Marin is 6!

Marin is officially six.  Wow.  My kids birthdays are always especially meaningful to me- I like their birthdays more than my own, really.  I love to reminisce about every detail of the day they were born and recall all of the events over again in my head.  I love to tell the kids about the specialness of the day, and how everyone felt and how wonderful it all was.  Marin's birthday is especially so, because she made me a mommy.  I can actually believe that she is six.  I spend every day with her.  She is very clearly six to me.  I just wish I could keep her little a little longer.   In the meantime, we're soaking up every second.

We started celebrating Marin's birthday on Friday the 6th with a special family fun night, which is one of our favorite times together.  We played games and celebrated!  Emilie, John and I decorated her room while she was at school that day- a great surprise when she got home! The next morning we had pancakes with heart shaped strawberries inside.  That afternoon we went to Frozen on Ice with Jake and Katy.  Everyone had a great time!!  The day of her birthday we had Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Lindsay  and Jake and Katy for dinner.  She chose to serve hot dogs on the grill and green beans.

That night was the Daddy/daugher dance!  It was Emilie's first time getting to attend so that was especially special!  They had a great time!!!

A few weekends later, we hosted all of her friends at Goldfish Swim School for her birthday party!  The kids had the pool all to themselves and swam and played to their hearts delight! After that they dried off, had a snack and some cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday, to Marin!

So proud of this sweet, smart, fun, inquisitive little six year old!  It is a the greatest pleasure in my life to be your mom, Marin Jane.  Thanks for making me a mommy.  I love you.

John's First Birthday Party!

We have the book "On the Night You Were Born" memorized.  It's such a sweet story about the grander and the merriment of the miraculous night that a child is brought into this world.  It reminds me so much of the way we like to celebrate things- with excitement and a lot of people included in just that.  So I thought it would be the perfect theme for John's first birthday party.

We decorated the house with stars and moons and ladybugs and polar bears and we had a cake made that stole the show.  It featured all of the favorite characters from the book and had the words from the last page, "Heaven blew every trumpet and played every horn on the wonderful, magical night you were born" written on it.  We also had a "smash" cake for John that looked like the book and had the words from the first page written on it.  And there were cupcakes with ladybugs and ducks.  And of course, there were a lot of pictures of John scattered about.

Friends and family came from near and far to celebrate our sweet John-John.  It was a wonderful celebration.  He liked walking around the party holding onto peoples hands, playing with some of his buddies in the yard (after the rain stopped) but wasn't so sure about everyone staring at him, blowing horns and singing in his face.  :)  We'll give him a couple years.  :)

After cake, each person got a balloon and released them together to make a wish.  We released balloons when we found out that we were going to have a boy, so we thought we'd care on the theme.

It was a fun party that lasted well into the evening, hours after John was already tucked snuggly into his bed.  I hope someday he looks back at the pictures and feels all the love that everyone was giving him that day.  He is so loved.