BIRTHDAY MORNING

Our birthday tradition with the kids is to decorate the house the night before so when they wake up on their birthday there is a special feel in the house.  For McKay we mostly hung balloons and streamers.  We probably blew up 50 balloons.  My lungs got a good workout.  It was worth it for McKay’s reaction!  He was thrilled when he woke up and all morning he’d point and grunt and look at us.  We’d explain it to him and then he’d point and grunt more and then we’d explain it again and again and again.  He thought they were pretty spectacular and I think he knew they were for him.

We had planned to go to the YMCA with the Cricchios but they couldn’t make it and I was feeling lazy.  So, the kids just had fun playing with and popping balloons all morning.  My mom came up around 1 and the kids played with her.  They always go bonkers when she shows up.  They sure love her.

She took them for a half hour car ride in the late afternoon so I could work on meal prep and toy pick up.  Huge help!

BIRTHDAY FOOD

I made the Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Parmigiana.  My mom had made and canned a huge patch of spaghetti sauce earlier in the week so she shared that with us.  Julie brought a delicious salad with homemade Ranch dressing from Our Best Bites.  It was so good it hurt!  Sadie had helping after helping of vegetables just so she could dip it in the ‘cream’, as she calls it.

PRESENTS

The night before McKay’s birthday I wrapped our presents for him.  There were two items: stackable cups and a blow up toy.  Each cost $1.  I had bought them a few months ago when we were doing shopping for Jax’s birthday.  We really didn’t need any more toys so I hadn’t planned to get more, but it was just too sad and pathetic looking!  So, I looked on Craigslist and found a listing of toys closeby for $25.  So, why not?  I’ll weed through our other toys and get rid of a few to make room for these.  Ben picked them up on his drive home from work right before the party.  WOW! – had we found a good deal.  These are what was included:

Laugh and Learn Learning Table

Stack and Suprise Blocks Songs n Smiles Sillytown

Playskool Wheel Pals Travel Tails Barn

LeapFrog Lettersaurus

LeapFrog Learning Friends Phonics Bus Vehicle

Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Learning Kitchen

VTech Learning Fun Tool Box

Playskool Weebles On the Bus

For kicks I decided to add up the prices of the toys if we had bought them new.  Care to guess the amount?  How about $375!!!! No kidding.  Only one toy looks ‘used’ and only because the white isn’t quite as bright of a white as the other toys.  They all had batteries, there weren’t any pieces missing, they’re all educational, and they only cost $25.  We’re blessed!

McKay (and Sadie and Jax) were thrilled with all the gifts!  Ironically, McKay’s favorite toy is his $1 stack of cups.  He plays with them all day and giggles to no end when he knocks them over.  Just goes to show ya.

CAKE

Now for the good part….dessert.

Instead of cake I made homemade Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream also from Our Best Bites cookbook/blog. To top it off my mom made two kinds of hot fudge sauce.

I ordered a smash cake from Publix for McKay’s indulgence.  He warmed right up to the idea of making a huge, delicious mess of his cake.  His siblings and cousins joined in with their chubby little fingers and before we knew it we had 6 cake-covered, happy kids.  Shadow also enjoyed the experience as he was the one to lick up the mess on the floor.  He missed the windows and walls, though.  There’s still cake and frosting I need to clean off of them.  One day I’ll get to it!