Posts Tagged ‘birthday’

Jen and I are in the kitchen again! This time our project was for Heron's 2nd birthday. We're not doing a real party, since we're still in New York and will be home with Matt in Japan in less than two weeks (maybe we'll have a party with presents when we return!) I wanted him to have at least a special treat on his special day. He doesn't seem to have too many interests, but when Mom and Dad took him to the store to pick out a toy when we arrived out here, he chose a fire truck. Whenever he sees any kind of truck on the road, he calls out "fire truck!" So we decided to do fire truck themed cookies on cupcakes.

I drew some sketches of a fire truck, hydrant, fireman's hat, and dalmation head. We baked up some cookies (Sweet Sugarbelle's excellent recipe) and made a double batch of royal icing (we're having good luck with the recipe at Bake at 350.)

We split the cookies and free-handed the drawings with a size 2 tip and some royal icing. (We're still practicing our piping skills and Heron was climbing all over Jen while she was decorating, so the lines are a little shaky!) That night we flooded with thinned-out icing. For the dogs and spots, we dropped black splotches on wet white icing.

We couldn't easily keep them a secret from Heron and he picked his favorite cookies: the dogs. We found him this morning, escaping up the stairs, with a stolen cookie in hand. If he can keep his hands off them today, then we'll be able to have them at our mini-party tonight!

Happy 2nd birthday to my sweet Heron, the boy who loves fire trucks. Love you!

Happy birthday, Rhino, my sweet three year-old!

You're three years old now and all ready telling everyone you see "I'm Rhino. I'm three!" We didn't have a large celebration this year, but had a great little party at your Grandma and Grandpa's in New York two weeks ago. You enjoyed a train cake, made by Mommy & Aunt Jen. You loved all the attention, the Thomas & Friends party hats, ripping into presents, singing Happy Birthday to yourself, and picking candy off the train cake and sugary landscape. It was a fantastic birthday and you're still

Like I mentioned, we went to visit your grandparents (and aunt, uncle, great-aunts, great-great-aunts, great-grandparents, etc!) You've now flown across the Pacific Ocean seven times in your three years! I am so proud of how well you handled all the travel this time. You either slept, colored, played on the iPad or watched movies while we were on the plane. For the hours that we were waiting in the airport, you were usually playing with your little brother — chasing each other around, making silly faces and noises, and putting on quite a show! You love going through security checks and were very helpful with putting items in bins and pushing the bins on the rollers down to the scanner. Wherever you saw a mat with footprints on it (for people getting scanned to stand with legs spread) you'd get so excited and place your tiny feet on the prints and stay there! You also had some long car rides, bus trips, and quite a long train ride (the trains were especially exciting for you!) Even though the travel was long and you were tired, you were quite a trooper.

The visit in New York was all sorts of fun for you! You really liked being around all your relatives, who gave you plenty of attention! You got lots of play-time in with Grandma and Grandpa. They played your new favorite board game: Blokus (which you play with your own rules!) You exercised and stretched with Aunt Jen and Grandpa. You helped cook and ate lots of big-boy meals at the dinner table. You loved Jasmine and Mugsy, the dogs, and were really gentle with them and had fun! You got to sleep on a big air mattress with your brother, go out to restaurants, play with neat new toys, take lots of pictures with Grandma and Grandpa's camera, and spend time with lots of people who love you very much! We've been back for a week now and you're still asking about "Grandpa's house!"

I haven't scheduled your annual pediatrician appointment, but will soon. You seem to be growing well (you're in 3T clothes now) and are talking more and more! Your vocabulary has grown tremendously lately and other people are starting to understand you better than they were. Your favorite toys are still your train sets and you love to be read to or just browse through books. You are getting really good at jigsaw puzzles and will do them over and over! You're playing a lot of different toddler and preschool games on the iPad and I can see you learning how to problem solve. You also draw great pictures! You doodle a lot of pictures of people (of me, Daddy, Heron, Uncle Matt, Grandpa, etc!) They all have very large heads with vertical lines for eyes, a tiny stick body, and little stick ears and are so adorable! You draw other things too, some of which we can't recognize right away, but you tell us all about the train going through the tunnel or the dog. And you're excellent at drawing railroad tracks!

You still really enjoy going to church and ask all week about church and your friends and snack time and Jesus! You make some fun little crafts in there, sing songs, hear stories, and play with toys. You're still memorizing bible verses for Wednesday night well. You've been reciting John 3:16 to us for weeks now! You remind me throughout the day by asking "bible verse?" and we practice together. You also like to say a short prayer before each meal or snack ("Dear Lord, thank you for this food. Amen.") and get bent out of shape if Heron doesn't fold his hands with you while you pray. I know that right now you like to go to church to play with trucks and eat snack and that you'll memorize your verse because you get candy and toys for it, but I'm so glad that you're enjoying and learning a little bit about Jesus. I'm excited to teach you and see you grow as you learn about our Lord over the years.

You have some favorite foods, which I don't think have really changed lately. Dinner time is often difficult, but throughout the day I can pretty much always count on you eating any peanut butter sandwich (honey, jelly, plain, doesn't matter!), any fruit, anything sweet, raw carrots and celery, any bread, cheese, and a handful of other typically toddler-friendly snack foods. You are spending more time in the kitchen lately as you've gotten more interested in helping me or "I can do by myself." You can make your own sandwiches, slice your own bananas and cheese and pour your own juice. You like to do a lot of other things on your own as well, including attempting to get dressed and undressed (you're still figuring out buttons, but doing really well), putting on your own boots and jacket, sweeping the floor and brushing your teeth. Now why is it so hard for me to get you to pick up your toys??

Three years really seem to have flown by. You're such a compassionate, messy, humorous, noisy, friendly, loving little boy and I just can't wait to see what the next year brings! I love so much my little "big boy!"

- Mommy

Happy New Year!

I wish I could report that we had a super exciting New Year's Eve (and birthday celebrations for Matt!) but unfortunately we rung in the new year with a stomach bug! 

I had plans on Thursday night to go to a Pampered Chef cake party with church ladies, then on Friday (Matt's birthday) hang out with new friends and attend our church's watch night service. Thursday, out of nowhere, I started with the vomiting, then Rhino joined in. It was so pitiful! Rhino has had colds, fevers, and motion sickness, but never had to deal with hoovering over a bucket and not being able to hold anything down. I felt so bad for him! He was so thirsty (we were so dehydrated!) but we couldn't keep down any water. 

So Matt woke me up from the couch at 5 minutes to midnight, I think I mumbled happy new year and fell back asleep. Yuck.

Thursday and Friday were miserable, but by Saturday we were back on track. Rhino kept telling us he feels "much better" all day, whether we asked or not! Heron's been doing just fine, but Matt picked up something on Saturday night and is just now feeling right again. What a waste of a four day weekend!! 

Thankfully Matt doesn't really care to do anything big and exciting on his birthdays. He likes to just relax at home and not have any plans. I would have at least liked to make him a special dinner and bake a cake, but that will have to wait until later.

We had Heron's first birthday party today! It was a little hot, but I guess it's a good thing that all the families that RSVP'd didn't make it. We had a good turnout of kids and babies and a good time just playing and chatting.

This is the cake I threw together in the morning before the party. I had a more elaborate vision, but it turned out cute! I made chocolate fondant, but the humidity (I guess?) made it SO goopy/drippy and it was impossible to work with. I would've added more sugar, but the grocery store was closed so I just scrapped it and frosted the cake. Heron's party was bug-themed, so he got a little buggy cake!

He had a cute bug outfit from Mom & Dad and there were bug stickers for the bigger kids and big bugs all over the floor for the little ones. We had blue, yellow, and green balloons on the floor and the ceiling to play with and some cute Japanese paper lanterns. Heron had fun crawling around with all his baby buddies! Rhino was in need of a nap halfway through the party, though.

We had some other cute treats. I made some rainbow Jell-o cups (kind of like these but without the condensed milk) with hidden gummy worms. I actually wouldn't recommend doing that. The Jell-o reacted strangely with my gummy worms and "stuff" flaked off the worms and they got really hard, too. It wasn't what I was hoping for. We also had "ants on a log" (peanut butter piped into celery sticks, topped with chocolate chips) and a variety of toddler-friendly treats. Yum!

Heron had a blast opening his gifts! He didn't quite understand what was going on, but seemed to enjoy the attention. The older kids helped him rip open his paper and play with his toys! The older kids had fun playing with Dad's cool RC helicopter. We didn't have any planned activities, just a general play time. First birthdays are the only ones that I want to invite this many people to. When he turns two next year, he'll get two guests at his party, then one more added each year!

Happy birthday to my big baby boy!!

Happy first birthday, Heron!!

I'm so glad that Mom & Dad were able to be here for Heron's first birthday! We had a great time!

I sewed up a special birthday crown for him (like I did for Rhino, but I'll be redoing Rhino's for future birthdays.) [Idea from Amanda Soule's book, The Creative Family.] I also sewed up a birthday banner for his party on Monday (idea from the same book.)

He received some wonderful gifts! He was given some cute outfits from Great-Granddaddy and GG and Pop. Matt's parents got him some adorable clothes too, as well as a Punch and Drop and some stacking wooden rings. I finally got to give him the knitted rainbow snake that I finished a while ago! Matt and Rhino and I also gave him a Walk N Roll for when he starts walking (soon!)

And, of course, there was cake!! I baked him his own little chocolate cake with my yummy chocolate frosting. Lucky boy! We tried to hold off on giving him any sugar until his first birthday, like we did for Rhino, but it hasn't really worked out. Rhino likes to share his treats! So this is the second time Heron's had chocolate cake.

He did pick the whole thing up and try to eat it like a cupcake! When it first came out, he didn't want to try the cake, actually. I took a finger full of frosting and chased his mouth around for a while until I could finally sneak it in. Then he knew what to do!  I cringe a little at this baby-chocolate-cake tradition because it's just so much sugar and we try to limit sweets. It is just too adorable though (I love this messy, chocolate baby!) and it is a one-time thing. It won't be every birthday that he gets to dive into his own cake!

The mess was so worth it. He had a blast! And cleanup was pretty easy. Once I got him in the bath, crumbs fell off him and he turned the water brown. At one time, a small piece of cake floated by him and he grabbed it and attempted to have seconds! Such a pig!

Happy birthday to me!!

I had a great, relaxing birthday. Matt always treats me right, but it was a nice, special day for me. Matt doesn’t usually like to go out for Mexican food, but I often crave it. We haven’t found much good Mexican food here in Japan, but there is Mike’s Tex Mex, which I like enough. So we went there for lunch. Yum!

All I really wanted for my birthday was a Japanese cake. They are SO delicious! I asked for it to say “Happy Birthday Melissa” in Japanese on it. Matt misunderstood and got “Happy Birthday” in English and just my name in Japanese. Not even really my name. When he went into the shop and ordered it, I guess he got flustered and mispronounced my name. In Japanese it’s pronounced may-ree-s-sah, but he said may-ree-ee-sah. Instead of doubling the s, he elongated the e. So my cake said Happy Birthday Meleesa! It tasted super delicious anyway, though!

He turned 2, so for his party he had two little friends (plus parents and siblings.) It was the perfect size party and a great time with our friends!

There were lots of balloons on the ceiling and the floor. Blue, green and yellow.

There were cheese and crackers, veggies and fruits, heart-shaped cream cheese and jelly sandwiches, ants on a log, and an assortment of juices. All of Rhino’s favorite snacks. For lunch the kids made mini pizzas. Rhino really loves his cheese!

Rhino loves to color and paint, so after lunch we took out large sheets of paper. There were carefully thought-out blobs of color on one, a beautiful rainbow and mother and daughter on another, gentle strokes of light blue and yellow on a third, then Rhino’s: large marker circles and goopy smears of handfuls of finger paint.

We were going to do presents after the cake, but Rhino snuck away and tore into them without us. I heard from the other room an overjoyed “Elmo! Elmo!” as he discovered his new Elmo microwave! I couldn’t say no then, and let him open up the deluxe Mister Potato Head (40 parts I never knew about!) and tote bag of Play-Doh and accessories. The kids were all mesmerized by the microwave until we drew them away with the cake.

I wanted to make a Blue’s Clues cake because it’s his favorite show. Tanja loaned me a dog-shaped pan and I dyed the batter and the frosting blue and did my best to resemble Blue. Rhino was so overexcited as he danced in his chair and sang along to the birthday song (“happy, happy, happy, happy …”), immediately blew out both candles, and lifted one out of the cake and bit off the bottom of the candle. After we recovered the wax from his mouth, we directed him towards his slice of cake and he wolfed it down in record time!

He’d never seen a party blower before, but it didn’t take him long to figure it out. Soon enough he was blowing it so the extended end would knock his cup over, poke friends in the head, and dip into his fingerpaint (and then roll up again, and extend on the blank paper making little party blower paint marks.) We partied for about two hours and then our friends left and he crashed on the floor, with blue on his face, next to his Elmo microwave. What a party!

I do think traditions are important. In the past years, Matt and I have been lazy about our celebrations and traditions. Now that we have children, I think it is essential that we pass on traditions we grew up with as well as begin and maintain our own. When Rhino turned one last year, we didn’t really have many traditions in place. He opened presents, ate his first cupcakes, and had a little party. I did quickly sew him up a felt birthday hat to wear, which he hated! I want to keep the birthday hat tradition, so this year I made him a felt crown. Both hats are specific to his age; last year’s hat had a big “1″ on it, and this year there’s a “2″ right up front. I’m thinking that next year I’ll start a little earlier (I made both the hats very hastily the day of his birthday) and make a special crown that he can reuse for birthdays. I’m going to get started early on making Heron a special first birthday hat, too!

Rhino loves to color. Scribble, whatever. He still eats crayons, though. We have his first masterpiece hanging in the boys’ bedroom, which he scribbled on his first birthday. He completes many works a week, which we (shh) recycle, but I thought it would be great for the boys to make a piece of art on their birthdays for us to keep. Rhino’s medium of choice is crayon (unless he finds a pen!) but he has used plenty of paint this past year. He loves painting with brushes, and his 2nd birthday was actually his first experience finger painting. Matt had to demonstrate for him and Rhino seemed pretty hesitant. He still doesn’t really like to be messy. He was pretty upset that his hands were covered in paint.

I don’t have many Rhino hand prints. I have ink footprints from the day he was born and Andrea and I gave a clay slab with Amelia’s and Rhino’s hand prints in them for Christmas last year. That’s it. I wish I had started on birthday #1, but this will have to do. I thought I would sew his hand prints. He loved having his hand traced onto paper for a template. We made a whole bunch because he enjoyed it so much! Between making the crown and this appliqued, embroidered hand, it was a lot of work for me in one day. So they were both extremely rushed and sloppy. I really meant for the apples to be rotated and right-side-up but I don’t know what I was thinking (I just wasn’t.) And the outline stitching is so messy — I am terrible at turning with my machine! I know very little about sewing, so it’s possible I’m using the completely wrong presser foot or something. That was very tricky for me. And I cut out the reverse applique kinda messy. It’s still charming, though! I embroidered Rhino’s name above his hand and his age below. I’ll put it in a wooden hoop or something and hang it on his wall. Hopefully I stick with it (or something similar) every year for the boys. Maybe I can use them to make a quilt or something in the future!

So those are some of the traditions we’re working on for birthdays. There will be more, most likely food-related. I loved having a special meal on my birthday, which was usually tacos (which is not what I’d be choosing now!) I received birthday spankings growing up, but I don’t know about using that one … To the one or two of you that read this blog… what are your birthday traditions??

Today you are two years old! You are having a great day so far! We are having a family celebration right now and next week you will have a small party with some of your good friends. Last night you went to a party while Daddy and I went to our church Valentine’s Day Banquet, so you were out late and playing hard! You got to color, listen to music, play games, hit a pinata, and have lots of snacks! So you wanted to sleep in this morning. As soon as you woke up, we went to the Weasels’ Den for the Pajama Jam, where you played on the playground and bounce house, had a big breakfast buffet, saw some friends, and watched some Ice Age on a big screen. When we came home, you opened presents from us, from Grandma and Grandpa, and from Grammy and Uncle Ron. You were given some fantastic toys, snazzy shoes, and a Blue’s Clues DVD and CD! We talked to Grammy on Skype while you opened gifts from her, then we traced your hand and you painted a picture. We have more fun lined up for you, but right now you’re enjoying playing with Heron and your new Blue doll.

I thought it would be nice to keep track of some of your favorite things and see how they change from year to year. Love you!

Favorites
Fruit: mandarin oranges; apples
Vegetable: carrots
Snacks: cheese; tuna salad; scrambled eggs; peanut butter
Meal: breakfast
Drink: apple juice
Songs: the Itsy Bitsy Spider; Skinamarinky Dinky Dink
Movies: Aliens vs. Monsters; Potty Power
TV Show: Blue’s Clues
Cartoon Character: Elmo
Book: I Love You Through and Through
Friend: Carson
Toy: Duplo blocks
Stuffed Animal: Yellow Bear you got from Uncle Matt your first Christmas
Playtime Activity: blowing bubbles
chores: sweeping; unloading dishwasher
Place: the Thursday Playgroup room at EDIS

On Saturday, Rhino and I went to a 1st birthday party for Carson and Cole, two babies at our church who were born a week apart.

Rhino had a blast playing with all the helium balloons and their strings (so did the other little kids!) We spent about an hour just watching the kids enjoying themselves before we dug in to hamburgers and hot dogs.

Charren (Cole’s mom) and Katy (Carson’s mom) had kiddie music playing: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, “The Wheels on the Bus”, etc. and Rhino spent a lot of time just jamming out to the songs and dancing for the guests. His favorite new moves are deep, repetitive squats with his arms straight out or waving around. The boy is going to have awesomely strong thighs!

After all the food, the boys opened their presents. I gave each of them a hand-stitched felt ball, embroidered with their name and the year. After everything was unwrapped, the kids tossed it around a lot, so I think it was a hit! I still have to finish knitting up some little bear finger puppets as a belated gift. I just couldn’t get it all finished in time!

After presents we had cake! The party was baseball-themed and the cakes were very cute (and delicious!) baseball cakes with a trophy for each boy. Carson and Cole each were given a chocolate cupcake. Cole was pretty unsure about the cupcake, would cautiously take a little nibble from his dad’s finger, and sort of complain or avoid the cupcake for the rest of the time! Carson, on the other hand, immediately picked up his cupcake by its bottom, and shoved nearly the whole thing in his mouth!

It was a great time chatting with other moms, watching the kids play (Rhino loves being around other kids now!), and getting some yummy food! Happy First Birthday, Carson and Cole!