Happy (35th) Birthday Daddy!!!

I'm not very good at birthdays.  

At least birthdays for anyone but my kids.  But, considering we had only 2-3 hours of preparation for it this little family party turned out pretty great but mostly because of the company!

 We had my fairly new trusty birthday chalkboard table cloth that came in handy for decorations.  

The kids got to personalize their own "placemat".  Here's Georgies' (with my help...requested by throwing a small tantrum).

 We had Daddy's favorite Dinner:

Garlic Chicken Teriyaki Pasta

 We had the last minute genius idea to put our "Why We Love Daddy" messages inside of 4 helium balloons.  We went outside and he started popping.

Brace yourselves kiddos!!

Isaacs message:  "I love Daddy because he's funny"

Georgies' message:  

Juliet's Message:  "Daddy, Isit, Geogie

My Message:  " 

 The deliciously decadent, very sinful, 

oh so yummy chocolate birthday cake that Daddy requested!

 Make a wish!

That cake stared back at us in the fridge for almost a week, dwindling, dwindling, sliver by sliver eaten mostly by moia!  And boy was it worth it;)

Happy Birthday, Joey!  I am glad that you're in the world and that you are mine!!

xoxo

Ash

Juliet turns one...

juliet turns

mixed with a teensy "wittle" bit of regret for the tiny baby that is slipping away from us, we had a great day with our big girl 

JULIET!!

she was the perfect one year old!

smiles,smashed cake and all!

 we had a small party with a few friends on the night of her big day and she seemed to understand that all this singing and present business was about her.  

 i think we look complete, don't you?

 we're pretty sure she felt loved!

her friends:

samantha jones, georgie

isaac, our birthday girl, landon and peyton jones

we enjoyed having the jones' with us but that night I felt the pains of homesickness for our parents, Juliets' cousins and the familiarity of family, in general. xoxo to those of you that we missed.

the birthday cake that georgie decorated for her little (now big) sister:

here's a little bit about how we spent her first birthday.

firstly, of course, juliet enjoyed breakfast in bed...which she does every morning.  she received a few dozen kisses from all of us as well as the happy birthday song a few dozen times from her big brother and sister.  

we said farewell to midget, our favorite dog that we've been dog sitting for a couple of weeks...sniff, sniff!

 and then we dressed her for a trip out to visit mrs. leemaster, our friend in mangum that needed someone to sit with her for a few hours and just so happens to love JU-B!  

then we headed for the pool.

JU-B loves the water, particularly putting her face in, which I find funny, and constantly plunges her face into the water.  I wonder if she's taking drinks?

here she is all dressed and bathed in her birthday best...with tears.  somebody please get that baby some cake!!

 DADDY came home!!!  

here juliet is taking her Daddy out...being "sooooo big"

joey is, of course being overly dramatic but I think his face is hilarious

so sweet

 after birthday cake there were, of course, presents

and plenty of help opening them!

Juliet loved her first baby doll and

 two bottles that isaac and georgie gave her to feed her baby.  She was noticeably excited when she opened each one. "ooooooo@@" she said, with her trademark animated inflection!  she carries that baby around now like its her best friend saying over and over, "baby!, baby!"

happy birthday 

JULIET!!

love,kisses and all the good things in between to you in your life with us, baby girl!

xoxo

Isaac Turns(ed) 7!!

Happy Birthday to you!  

Happy Birthday to You!!  

You look like a seven year old!!  

And you are one too!!

Isaac turned seven on May 25th and we celebrated...for days!

On his actual birthday he went to school and treated his class to root beer float popscicles and mini ice cream cones.  He loves school.

But the school treats came only after a breakfast in bed that morning of waffles with whipped cream, a smoothie and sausage.  Even though he knows breakfast is coming he still gets quite excited, pretending to be asleep and "woken up" with a knowing grin on his face!  He opened up a few of his gifts, namely a scooter:

a new football and something else that I don't even remember anymore.  

We tried the birthday photo shoot and got these:

 One thoughtful

and one displaying "the gap" that I'm sure will be mentioned in describing 

the child Isaac to the adult Isaac...I love it;)  

By evening it was cake time.  Isaacs best buddy AND our neighbor (awesome!), Slade, came over for cake and Ice Cream.  We were preparing for the last day of school and our trip to Houston where the real party would be so it was a somewhat small celebration.  He chose Spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner and a lemon cake for dessert.  We sang, he blew and we giggled.  

In Houston we celebrated with a real family party!!  He spent a full day on the boat with Papa for his Young Mens outing.  It was some good bonding time for them.  When they got back that evening we had a party at Aunt Kathy's house waiting.  

Gaga and Papa were there.

Liam and Arie were there.

And, of course, a newly sun kissed little sister named Georgie.  

And you know who else showed up looking for Sesame Street?  You got it, Big Bird!!  hmmmm....puzzling!

Here's a shot of the kids that we could bribe to stand next to him.  Everyone but Isaac and Georgie were too scared to get close!

Here's the initial response by some of the onlookers!

You know, it's not actually all that cool to have Big Bird show up at your 7 year old birthday party, but Isaac didn't notice.  He understood that this was Papa's way of saying how much he loves him...in a jokey kind of way.  And that made Isaac smile.  

At 7 years old Isaac is of average height (or so it seems to me) and is somewhat on the thin side.  He's a really good eater and likes most everything.  He's really responsible and gets things done, often without being asked.  I can say with 100% honesty that I've never had to remind him to do his homework or put his back pack away (okay, maybe that last one once or twice).  He wants so much for approval and has such a strong desire to be "good" and choose the right in all areas of his life.  He still has the tendency to respond with a "No" to most new, hard or scary things and takes a lot of persuading when it comes to things like that.  But we can always talk him into it.  Once he gets over that initial hump he does just fine.  He loves Legos, Hero Factory ( I'm a little bit bitter about not getting a shot of the birthday cake that I worked so hard on...I did it for you Isaac, I promise!!), Star Wars, reading books, watching movies, Angry Birds, the Wii (at Papa and Gaga's house) and pretend play with friends or his sister.  Soccer is pretty cool too.  Our favorite things about Isaac?

Mom says:  

"I love Isaacs sense of humor.  He's seven now so we can really joke around together, like buddies.  He gets my quirky jokes and I LOVE that!! I appreciate how obedient he is and how responsible he is as well.  If I need a job done, I always know that I can ask Isaac to do it!  Also, he's pretty smart, which I love!!"

Dad says:  

"He's a good big brother to his sisters.  He's very curious, asks really great questions and I love talking to him.  He has a really great memory which will come in handy throughout his life.  He remembers everything." (I'll second that...we have a 6 disc CD changer in the car full of CD's that Joey made of our family favorites.  Call out any song you want and he'll remember which CD it is on and which song number it is...no one else in the family has a clue but Isaac sure does!!)

Georgie says:

"I love that he plays with me even when he has friends over."

Happy seventh, buddy!!  We love you sooooooooo much!!

Georgie turns 5!!

Georgie Turns 5!!

It all started with a wake up call from a big brother.  I was sleeping soundly when a little hand tapped my shoulder.  "Mom, what about breakfast in bed...for Georgie."  OH geez!!  I shot up.  I had decorated and set up as much as I could the night before but we still had some eggs to fry and some biscuits to bake.  Isaac ran to the bedroom to pacify the birthday girl.  She knew what was coming and waited patiently under the tent, in her bed, playing with Barbies.  She must be 5! 

Sausage, egg and biscuit sandwiches, a Georgie favorite, sliced mango and a glass of orange juice were all served on a brand new Tinkerbell plate purchase by Daddy.  She was all smiles:

After a few happy shots she said, "Now lets take some scary face pictures."  

Uh...Okay.  

She's so random!

and crazy!

 

and just downright wierd!  

She opened a few presents, namely another plate and a Tinkerbell water bottle, a new birthday outfit (shown below) and A SCOOTER (also shown below)!  She and Isaac were both pretty excited about the scooter.  

This one happens to be a Barbie scooter that holds a Barbie riding her own tiny scooter on the front.  Does it get any cooler than that?;)

After a quick hair brush it

came time for our annual birthday photo op: 

 

And then Georgie went to school...

but only for a few hours.  

Her cute little friend Samantha, Juliet and I picked her up early for lunch at the Grapevine Cafe!  I can't decide if I should take Georgie out to nice restaurants more often or keep her far far away from them.  I was embarrassed a number of times.  Her friend Samantha was really well behaved while Georgie played drums with her silverware, stood up on her seat, took the flower vase off of the neighboring table and ran up and down the stairs once while I was away looking for the waitress.  ...and i swear to you that I have taught that girl not to do ALL of these things!  She struggles with the principle of obedience!!  (and I struggle with patience!)

But it was her birthday so the party continued...with a trip to the nail salon

She's much too young to experience this kind of pampering!  

Georgie walked away with blue nails with white zebra stripes.  

Later that night we went to the skating rink.  Georgie shares a birthday with one of Isaacs best friends and, given the option she chose to go to his party at the rink.  I didn't get any pictures there but she did her best not to pull my pants down while she hung on my leg about half of the time;)  In all seriousness having never skated before she had a remarkably good attitude and did pretty well.

Here comes the part where I gush about my love for Georgie at the moment.  Our new name for Georgie is "Free Spirit".

Free Spirit (def.) - an independent or uninhibited person.


Georgie in a nutshell.   Completely unrestrained.  
If something feels right to her, by golly, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of it, she's going to do it.  Thankfully, for the moment her feelings and desires lead her mostly in the direction of edible items, playtime, outside activities and kisses etc.  While this trait of hers drives me completely mad sometimes (and I know it will probably give her some trouble in the future) I love and admire this about her.  Georgie knows who she is.  She listens to the inner voice that the rest of us smother because we're too concerned about what others might think of us.  Almost no one (except Isaac) has enough power over Georgie to make her unhappy.  She is, at rare moments, unhappy but only because she really feels so.  Not because I am or her Father is or anybody else for that matter.  And while that is, once again, frustrating, I think it makes for an extremely mentally healthy individual.  


She loves her brother and sister fiercely and we love watching that.  She would do anything in the world for Isaac, even letting him use her scooter first, have the first piece of her birthday cake or help her blow out her own birthday candles.  More than anything in the world she wants Juliet to love and play with her.  She never assesses fairness or compares herself to others.  She has a content little soul!  Love this girl!

At our family dinner we all announced our favorite things about Georgie.


Mommy:
"I love how good Georgie is to Isaac and how much she loves him.  I love that she is always happy and ready with a hug.  She also makes us laugh ALL the time with her creative stories, ideas and comments."


Daddy:
"Georgie is very self assured but she's also very sensitive and loving."


Isaac:
"Georgie plays with me and she's always nice to my friends when they come over."


Ruth:
"I love her blonde hair and the way she runs up to me with a big hug.  I think she is such a princess!"


Birthday Dinner of choice:


Swedish Meatballs
Broccoli
Watermelon
Bread "wif" butter
Key Lime Cream Cake


Family Dinner photos to come! and Birthday Party to come on the 21st!!