Lots of love

Happy Birthday!

A Fitting Party

I love the fan fare, all the glitter and extras.  Not everyone feels the same.  A birthday without the horns and whistles may go against my natural inclination but it feels just right for some and when its your birthday you get to choose.  For Elias' birthday I think we came up with a perfect way to celebrate, to honour another year and all the wonder that goes with it.
A few friends were invited for an outdoor party, which makes sense for my outdoor guy.  We met at the provincial park where we went tubing.  We had a campfire for roasting dogs, hot chocolate and cupcakes with 'snow' icing made by the birthday boy himself.  There was just the right balance of celebration, sparkle while remaining low key. 

Party Zone

No contemplating was needed when it came to a theme for this birthday party.  Hands down it was cars, trucks, large equipment and whatever falls in between!

From there the decorations included caution tape streams, road signs, a road table cloth, pylons, buckets full of food, a cake with diggers and 'dirt'.  We played pin the parts on the dump truck, had a scavenger hunt for stop signs, made flags for the car races, played simon says and hot potato with a tool belt for everyone.
We laid out areas for the kids to play in with trains, a car mat, a little town, a construction area with blocks and dumpers.  The big hit was the race track Chris whipped up the morning of.   The kids sent cars down endlessly!
Shai had lots of us friends over whose company he was thrilled to have share in his party.  Despite the cold winter weather we so appreciated and enjoyed having our family come out for this special day.

Happy 4th Birthday

to my sweet boy, forever my baby.

I love how you

*like to whisper in my ear

*never, ever tire of playing cars or trucks

*love ice cream so

* have taken to climbing into bed with Ben in the middle of the night

*never forget to come cuddle with me in the morning

* lay next to Myca and tell her stories

*stand on your chair at dinner to make sure we are all listening

*play air guitar

*when you hear a song your body starts dancing like it just can't help giving into it

*you like to kiss everyone before bed

Happy Birthday Ben

October was a little crazy, we had lots of welcome guests and the programs all started this month as well.  This meant Ben's party was a little late in getting organized.  We did a bit of brainstorming around ideas, lots of themes have been taken in the past, everything from jungle to pirates and outer space to spies.  I guess that's part of having 3 siblings and having a house which enjoys celebratng with birthday parties! Ben knew he wanted to play games, lots of the them. As we brain stormed we decided this was the perfect theme/focus for his party- puzzles and challenges to solve.

Once the friends arrived the games began.  Each puzzle once completed led to another, clues needing to be brought together to move to the next stage.  The kids liked the first game a lot.  On a table were 20 items, they had 15 seconds to memorize what was there.  The table was covered back up and they had to write down as many of those items as they could collectively remember.  From this list they needed to discover a common thread between the items which led them to their next location.  There were maps leading to puzzle pieces, letters and symbols hidden in the woods to decode, string webs to climb through, blindfolded team games, charades, and more.

The kids never stopped running.  It was a gorgeous fall day, perfect for an outdoor afternoon.   Eventually the trail led to the cake of course.  Ben out did himself by making a fabulous Lego cake.  He figured out how to make the  blocks look realistic, with ten notches - 1 for each year he is celebrating.

Happy Birthday!

 

Happy Tenth Birthday Ben! 

Such a sweet, gentle soul! 

We love you!

It was a joy to spend a day hiking, surprise gifts through out the day, cooking together. 

Eight Years Old!

Happy Birthday Aria!

It is such a gift to celebrate Aria.  She brings such flare and life to our family.  Her stories have been a welcomed constant since birth. We are amazed at how appropriately we named her, for when she is not talking, she is singing.   I love how silly she can be, her love of snuggles, the intense need to create,  her unique outlook on life.  Aria is such a blessing!
For her birthday, her brothers went all out.  Knowing how much she loves crafting, they explored a few of the books she spends time dreaming in and picked a few for fabulous gifts.  Ben sewed a ribbon bag, covering the front in an array of beautiful colours.  Elias choose to  paint a shirt with stencils of starfish and a sea horse to commemorate our trip to the sea.  We surprised her with a ceiling covered in glow in the dark stars which were a big hit!

Party Time

Our outdoor campfire/movie night required a little tweaking due to lots of rain and a high of 10 degrees! (crazy since we are normally in swimsuits while celebrating!) We had games, friends, a barbque, movie on a BIG screen, ice cream sandwiches and FUN!  It was a great celebration!

A Special Birthday Boy

My tree climbing, nature loving, creature caring, lego master, who has such a strong sense of right and wrong, understands the strength of his body, tender hearted, cuddly, self motivated to explore so many different passions, costume loving, deep belly laughing, silly humour, embraces the magical world, a gentle soul who has a beautiful spiritual understanding I admire, that is just a window into my Ben. Today, it is his 9th birthday, but he wants us to celebrate 8 again, because who wants to grow older, certainly not him. Happy 8th birthday - what a gift you are!

Ben made his own cake, a layer of skittles in between two layers of white cake, iced with chocolate butter frosting. A third cake had a very elaborate lego creation for a cake topper, an Indian Jones scene. He was thrilled with a viking shield made by dadda, a viking cape and pillow from mama, fishing magazine from Shai, Elias made him a wood axe, Aria got fudge ingredients for him to use and made a finger game. He was thrilled with it all.

Birthday Festivities

A visit from my sister, niece, nephew, and parents was perfect timing for Aria's upcoming birthday. It was especially wonderful to watch the cousins run around with each other. Going from beach to playmobile, to magical worlds. There were lots of birthday festivities including a pinata, a pop shower under the spraying mentos/pop experiment, making ice cream in the ball, boccie ball, peanut toss, swings and animals. Sounds like a mini carnival?!

What fun!