but as a disciple of Jesus Christ. We have seen a lot of maturity in him these past few months leading up to the big double digits!!
On his big day, he woke up to a blue balloon with the words, “Happy 10th Birthday, Elliott!” written on it. Inside was the following note:
Dear Elliott, Happy 10th birthday!! We love you because God made you and you’re YOU. You will never earn more of our love by anything you do. We love you because you are YOU, period! But we wanted to share some of our favorite things about you and some of the many reasons we absolutely delight in you and are so thankful that God placed YOU in our family!! Love, Mommy, Daddy and Selah
We then instructed him that he must find 10 other balloons in the house. We had all written out some of the things we love about Elliott and each hidden balloon contained one of those things.
Elliott Brian Moberg, how do we love thee in all of thy joy, and wonder, and zeal for life?? Let us count the ways…
1. You always love me so well! You play fun games with me and if you ever wake up before me you will wake me up and snuggle me! -Selah
2. You are so generous with your Legos! -Selah
3. You are playful! You wrestle and race with me! -Selah
4. I love this about you: when you love something or someone, you love them with all of your heart! And when you love something, you love to share facts about it with everyone who listen! I have learned a lot of facts from you! -Mommy
5. I love that you love to snuggle and can’t get enough mama kisses or “I love you’s”! -Mommy
6. We are constantly amazed at how detail-oriented you are. One way this plays out is when you do a job, assignment, or chore, we can always count on you to do it excellently. For instance, I’m not sure if you’ve ever missed a day of flossing and if you’ve ever not brushed your teeth for exactly 2 minutes (timed, 30 seconds per section, of course!) Your school work is always frame-worthy because you do all of these things with your whole heart. -Mommy
7. You are such a good and loyal friend. You are inclusive, welcoming and kind. You are sensitive to others’ needs. -Mommy
8. I love how good you are at driving huge tractors all by yourself! I am grateful I can trust you with such grown-up things because you are trustworthy. -Daddy
9. I love that you’re always bursting with energy to share your thoughts and ideas with people! You love telling stories and inviting everyone into your experiences with you. -Daddy
10. I like that you love going on long trips with me because I love going on long trips with you! -Daddy
We had waffles, whipped cream and strawberries for breakfast, per Elliott’s request! Good morning, birthday man!!
Grandma and Grandpa Moberg were here visiting and Grampa and Nonna Mauss came over for lunch. Hooray for grandparents! Elliott opened some presents and we feasted and enjoyed mud pie! I’m not sure either of our kids are capable of doing anything half-hearted. This series of pictures just cracks me up. I love Selah’s expression in the second photo. Literally awe-struck at his gift! He had just opened a 2011 proof set of coins from his daddy and me. As the awe wears off and pure excitement builds in picture 3, he goes flying up and down, as you can see in picture 4. Picture 5 is Selah–in the air–because she literally cannot contain her excitement as Elliott opens the gift from her. Hmmm, I wonder which parent they got their expression from? 😉 I sure do love these two joy-filled kiddos!!
Our kids are so blessed to have both sets of grandparents in their lives. I thank God often for that. I didn’t grow up knowing my grandparents and it’s hard to imagine Elliott and Selah not knowing each of our parents. So thankful for the blessing of their lives!
And, you guys. Look at these two. Are you kidding me? They are such a gift to us. Growing in their love for each other with each passing year.
Just like last year, Elliott pleaded with us to time our daily bible reading so that Brian would be reading to us at exactly 6:25 pm, since that is the moment he was born. (5:25 pm Pacific Time) Again, these pictures crack me up. They were taken at precisely 6:25. Brian just kept on reading, undeterred :). But no lack of enthusiasm on either of their parts!
Also, I wanted to mention that Selah, in true Selah fashion, decided to buy a balloon animals instruction guide and learn how to make balloon animals so she could give everyone party favors–2 days before his birthday! And learn, she did! She made Elliott a turtle! It was her very first balloon animal! And then a personalized balloon animal for each grandparent and Brian and me. Grandma got a pink bear, Grandpa a white bunny, Grampa an airplane and Nonna a flower! Brian and I got some very special creations, which we decided to call Cacti :).
We decided to take Elliott on a special 10th birthday trip. Brian took him skiing and they had a wonderful couple of days away together. He hadn’t been skiing since last year but he picked it up quite quickly again! The trip was wonderful, other than a horrible, no good, very bad sunburn. (Grrrr….)
Now, as for celebrating with friends… Last year, all Elliott wanted to do was have friends over to play ultimate tag on our property. The Lord had different plans, but this year his dream came true. In fact, I suggested making the focus an epic game of Capture the Flag and that is what we did. Elliott really, really wanted to have his cousin Micah there for his party so we held off about a month until Micah and his family were in town visiting. We started out with Ultimate Tag in the back yard as families and kids trickled in, and then Brian led the kids out to the property to commence Capture the Flag. Can you see them out on our property in the bottom two pictures? Huddled up on the left and spread out all over on the right?
You’ve probably heard me say it before but in Colorado it is risky to have a Spring birthday party. For Selah’s fall birthday, we usually end up having to come inside because it’s too hot, but for Elliott’s spring birthday, we usually end up having to come in due to blizzard conditions. I think I got tricked because we had had such gorgeous sunny, beautiful weather. I love you, Colorado, really, but could you follow the seasonal rules, please?? So, staying true to her nature, Colorado decided to snowthat lovely spring morning of Elliott’s party. Thankfully, the snow melted before everyone arrived, but it was VERY cold. But the kids were troopers and were running around the whole time anyway so they didn’t ice over completely. We started a fire during lunch so they could thaw out a bit. And then, just to confuse everybody, we served ice cream for dessert :).
And not only did he get Micah there, but ALL of his Moberg cousins!
And now, let’s do a little flash back, shall we? This popped up on my phone, reminding me this was 10 years ago. I haven’t been able to stop laughing since. What was going on here??? Did I write a blog post about this?? I’m taking caption submissions….
Far be it from me to not pull together a few other wonderful baby pictures from 10 years ago…
Really though, have you ever met a child more captivating with his joy? How is it possible that his joy has grown in the last 10 years when we started with such a high bar?!!!!
Now, come on…their heads are LITERALLY tilted at the EXACT same angle, TEN YEARS LATER. Who does that? How did he know??
Elliott Brian, what JOY to watch you GROW UP these past 10 years! A decade!!! We are SO GRATEFUL to be your parents!! We thank God that he chose YOU to be our son. May the Lord continue to grow you into a man of honor, valor, strength and wisdom, who loves the Lord with all of his heart, mind, soul and strength. Happy birthday, mighty man!!
Our sweet little girl turned 8 on the 8th…her golden birthday!! I’m so thankful that we could slow down and take the time to celebrate our girl. She is a constant source of laughter and joy in our home and I am so thankful for her!! She is still the little girl who doesn’t need another person to hold a conversation (she is perfectly content talking to herself), interrupts herself while she’s talking almost EVERY.SINGLE.TIME and cracks herself up more than anyone I know. The other day I asked her a simple question about what she and the other girls did at school and after 15 minutes of trying to answer this simple question but interrupting herself with rabbit trails and other stories I finally burst out with laughter, “Selah! Just finish your sentence!!” She paused and said, “Well it’s more like a paragraph than a sentence.” Oh my word…yes, yes, it is. More like a novel, really.
She requested just having one friend come over for her birthday, her dear friend Aspen. And it’s a good thing that’s what she wanted because…Covid. She sees Aspen 3 times a week but it is never enough for these two girls. They are CONSTANTLY asking for sleepovers and extra play time. What a perfect day to make that happen!
So when I asked Selah what she would like to DO for her birthday, the ideas ranged from ice skating, to “I want it to snow and build a snow fort and have a snow ball fight,” to make and shoot bow and arrows, to whittling wood. But the two things that she kept coming back to were a wood whittling party and a bow and arrow party. Because, Selah. That’s my dear, special girl!!
She and Aspen have been making their own bow and arrows for weeks and it’s been really fun to watch their creativity and skill. So why not have an archery contest?! But then, of course, I started thinking about her golden birthday and how to incorporate that and it came to me: Selah’s Golden Olympic Birthday Games: Go for the gold! How fun, right?! I also just couldn’t resist doing something extra special for her golden birthday, so this year she woke up to a surprise on October 1st with a note explaining that she would have a surprise every day for the 8 days leading up to her birthday. That was fun :).
Day 1: She woke up to new bedding on her bottom bunk! (The kids had shared a room and the bunk beds up until last Spring. But ever since Elliott moved out the extra bunk has just remained empty.)
Day 2: Her cousin Taylor! She knew her grandparents were arriving on the 2nd, but she DIDN’T know that they were bringing Taylor! I told her she would find her surprise in the back seat of their car…as she opened the back door and began searching, Taylor popped out of hiding from beneath a pile of coats! It was awesome.
Day 3: Brown paint! Selah and I finally got around to painting her room a few weeks ago and as we talked about what she wanted on her walls, she said she really wanted a family tree painted on her wall, with photos of her family (and friends) on each of the branches like leaves. Well, okay then! It was super special for her to have Taylor here to help draw and paint the tree (which we barely got finished before Taylor had to leave)!
Day 4: A rug for her room! Many weeks ago she mentioned casually, “I would love to have a round, teal rug for my room.” Amazon made it happen :). That day, I told her she’d have to find her surprise and her reaction when she found it was priceless! She carried the rug around with her everywhere she went for the next several days, haha. She wrapped herself up in it like a blanket and dragged it through the house and slept underneath it. I think she likes it :).
Day 5: Have you read “The Courage of Sarah Noble”? It’s a very short chapter book about an 8 year old little girl who learns to keep up her courage. The character reminds me of Selah in so many ways so we got her this book, encouraging her to keep up her courage in the Lord.
Day 6: I had asked her several weeks ago if she’d like an “8” shirt sort of like the “7” shirt we got her last year. After looking through several puppy shirts (still in love with puppies) she came across this brown tulle skirt with puppy ears and a tail. And she was IN LOVE. She wanted a plain brown shirt to go with the skirt. Alrighty then, Selah B!!! So her favorite stuffed teddy bear was missing this particular morning but Selah found a note from her, explaining that she was playing hide and seek (which happens to be Selah’s favorite game). When Selah found Beary, she was dressed in Selah’s new puppy outfit. 😉
Day 7: We decided to get her a “real” bow and arrow. We knew she would love it but we also figured it might be good to have a real one for the kids to use for the archery contest. See anything interesting about this picture below???
Also, what should I do with this picture? Blow it up and frame it? I can’t get enough of it. I have entitled it, “Target Practice.”
Day 8: For her golden 8th birthday, her final present from us was a (rose) golden locket with a picture of the three of us in it.
Her actual birthday was a co-op day so we had a semi-special but quick breakfast, she opened her locket and then she was off to school. I sent her with some chocolate golden coins to pass out to her friends at school. While she was gone I decorated the dining room. Aspen came home with her from school, we had a special birthday dinner (ravioli, garlic bread and asparagus–her choices), and mud pie for dessert.
The next day, the Golden Birthday Games began! My parents were able to join us (what a praise and gift!!!!!) and the kids began their competitions…an archery contest, a hula hooping contest, a limbo contest and an obstacle course. (Unfortunately Taylor had online school she had to do during the party. So she was out there with us while Zooming into her classes for the morning…) It was a gorgeous but way-too-hot fall day. The kids tallied up their points at the end and received chocolate gold coins as their “medals”.
And how perfect that her Olympic rings formed the perfect number… (wink, wink)
Now, I was trying to figure out how to incorporate her wood whittling request into the party…because whittling wood is about as exciting as watching paint dry on a wall (in my opinion). I just couldn’t figure out how to do a meaningful project that could be started and finished within a short time frame. So…I came up with…wood burning!! Perhaps slightly selfishly motivated (I’ve really wanted to learn how to wood burn but couldn’t justify buying one for myself, ahem), we purchased a wood burner and I tried it for the very first time at her party! Wouldn’t recommend that :). I thought it would be so simple…have the kids draw with pencil on a piece of wood and then trace over it with the wood burner, right?! Well, not quite that simple. I helped Aspen make her way through the project but then spent the next few days playing around with tips until I figured out a much easier way to wood burn. So it went a lot quicker with Elliott, Selah and Taylor. Anyway, it was fun. My vision was to have the kids wood burn a design and then color it in with colored pencils. None of them chose to color them except for Selah, and I think the simple wood burned look looks really neat. I do love how the colored pencils look with the burned wood outline though! Taylor did both the front and the back of hers so she can change which verse she has up in her room at any given time. Here is a little bit of the process along with their final projects:
What a blessed little girl she is…she is so loved!!
And here she is with her puppy ears. You can’t see the tail, but I assure you, it is there. 🙂 Happy golden birthday, dearest Selah!
Leading up to her 7th birthday, I cannot count how many nights before bed Selah would suddenly burst into uncontrollable tears while I was snuggling her. When I could finally calm her down enough to tell me what was wrong, she would sob, “I just want to stay little forever so I can snuggle you forever!! I don’t want to turn 7!!” #heartgush
We had finally decided to make a little agreement that we would celebrate her birthday but she didn’t ACTUALLY have to turn 7 :). It would sure be fine with me!!
But lo and behold, when October 8th rolled around, she confessed in a small voice that maybe she did, indeed, want to turn 7. So I permitted it. 🙂 That night, while going to bed, she confessed, “Mommy, I just wish I could still celebrate a birthday every year but only grow older every OTHER year. So I’d be 3 and 1/2 right now. That sounds nice.” I don’t know if I will ever grasp the incredible complexities in this little girl’s mind, but somehow my heart expands for her each day and I love her so much more with every sunrise. What a special little girl God made her.
In this same vein of not wanting to grow older, for years Selah would “suddenly” turn into a baby. Literally, for years, we would be eating dinner, playing a game, or at the store and Selah would suddenly exclaim, “Mom, I’m a baby today, k?” And she would drop to all fours and start crawling around speaking gibberish. This year, that little habit transformed a bit. Now, at various times throughout the day, I hear: “Mom, I’m a puppy. A BABY puppy, k?” And, in like manner, she drops to all fours and begins to bark and beg. She asks (ahem, barks and motions) to have her food and water delivered in a bowl on the floor. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found her lapping up water from a bowl on the floor. She is a surprisingly convincing puppy for not having spent much time around one and I am getting used to stepping over my sweet little puppy while going about daily life.
She asked to have a puppy party this year and, of course, the ideas just started flooding in. We settled on a puppy adoption party and invited some sweet friends to come join in on the fun. The kids pulled out all of their doggy “stuffies” (as they are called by these children) and placed them in various places around the house as decoration. Selah wanted 3 waiting right in the doorway as people walked in. A few minutes before party guests were due to arrive the kids began making a banner that said, “Selah’s 7th birthday,” so that is what they are doing in that bottom picture!
We set up our dining room as the party room and adoption headquarters. Fun fact: I learned that we can print 11×17 papers so I made posters for the first time ever! You can see the basket full of puppies “that we found abandoned on the side of the road,” the carrying cases the kids got to decorate, adoption certificates and a bunch of leftover Great Wolf Lodge ears for the kiddos.
The kids’ eyes were HUGE as I explained we had found these puppies and they needed homes! I said they could each pick one and they just stared at me with mouths gaping and said slowly, in awe, “Do we…get to…KEEP…them?” When I said, “YES!” they just giggled with gratitude and joy and wonder. My goodness, I love this age!
Here are the various stations, with instructions on the “Selah’s Puppy Adoption Center” poster. Choose your favorite puppy, take your pup to the vet, design a perfect collar, decorate a doggy carrier, and receive an adoption certificate. The kids each selected a puppy and we headed to the Vet’s office! Selah had set out clipboards with “Check-up” sheets attached and various vet supplies.
I created this “Check-up” sheet after scrolling through several ideas. They were perfect for giving the kids a guide as to how to take care of their pets. I was fully expecting Selah to jump in and examine her puppy but, instead, she took on a teacher (or head veterinarian?) role and helped each friend one by one, answering questions and instructing them on how to fill out their forms and take care of their puppies. It was adorable. I was hoping this station would be fun for the kids, but I was surprised to see how FULLY engaged and “in it” they were. They carefully, diligently, and quite seriously inspected their little puppies with stethoscopes and examining tools. We weighed them and checked their eyes, ears, hearts, paws, and noses. We bandaged, provided medicine, or x-rayed them if necessary. When we were certain we had 6 healthy puppies, we moved onto crafting!
I had purchased these gable boxes from Hobby Lobby and Brian cut a hole in the front so their puppies could see through. Then, I just pulled out every sticker, gem, and crafting supply I had that might work to decorate them. They made adorable little carriers for their pups!! I also set out pipe cleaners and various beads and jingle bells so the kids could decorate collars. I cut out little circles from cardstock so they could create a tag for the collar. It was fun to see their creativity!
Once they had finished their carrying cases and collars, they signed an official Adoption Certificate!
Selah was adamant about having an obstacle course for the puppies. She and Elliott had set up a little course in the backyard and once the puppies were “officially” theirs, they took them outside and ran through the obstacle course with them! Meanwhile, I set up for lunch inside.
We, obviously :), decided to have a HOT DOG BAR for lunch, along with some “puppy” food. As we were talking about various toppings we could have out for hot dogs, Grandma suggested chili. I immediately got the vision in my head for our “Hot Dog Cafe”…Choose between a “Hot Dog” or a “Chili Dog,” (check out the picture below) and then add your various toppings!
In addition to hot dogs, we had Paw-tato Chips, Veggie Kibble, and Fetch Sticks. Super fun :).
We had a couple older siblings playing with Elliott while the younger ones paw-tied, but they joined us for lunch!
For her birthday “pup-cakes,” Selah requested Mud Pie, which is the Moberg tradition. I made these individual Mud Pie pup-cakes and we decorate them with paw prints. The Oreo paw has mint chocolate chip ice cream inside, and the marshmallow paw has cookies n’ cream. Mmm.
Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday, dear Selah!
For her birthday, we got Selah three presents this year. The shirt you see her wearing (how adorable, right?!!), a bible of her very own, and…wait for it…a puppy costume.
She basically hasn’t taken the costume off since and now we all feel like we really DO have a real, live puppy in the house! For her birthday breakfast she requested waffles with fruit. We had an amazing feast! That night, we celebrated with (more) Mud Pie! Little girl by day, puppy by night. We all laughed hysterically when she put her little head down in front of her birthday cake! Look at that puppy!
She lifted her head, howled, and eventually blew out those 7 candles. So I suppose it’s official. Our little puppy is 7 years old!
And as if all of that weren’t ENOUGH birthday fun, here is even more celebrating!
Happy birthday to our dearest Selah Bethany. You may be 7, but you will always, always be my baby girl. And I will never stop reminding you that you will NEVER be too old to snuggle me.
Our Selah Beth…5 years old! My goodness, she continues to grow into a beautiful little girl–yes, with her adorable freckled face, but more importantly in her heart towards God and others. We are so blessed to be her parents!! She has thrived this last year. She is still loving gymnastics, learned how to ride her bike without training wheels back in June, and is reading wonderfully. She is pure joy.
Six months before Selah’s birthday, she informed me, “Mom…I just REALLY want to have an olive birthday.”
“I’m sorry…what was that?? An OLIVE birthday? As in…an OLIVE???”
“Yes!”
Although I think God has gifted me with a little bit of creativity, the creative olive juices just weren’t flowin’. Every so often for the next few months, she would bring it up and each time I would try to come up with alternate ideas for her birthday… A month or two later she suddenly said, “Mom, I just really would like to have my birthday with Daddy.” {heart melt}
So in my spare time I tried to dream up what an olive joint birthday party with Brian could look like…Up until one sunny day in September when she said, “Mom, actually I think I’d like to have a princess party. With olive cupcakes. I want 5 olives on my cupcake since I’ll be 5. Well, make that 4 olives and a candle. Hmmm, maybe 3 olives and 2 candles…” Well alrighty then!! I had a little something to work with now!
She then continued on for about 5 minutes (I have it on video!) of every detail of this princess party, including a two story castle that everyone could climb through. It was going to be a knights and princesses party and Winnie the Pooh was going to be there for cupcakes. Cupcakes with olives.
So we settled on a Royal-themed party and decided to invite our close family friends who live in the city so Brian would have some friends there, too! My goodness, the party just came together quickly and splendidly… It will be a special memory forever…gathering some of our favorite people in one place and celebrating Selah and Brian!
The invitation read,
Calling all princesses and knights! Lady Selah has requested to celebrate her 5th birthday with her knight in shining armor, “Sir Daddy”.
The morning of her birthday, Selah woke up to a present tied to 5 purple balloons. When she finally opened it, she discovered a (light up!) Princess Crown with a “5” on it!
You all know Brian and how he is not the BIGGEST fan of being celebrated…but he was over-the-moon to share this special day with Selah. I should have thought of this years ago to trick him into being celebrated! 😉 Selah and I planned out a surprise for Brian and Elliott–armor that they could wear on the big day. Selah was thrilled to wear her purple princess dress (we got her that when she was 2! Ha!!) and she requested that I also wear a princess dress…and this was the closest thing I had in my closet! Here we are…the Royal Family! 🙂
A princess with tennis shoes…that’s my girl :).
Since we were entertaining a large group of girls and boys ages 3-13, we decided to fulfill Selah’s castle dream and rent a bounce house for the main party gig. Talk about bang for your buck! It was perfect for boys and girls alike of all ages. We had two crafts going on the side–shields the kids could paint (shout out to Grandpa Moberg for making these INCREDIBLE shields out of cardboard we had in the garage!!) and princess crowns that the girls could decorate. We also ordered inflatable swords for each kid both to joust with and bring home!
We are so RICH to have all of these treasured friends of ours in the same city!!!
Look at all these awesome kiddos!!
Amazing friends!!
Selah really wanted to play “Pin-the-tail on the pony…no…wait…pin the tail on the…princess?” Hahaha! I suggested, “How about pin the crown on the princess?” 🙂 So I made up a Selah princess poster and then we surprised Brian with a “pin the helmet on the knight” poster! 🙂
I have to give credit to Grandpa and Grandma Moberg who cut up all of the fruits and veggies for lunch–without them, the party couldn’t have happened! I made a crown cake for Selah (which she helped me decorate) and a shield cake for Brian. Then I realized we wouldn’t have enough cake for everyone so I made a batch of cupcakes as well!
Then, just as Selah was putting candles on her cake, I remembered–THE OLIVES!!!!! Oh my goodness, I can’t BELIEVE we almost all forgot!!!! The pictures below are of me explaining to everyone why we were suddenly adding five OLIVES…of all things…to her birthday cake.
The paparazzi:
Brian got three candles. One for each decade of his life. 🙂 (And this may or may not be the last time that same equation would equal three…ahem…)
Look at all the thoughtful gifts Brian was lavished with…he’s drowning in pink and purple and princess nightgowns and jewelry and baby dolls…all his favorites. 😉 Selah convinced him to share some of them with her…and he totally obliged. What a man! #realmensharebirthdayswiththeirdaughters
The three amigos. These men and their families are our newest friends, and we are so enriched to have them in our lives.
This girl and her faces!!!!!!!!!! Here are some of my favorites from the day…
We were so unbelievably blessed to be surrounded by family and friends who love us. Such a special day!!
Happy Birthday to our Princess Selah and her “Sir Daddy”!!
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!
