Birthdays

Both my boys have birthdays in January. They always seem to sneak up on me. I love birthday's and they are a big deal in our family. We have parties, cake, and lots of fun to celebrate the day they were born. I have gotten a hard time now and again from family or friends that say we go a little overboard but I don't care. Lucky for me the only ones whose opinions matter (Bret and the kids) love it too.

Emily had a comment the other day about why Palmer gets to have big parties. I understood that she didn't mean big as in size but big as in we have his party somewhere besides home. Last year we had a big party a inflatable jump place and this year we are having it at Chuckie Cheese. With Emily we have worked really hard at steering her towards a party in our backyard although last year we did have a pool party. We do this for a couple of reasons.

The first being purely logistical. Palmer's birthday is in January and we have a tiny apartment. No luck moving things outdoors. The second is financial. Palmer's birthday comes very close after Christmas when he just got so many presents he hasn't time to play with everything he already got. Add that to what he will get from his friends at the party and we are good for the year. So we take most of the money we normally spend on presents and put it towards his party. Parties at places like Chuckie Cheese don't come cheap. Emily's birthdays are still over the top but I spend a lot more time making and planning the details such as games, etc myself which saves a ton of money. All in all I don't think Emily really minds as she has never been disappointed in her own party festivities.

Palmer has asked for a dinosaur cake which Bret and I have actually sat down and sketched out. Bret loves to "help" and still claims that Palmer's first birthday cake (a John Deere tractor) was amazing because he helped shape it. No comment here. It is really nice having the party somewhere besides here and it really is a lot less work for me. We have the invitations ready to had out at school this week and the favor bags are ready to be filled. Add a cake and whala we are ready for a party.

Logan's birthday theme this year is cookies and milk. We are keeping things simple (at least as simple as we get when it comes to awesome birthdays) with a great lunch for our friends, cookies and milk of course, and a birthday cake that looks like a cookie. Favors for Logan's friends will be a bag to take cookies home in, a bottle of bubbles, and a cookie cutter. Pictures to come!