Four, Glorious Four!

M was sure this day would never, ever come. Being the end of the family as well as the last birthday of the year is rough going. She tried to wait patiently, well as patiently as someone who really wanted to be four could wait. But the day came! She was so happy for it to be her birthday. We celebrated with a barbie cake, that she and her CE decorated, once I put the thing together. We played with family on her actual birthday and with friends today. The birthday party was a bit tricky. She wanted a pool party, she wanted water balloons, she wanted ice cream cones outside. I had to tell her that she just didn't have a pool birthday, that really only Z and CW in our family do have pool birthdays. Once we got past the disappointment heaped upon M by the weather, she settled on a Dora party. And it was lovely. We had so much fun that M is already awash in plans for her party next year! We made maps and backpacks, played silly games and sang songs. And ate cupcakes, of course. And now, we are done with birthdays for the year. Imagine that! 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12. What a family, what joy, what insanity and I wouldn't have it any other way, and definitely not with Miss M and her birthday!

Bam and his Birds

Oh dear Bam and your flights of fancy, your love of Angry Birds, birthdays, cakes and parties! This birthday has been in the works at least since CW's party in June. And finally it arrived; Bam is six. The cake posed architectural problems in addition to the artistic problems I usually have with birthday cakes. But my CHS friend Suz came to my aid via FB with her mad cake skillz, a recipe for marshmallow fondant (to make the top feathers) and the geometric breakdown of Mr. Red Bird's face (triangles and circles). I am proud of how the cake turned out, but my heart is warmest at the smile on Mr. Bam because of the cake.

We shared Bam's cake with family on his birthday and then commenced to planning his "friend party" for later in the week when we had a school holiday. In keeping with the Angry Birds theme, we had ourselves some Angry Bird fun--with 12 of Bam's friends. We had a blast and lived to tell about it.


Here's the King Pig Castle the boys built to demolish (pretty impressive architectural feat for 13 6 year olds!)


Angry Bird sweets for the angry bird boys.


Angry Bird bowling

I'm always amazed at party dynamics--seeing my kids and their friends out of church, out of school. It was both delightful and exhausting to spend this angry bird time with Bam and his buddies, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Imagination, Flights of Fancy and Growing Up

This is really the best Halloween picture I could get. CE was a ghost bride. Z was Where's Waldo, CW was Harry Potter, Bam was a Red Mystic Force Power Ranger and M was a Ballerina Cinderella (very fancy dancy, she said when she saw the costume).

As usual, Bam was planning and replanning what he would be for Halloween from the beginning of summer. I had to find his costume on ebay, but thankfully it was inexpensive. Z really didn't want to dress up, so his costume allowed him to wear mostly real clothes and carry his candy around in a backpack. CE had to dress up for school, since she's in Leadership and they were in charge of the dance. As a result, we found ourselves trolling the Salvation Army thrift shop and Hobby Lobby in order to pull together the look she was hoping for. M was easy, we walked into the scary store (those pop-up Halloween stores that appear in otherwise vacant strip mall spaces), found the fancy dancy costume and we were on our way within moments.

We are in various Halloween stages--Bam and M are still in the throws of Halloween wonderfulness, costumes, candy and all the (non-scary) stuff the holiday holds. CW is edging his way out of those years. His costume was easy--we had everything. He was casual about the whole thing and just seemed to love to run around with friends collecting candy. Z is pretty much done. He likes candy and he likes walking around with friends, so that's why (I think) he suffered through the costumed aspect of the event. I don't thing he and Halloween are in it for the long haul though. CE has passed into that second stage of Halloween, that of parties. She worked her school dance, she hung out with friends at the ward trunk or treat and on Halloween night she went to a party.

As much has Halloween isn't my friend (I don't like to dress up; I'm not creative; I don't get into creepy and I HATE the candy haul we end up with, even though I "redistribute" what we get at the trunk or treat both during the trunk or treat and on Halloween night), I am a bit wistful about this change in how things are. It seems another marker of how my family is aging way too fast to even put a finger on it. For now, Bam is more into Halloween than any of my older children ever were. I wonder how long that will last and how the holiday will morph for him once he begins to believe less fervently in the power to become whatever he is wearing. And then there's baby M who is no longer a baby at all really. How will it feel when she is no longer placated by anything twirly or pink?

Never thought I could get wistful about a costume. Motherhood does strange things.