We celebrated her birthday Monday evening with dinner, cupcakes, balloons and family and friends.
We sort of did an Wonderland / One-derland theme since Azia did an Mad Tea Party birthday a few years ago and we still had some things hanging around.
We had cupcakes in teacups and croquet and propeller hats instead of birthday hats.
Papa and Yaya let us borrow their yard and the kids went over and decorated a little a few hours before.
We had some face painting, and a make-shift photo booth, and even though we have variables like Lex (who, although he denied it, apparently ate half dozen cupcakes before I frosted them and then dumped and not only broke but sat on three of the ones in teacups on the way over to the party) and me (who completely forgot to even get the ice cream out of the freezer) it was a nice relaxing evening.
Zayda got a good start on her next year surrounded by family and friends.
All her aunts and uncles are out of town (fire season!) so there weren't as many people as are sometimes around for birthdays. You know you have big family when 30+ people seems like a quiet little gathering.
hanging out with her biggest big brother
visiting with Monte
birthday girl!
Nana & Aodhan checking out her year in pictures. (I've printed them, which I'm considering a commitment to make some sort of scrapbook of her first year with them.)
monopolizing the photobooth
Azia made and decorated Zayda's cake. (Luckily we had a cake after Lex's help with the cupcakes.) She also did most of the organizing of the decorations.
The cake became a little more wonky than initially designed by the time we served it..
Zayda had her own cake on her birthday--today she seemed more interested in the teacup cakes than a piece of real cake.
Israel and the Matt boys mastering the game of croquet
with her dad
It was a great end to a fun first year. Summer BBQs are pretty much the best end to any day.
Lex is officially five. He had his marine birthday party yesterday. (And no, it is not an army party or a soldier party or a military party, it was very specifically a "marine" birthday. The specificity may have something to do with having the marine father.)
He told me that he wanted a marine party about a month ago. I had no idea what that meant. He explained it involved camouflage. And shooting people. Fun with guns–just the sort of party people want to send their children to. I tried to explain that maybe shooting each other wasn't the best party game but he just explained to me, "Really, Mom? They aren't real guns. It's pretend."
Since I never have time to plan ahead lately anyway we did no more thinking about the party until a few days before his birthday. Or I did no more planning at least– Lex was still thinking about it. My kids love birthdays and birthday parties.
So, a few days before his birthday I asked him again and we were still stuck on the marine idea. I ordered some blank dog tags we could stamp, little plastic military helmets, a bunch of the plastic toy "marines," and camo colored tye-dye on amazon. (Yay amazon prime and their ability delivery the next day after I decide I need something!) I picked up a couple packages of plain white Hanes t-shirts and a few boxes of cake mix and green and black balloons on the way home from work the next day and we were set.
Okay, I also bought a dozen cheap, miniature nerf guns. It was the main request. These guests all know what they're getting into visiting us anyway. They've been here before.
We made cool camouflage marine guy cupcakes for his preschool class on his birthday. (Well he thought they were cool and that's really all that matters.)
I had a cool plan for a camouflage cake I was going to try to make for his party at home and then when I actually got around to baking the cakes at 3:30 in the morning I realized I still didn't have all my circular cake pans back. This is now the third time I've realized this while baking birthday cakes at 3:00 am and still haven't retrieved the pans. I need to do better at organizing my baking supplies. Or my life. There are less resources available for coming up with new plans when you're cooking in the middle of the night.
But this was the new plan– a mountain. (It's supposed to be a mountain.) The cake underneath looks camouflage too. Or, rotten. I suppose it's a matter of perspective.
Lex was pretty happy overall. The good thing about a giant family & great friends is that really all you need for a great birthday celebration is a mass text with the party time & place and some take out pizza. Instant party. Add in some tye-dying messiness, nerf guns, and a pinata to beat open and it's even better.
I still have a few more photos of their shirts and and cake making and his birthday movie to upload & link to, but I'm posting these now since I know if I wait, it won't get done. (Azia asked me about her movie when they were looking at all the pictures on here this weekend and I realized I never put up her birthday stuff –from July– because I was waiting till I uploaded her video to YouTube.) When I get the personal secretary to organize all my small life tasks things will all get done much more promptly.
Azia and Jenna have been having fun creating things and planning for Azia's birthday party the last couple days. It's sort of fun how competent they are these days. They come up with their own ideas, look up how to do things, and then just go for it. Tonight they came up to show me the mini top hats they'd created. (Azia's also been reading the book. She'd never read it and a couple weeks ago it was in Target's dollar bins!)
Having a birthday in the third week of November is just pretty bad timing if you want to hang out with your friends to celebrate. Really often his birthday is on Thanksgiving (or the big shopping day after like this year) or the last days of hunting season. It's usually weekend everyone is likely to be spending with their families. So, the weekend before works a little better.
brothers
We did paintball last year for his birthday and apparently it was a pretty good birthday activity because he wanted to do it again this year. (And then again today when one of his friends was back in town visiting.)
Exploding paintballs, wool socks and handwarmers to keep the CO2 tanks warm and a fire to keep the people warm. . . all aspects of winter paintball.
Dev getting Zoran all ready to go.
taking cover. . . avoiding the other team
warming up around the fire: Israel, Tyler, Beedo, Gage & Zoran
Azia was a bit more interested in target practice than combat at this point.
Zoran jumped right in with the big guys. (And he has a big welt/ bruise from one of the shots that got him to prove it!)
Paintball boys:
After the morning paint ball, everyone headed back to our house to watch the UM win the Cat-Griz football game.
We had food and cake and ice cream waiting for us back at the house.
(and I must get a double-my-current -sized crockpot if I want to feed groups of teenage boys in the fall/ winter!)
Aodhan was ready to help blow out the candles.
Him and Israel are birthday buddies. Their birthdays are 2 days (and 12 years) apart.
Israel got a new phone for his birthday. It is a little ridiculous that my teenager has a smart phone, but it's the only "toy" he's actually been excited about for years. (He didn't ask for one--having one wasn't even a possibility he considered. He was just pretty happy about it after we surprised him with it.) He loves researching things he might want and working toward getting them, but when he does, he quickly forgets about them. He's never really been big about possessions. But, this phone has a camera and an ipod (the things he does use all the time) and he has been using the facetime all week to talk with one of his best friends who moved away last year. Also, if anyone else wanted to help me out as much as he does everyday, I would gladly pay for any iphone for them instead. He's sort of my handyman, babysitter, housekeeper, errand-runner and I need to be able to get ahold of him!
His phone also has his birthday movie loaded on it. This was the only real request Israel had for his party. He wanted to be sure I'd make him a movie of his year:
He chose his own music. Country songs about drinking and girls shaking it? Not probably what I would've chosen. And last month, Lex chose Ozzy Osborne and ACDC for his. I don't know what this says about my children, but I'm pretty sure Dev is the musical influence behind those choices.
After watching the game the boys had a grand plan to build an igloo. Then they were going to sleep in it. Unfortunately we only had about 3-4 inches of snow. That's not really enough if they wanted to build something big enough for them all to fit in so they began moving it from all other parts of the yard.
Pretty soon it got dark and they gave up (not sure which of those two happened first) and then they spent much of the night running around in the dark. Maybe they were sledding.
It was a pretty good day, though. I was out watching the fights later that night at saw Israel had updated his facebook status from his new phone: "Just had an ausome birthday."
(We'll focus on the birthday fun for the day and start working on spelling next week.)
We had cupcakes in teacups and croquet and propeller hats instead of birthday hats. 
