Yesterday I thought about the Duggars.  And the birthdays...and the wrapping paper...and the vast quantity of birthday cake that must be consumed by that family.  They might actually get tired of a good chocolate cake. How sad. Then I stopped feeling slightly birthdayed out and began enjoying our busy season - 4 birthdays between March 8 and May 1.  A little perspective always helps.

Yesterday we celebrated a freshly turned 3 year-old Lily, but since Ty's day slipped through the blogging cracks 5 weeks ago, it only seems right to start there.

Ty's eight now! He wanted a day on the baseball field with his buddies for his birthday. Hmm - imagine that.  It sounded perfect to me. Perfectly easy. An hour on the field (which was Reas' job) followed by presents and cake. He had a ball.

Then, of course a few weeks later, on Easter weekend, Ty had his baptism. Back in February of 2011, Ty comitted to finish reading The Book of Mormon before his baptism date. He did awesome. Very diligent.  Even when he was pooped out from a long day, he still read, sometimes as much as 5 chapters a day. He finished 2 weeks before his baptism. Way to go, kid! He really is a great boy.






We were so happy to have some family come in to town to support him.



That same weekend, we celebrated Reas' birthday.  But since he's pretty old now, we kept it low key, so as to not throw out his back or anything.  He said all he wanted was to watch the Dodger game together and eat nachos supreme on his birthday. I know. So romantically sweet.  Speaking of sweet- his cake sunk in the middle for some reason. So me, being the clever girl that I am, thought I'd double the frosting recipe which would fill in the cake canyon and no one would ever have to know that I'm not perfect. I made cooked frosting, which is basically fudge poured over your cake.  Doubled, that turned out to be more frosting than cake. That cake might just go down in history as the chocolate death cake. I'll just say, only a few of us were actually able to finish our piece - me being one of them.  Yeah, I know how to pack it in, baby. It's a great recipe. If you want to try it out, just know a single recipe is quite sufficient for a 9x13 pan.




And now on to Lily. I've said it before - 3 year-olds are the best!  Simplicity is appreciated, and they're excited about anything! By sheer coincidence, Reas' company alway gives a random day off in the spring. This year it was on Lily's birthday. It made her day extra special having him around when all the other kids were at school. We went to Denny's to get her free birthday breakfast. We're cool like that. While there, we discussed whether or not we'd have the guts to walk into Denny's with our 5 kids during the "kids eat free" hours.  Nope. We agreed we just couldn't do it.

After Denny's, we hopped on over to Dollar Tree where Lily picked out her own princess balloon because after all, that was one of the two things she asked for.  The other being chocolate cupcakes. See what I mean?  3 is all about the simple pleasures.







 Currently, Lily loves letters. Obsessed actually.  Conversations in the car, revolve 100% around which letters she sees on signs.  A perfect Lily gift would have to involve letters. Maggie and I settled on ABC bean bags using old jeans and fabric scraps.  They're a hit...with everyone!  She's was pretty excited about her money and gift cards from grandparents too. Here we come, Target.



One more birthday to go and then we've got a little break until Jack's birthday.  Isn't that ridiculously crazy? I'm almost crying thinking about his birthday coming up in a few months.

I know I said there'd be no more birthday posting. I lied. I forgot that we still had Claire's party coming up. I'll make it short and sweet.

So sweet in fact, you may get a sugar high just from reading.

We had a rousing game of pin the cherry and sprinkles on the icecream cone.

Followed by a game I call "Sprinkle Dump." Simply put, shake up your construction paper sprinkles and cherries, dump 'em out, watch the kids scramble to find one of each color, and then let them glue them on their bowls of icecream.

Maybe kind of lame as far as party games go, but I needed another icecream game. It was appropriately appreciated by a group of 4-5 year olds. That's all that matters.

Next, the highlight of the party. Create your own icecream sundae - only rule , don't tell your mom how many gummy bears, marshmallows, and brownie bites you consumed by 10:00 AM or she may not let you be Claire's friend anymore.

We all know who has the coolest mom now.

We did provide fresh strawberries for those kids who were watching their figures.

All the little cuties ate and ate and ate until all were adequately over-stuffed and then we sent them home...with more candy.

When Claire was born, the nurse said she had never seen a more beautiful newborn. Sure, she probably told all the moms that, but it was the only sensible thing that woman said all day, so you bet I'll always remember it.

Reas has forbidden all gift buying for his birthday this year, and so we've had to get a little creative.