March

March means a lot of different things to different people.  It means SPRING. It means March Madness and Basketball.  Some people think of St. Patric's Day or of Easter, but I think of BIRTHDAY SEASON.  This year my kids are all turning even numbers. Caleb and Cara both had the same due date at the end of March, and Ali's due date was two day's before theirs.  That makes Cara and Ali four years apart in age, and this year we celebrated Ali's 6th birthday and Cara's 10th birthday.

Ali has been so excited about her birthday.  I had to include this picture with Miss Sharp, Ali's teacher because she is making this year so fantastic.  Miss Sharp is one of the most gifted teachers I've ever met!  It is amazing how she can speak in almost a whisper voice and the children do just as she says.

Ali and Johnny are little buddies.  They play together so well.  I laughed about this picture because the next one I took Johnny was posed just as Ali is in this one.  He even had his neck sucked in and his hands in his lap.  I am grateful my children are close in age and play together so well.

Ali chose to have a Barbie theme for her birthday party this year.  I put my awesome cake making skills to work and made her this Barbie cake.  (I say that tongue-in-cheek because my skills aren't that great, but my kids always have high expectations.) The little girls liked it.

Ali's friends were so cute!  Taya, Harper, Savanna, Madison, Ali, Kendyl.  They were excited to play Barbies after they "Pinned the Glasses on Barbie," had cake and ice-cream, and opened presents.  Something that has been funny about this little group of kindergarten girls is their love of chasing the 1st grade boys, which happens to be Andy and his friends.  They love chasing the boys at recess just about as much as the boys loving being chased.

Cara's birthday is exactly one week after Ali's.  We waited until weekend to have her party so we went out to all-you-can-eat pizza on her actual birthday.  It is the kids favorite place because of the oreo pizza.  Cara also had her first activity day's with the older girls on her birthday.  They started a counted cross stitch project, and she officially LOVES handwork.

People thought I was crazy to plan a five hour birthday party.  I picked Cara and her friends up from school on Friday and took them to the fun park.  They spent three solid hours playing.  The original intention was to just go roller blading.  They loved that but talked me into letting them play on the soft play, too.  They were just too cute to tell the no. In their words they "ran around like crazy people" for hours.  At one point they started searching for game tokens all around the arcade.  It was a little embarrassing, but they were quite successful at finding them. Eventually they asked me for $5 for tokens so they had 20 game tokens to share among themselves.  Sarah hit the jackpot on a game and ended up with hundreds of tickets.  She was so sweet and they all divided their tickets among themselves so they all got fun prizes.  It was the first time I've ever spent money at an arcade and felt like it was worth it.

Once we got home we only had one hour to enjoy our spaghetti dinner, open presents and eat cake and ice cream.  Surprisingly five hours was just right!   It was a success!!

We wrapped up the girls birthdays this weekend with a trip to the ballet to see Cara's ballet teacher from last year perform as Beauty in Beauty and the Beast.  I'm not a big fan of ballets, but it was at least a story I could follow and the girls really enjoyed it.  I feel so grateful to have my girls!