Celebration!

My kids are 13 1/2 months apart.

I can hear you gasp!

I remember crying the day I found out I was pregnant again. I had a 4 mo. old at home. What in the world was I gonna do?

Fast forward 10 years. Grace turned 10 on Jan. 27, and Evan will be 9 on March 12.

So, we now have a "in the middle" family party for the both of them.

I never thought I would do that. My sister and I have birthdays 2 weeks apart, and we shared birthday parties. At the time, I didn't enjoy that, but I can now see why my mom did it. It's easier to handle one big party, than 2 parties a couple weeks apart.

We "solve" the problem, by allowing each of them to have their FRIEND parties on, or very close to their actual birthday, and the Brentster and I give them their gifts, not at the family party, but on their actual birthday.

Fast forward again.....to the family party last night. Grace has fallen in love with the Paul Frank monkey at Target.

He is pretty cute....so that was her choice for the party.

Evan is just totally obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog.

Everyone knows it. He talks about him all the time, and draws him all the time, so the logical choice for the party was sonic.

I let them each pick a theme for the family party, and I try to make a cake of that character. Since my sister and family moved to South Carolina, we have less to serve, so I made their cake together this time. I tell you, the older they get, the harder their characters are to replicate!

This is what the cake turned out to be. It's not my favorite, and it's not the best, but it was good.
We set the table for 9

and had lasagna, homemade garlic bread, homemade applesauce, salad, cake, and ice cream. Good on all accounts if I do say so myself!

This was the only picture I got of them before blowing out the candles. Actually, Grace never did get to blow them out, because the cheap candles burned themselves out by totally melting!

They were very thrilled with their gifts. Grace got two American Girl craft sets.

Micheals has a whole new line of American Girl crafts. WONDERFUL!!!!!

Evan got a sonic character, and he was over the moon!

We had a good time. The kids were happy. We ate well. And had a good time with family.

Happy Birthday guys! We love you!