Nathaniel's 13th Birthday - August 10, 2012

Here are some pictures from Nathaniel's birthday last year...

Zac and Sam Turn THREE!

Zac's and Sam's birthday was on Saturday this year.  While Michael was out getting gifts, he got Annie groomed too.

The kids thought she looked so cute with the bows on her ears and on her collar.

Once Michael came home with her, we had dinner - hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.  Then we opened gifts.  Zac and Sam LOVED their gifts!

After gifts, we ate ice cream cake!

We lit the candles and sang "Happy Birthday" to Zac first.

Then we lit the candles again and sang to Sam!

Eliza's Birthday - 11/25/2010

Eliza's birthday was on Thanksgiving this year.  Since she turned eight and would be baptized, Michael's parents came for the occasion.  They arrived on Thanksgiving day and stayed for a week and a half.

We couldn't find any birthday candles (we tend to go through them very quickly), so Eliza blew out a lighter.

These are some of the gifts she received:

It's a tradition on our child's eighth birthday to get a set of scriptures and a scripture case.

Katie wanted to eat one of Eliza's gifts, but I wouldn't open it for her.  She is wearing some of Eliza's gifts on her head and hands.

Eliza's Birthday in NYC

This year, since Eliza's birthday was the day before Thanksgiving, we gave her the choice of how she could celebrate it. She chose to go into NYC and see the balloon inflation for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Michael worked from home so that he could leave with the oldest four kids as soon as they got home at 1:30. I didn't go since I haven't been feeling very well and we didn't want to take Timmy and Katie into the city. They took the train in and then the subway to the place where they inflate the balloons. It was fairly cold and there were a lot of people there, but they had a great time anyway!

Dora was Eliza's favorite balloon...

My sister, Heather, and her family came to visit for the Thanksgiving weekend and had arrived at our house about half an hour before Michael and the kids got home. We had fun talking while the kids played, then we had a birthday cake for Eliza. After we had eaten, Heather, Willie, David, my mom and dad left and we went to bed! Happy 7th Birthday, Eliza!

Nathaniel's 1st and 10th

This year, Nathaniel had his first real birthday party. Meaning, he invited friends over. On August 7th, a few of his friends from his 4th grade class came over. For the most part the kids just jumped on the trampoline. They came in once to eat pizza and again to eat birthday cake and open presents.

For his birthday, he chose to go to Bertucci's for dinner, then we came back to open gifts. Nathaniel loves taking pictures, so we decided to give him a Nintendo DSi along with a cover for it and a few games. I think he really enjoyed his 10th birthday!

Christian's 12th

Last year, I started asking the kids if they want a birthday party or a more expensive gift. Both years, Christian has chosen the gift. Last year he got a Nintendo DS Lite. Unfortunately, for the past several months, he hasn't been able to find it. This year he requested a remote-controlled dragonfly. He saw a boy flying one in the church gym quite a while ago and has wanted one ever since. He said that if I couldn't get that, could I get him a Nintendo DSi, which is better than the one he got last year, plus it has a built-in camera. Michael and I decided that the dragonfly probably wouldn't last very long, so we decided to get him the DSi.

We had to celebrate his birthday a day early since we had a funeral to go to on his birthday. As Christian requested, we went to Bertucci's for dinner. He love the rolls and oil dipping sauce. He had pizza (one of his favorite things to get) and was pretty excited that they came out and sang him "Happy Birthday". He also was happy to get his very own chocolate layer cake!

The whole weekend before his birthday, he kept talking about how excited he was about getting a dragonfly. When it was time to open his gifts, Michael told him that he wasn't going to get a dragonfly since he was still talking about it. He didn't look happy at all.

I decided to let him open his gifts in whatever order he picked them up.

Not too excited about socks (who is?).
Putting on a brave face. How many 12-year-olds get a tie, after all?
NOW, we're talking! (It's a DSi case, so I think he knows what he's getting...)
I don't think he minded that he didn't get his dragonfly...
I had to talk him into opening his suit...then he went straight back to his DSi.

On his birthday, my mom waited at our house for the kids to get home and then took them to her house. They had some yummy food, ate outside, and watched a movie that Christian picked out (The Wizard of Oz). My mom was also ambitious enough to make a dragon cake, one of Christian's favorite things...

Katie's First Birthday

I can hardly believe that Katie is one already. Since her birthday was on a Saturday, we had the whole day together. She took two naps as usual and woke up in enough time to have her very own cake!

On Sunday, we invited both sides of the family over after church and had dinner, cake, and ice cream. Katie was pretty tired by the end of the night. She got a bunch of great gifts, though!