Birthday Weekend

Both sets of grandparents came to town this past Friday to help us celebrate Alexis, Jack, and Faith's 2nd birthday, which was special since there has only been a few other occasions when the nine of us have been together. It just so happened that everyone arrived when the kids were napping, so when they woke up from their naps they had quite the surprise! Alexis was the first awake and she loved all of the attention she got from each of the grandparents as she kept moving from one person to another. When Jack woke up he seemed a bit confused, like he didn't quite believe that they were all sitting in our family room and not on the iPad screen, but it didn't take him long to warm up. Faith was the last one up and she was surprised by the visitors as well, but she didn't have long to let it sink in as we had to leave quickly for the kids' haircut appointments.

Although Jack's first haircut was in January and he has had several home haircuts since then, the girls' hair was just getting long enough to need a trim. I decided to schedule the haircuts for when the grandparents were in town since the salon setting is fun, it would make the first haircuts more memorable, and quite frankly I could use the extra hands. Alexis was first and although she was a little nervous at first, she did fine. Jack was next and he sobbed through the entire haircut. He never enjoys his haircuts at home either, which is why I never do a perfect job, but luckily this stylist persevered and his haircut turned out well. Faith was last for her haircut and she wasn't very happy about getting it cut, but she survived.

Alexis

Jack

Faith

Micah and his dad stayed home during the haircuts as they needed to put the kids balance bikes together, which they got for a birthday gift, so they met us at Red Robin after the haircuts. The kids did great through the whole meal, but it definitely helped that there were grandparents to help keep them occupied. After dinner we went back to the house to play in the backyard, which is always fun.

All of us at Red Robin

The kids loved the balloons, but they only lasted about 3 seconds at home in the backyard before they popped

Birthday crew driving their cars and motorcycles (F, J, A)

On Saturday morning Micah picked up donuts. The kids were born on "National Donut Day" two years ago (the first Friday in June), so we always have to celebrate that day. Grandma thought it would be a good idea to take a photo of the kids with the box of donuts, but none of us thought about the fact that they would help themselves to donuts if they were sitting in front of them! Although it was messy, overall it was fine that they grabbed the donuts on their own. Usually we split one donut between the three of them, but there were plenty, and they all only ate about 1/3 of their donuts anyway. The only downside was that there were only three sprinkled donuts in the box, which are my favorite, and all three kids grabbed one of those! I guess sacrifices such as these are just part being a mom :).

A, J, F 

Jack

Alexis

Faith

We thought Alexis was being the tidiest but we soon realized she was sitting on most of her donut!

Long ago Micah and I decided that we wanted to take each kid out on their own for about an hour during their birthday weekend. Although occasionally one of us will take a child with us to a store or something, we have never taken one child out with the two of us, so we felt like it would be special. Also, we thought it would work well over the birthday weekend since we would have four grandparents watching the other two kids.

So, after donuts on Saturday we loaded Jack into the car and we went to a nearby trailhead, since he seems to enjoy exploring the outdoors so much. Although he got a bit distracted by pretending to drive the car (he wanted to climb into the drivers seat once we got to the parking lot so we let him since that is not something we can do with all three kids in tow), once he realized that he was in charge of the hike he had a blast. He found a great stick to carry around and he wandered as he pleased. The best part for him was running back down the trail towards the car, as he was giggling the whole way!

Jack about to whack a flower with his stick

Jack hiking with Daddy

Next we took Faith to the Uptown shopping area. We walked around a bit and then we stopped at Starbucks for drinks and Faith enjoyed her first juice box, plus some sips of Mommy's iced tea. We also made a stop at Trader Joe's before we went home as we needed a few things for our birthday party. Faith seemed to enjoy the time with us, especially when she got to walk holding both of our hands and we swung her in the air several times, but she also seemed a bit confused as to why she was out without her siblings.

Faith and Daddy

Mommy's food and drink are always the best

Lastly we took Alexis swimming at the YMCA, since she enjoyed it the most when we went earlier in the week. We were lucky that the pool wasn't very busy yet as it had just opened, so we spent time swimming in the big pool. Alexis had a great time swimming, and getting out, walking around the deck, and then "jumping" back in.

Alexis swimming with Daddy

Getting warmed up with Mommy

Everyone took great naps after their fun and busy mornings, and we actually had to wake them up after 3+ hours of sleeping! We had some appetizers and drinks so we all ate a snack and then started opening gifts. All three pretty much knew what to do when it came to opening gifts, and all of the gifts were a hit.

Opening the backpacks (with leashes for airports and such). Their new picnic table from Grandma and Grandpa is in the background.

Play hats! There was a little squabble since there were only two boxes to unwrap, but it was fine once they realized there were enough hats to go around.

I found three of these for $5 a piece secondhand! They are a hit! 

All three kids got balance bikes for their birthday, although it will be several months before they are actually capable of riding them on their own. We took them all outside on Monday before Micah left for AK. Here is Jack and Micah.

Alexis

Faith didn't mind wearing the helmet that we gave her

After gifts we ate dinner in the backyard, took some photos with the cupcakes (in the shape of a "2"), and then sang to the kids while they started eating their cupcakes. This was an extremely messy endeavor, much messier than last year when the kids were confined to their highchairs and didn't quite understand eating solids yet, so the day ended with a bath.

Not really "Pinterest" worthy, but this is creative enough for me. Grammy made the cupcakes and I decorated.

The whole family

Grandpa and Grandma with the kids (J, F, A) 

Grandpa and Grammy with the kids

Birthday cupcakes at their new picnic table

For some reason Jack grabbed the top of the cupcake with his hand and then he was stuck like that the whole time he was eating it. I guess he needs more practice with cupcakes!

Faith

Alexis

On Sunday, their actual birthday, we had a quiet morning at home (Grammy and Grandpa Howard had to leave early in the morning so there were only 7 of us left) and then we went to church. After church and nap, we took the kids to the Botanic Garden and let them walk around, which is special in and of itself since I am not able to let them walk freely when I take them there by myself. They enjoyed pushing the buttons for the trains, looking at the butterflies in the pavilion, and walking around the Children's Fantasy Garden.

The girls pushing the buttons for the trains

Wandering through the Fantasy Garden

In the evening, after feeding the kids dinner, Micah and I went out to dinner on our own, which was fantastic since he left the next day for his three week trip to AK so it was our last chance to do something together. We were grateful that my parents volunteered to babysit so we could go.

One last family photo from the weekend before Micah and I went out to dinner

It was a great birthday weekend filled with family and three very happy two-year-olds. We wish that we lived closer to both sets of grandparents so that we could see them more often, but we are thankful that we can all be together for big events such as birthdays.