The Basham Family: Birthday Parties and Baking.

I can't believe the weekends go by so fast. Sigh. At least it was a fun and very productive one. Joel had to work Saturday so the kids and I had a little breakfast treat at McDonald's, did our grocery shopping and Target shopping. The kids were actually pretty good for me which was such a nice change. I had kinda been dreading it since Joel informed me he had to work.

Saturday night it was Kjestine's Sweet 16 party. But before we got in to the birthday celebrations, the kiddos opened their Christmas presents from Uncle Josh and Aunt Ree.

They scored pretty big. Lily got a ton of Frozen loot. Tyler got some awesome trucks picked out special by his Uncle Josh. And they both got the BEST, I mean BEST, handmade gifts from Auntie Ree. She made them their very own aprons since they are in to cooking with me these days. The aprons are so cute. I mean so, so, so cute. Lily got an Elsa one, a Snow White one (my favorite) and a Belle one. Tyler got a Mickey one. Complete with chef's hats. Totally adorable. AND, as if that wasn't enough, they also got their own horsey (or unicorn) riding sticks which they haven't really put down since.

Kjestine had a Cosplay themed party - so we were supposed to dress up like a cartoon/movie/book character. Lily, of course, was Elsa. Tyler's Spiderman costume was too little (which I found out when I tried to put it on him and when I pulled it up and tried to stuff his arms in, he said, "Ouch! That hurts. Can't fit, Mommy."). So Tyler's back up costume was Bob the Builder (which is not clear from any of the photos). I pulled out an old Breakfast Club costume - Betty Rubble. It was about 2x too big so I took about 12 inches out of it by sewing a seam straight up the back. Joel, well I don't really know what he was. He tried to claim "Irish Mafia" by wearing some St Pat's Day suspenders and a gun holster....riiiiight.

Here's a pic of some of the food spread. Did Marie do a kickass job on this or what? I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of the centerpieces. They were so creative - books along with little jars filled with relevant figurines for the theme of the books.

Kjestine was looking so grown up.

The kiddos ran around in the gym all night. Playing with balloons and their horsey's. And they ate cake.

Whitney - posing like a rock star. For the rest of the weekend, any time Lily was posing for a picture, she'd really strike a pose and claim, "I"m doing it like Whitney does."

Sunday was even more jam packed than Saturday. I don't think I stopped moving all day long. It started of course with exercise because Lily definitely did not forget that I promised her exercise. The good news is that we just did The Seven Minute workout because my poor sore muscles really needed a day of rest.

The kids played and played and played with their new treasures.

Then we moved on to baking cupcakes to have for Lily's school birthday party. Enter the aprons the kiddos got from Auntie Ree. A-freakin-dorable.

While the cupcakes were baking we wrapped a present for Lily's friend Charlotte because we had another birthday party to go to later in the afternoon. Then we worked on filling treat bags - assembly line style (cause the industrial engineer in me just will not retreat). By then, the cupcakes were done and cooled off enough that we could decorate them.

Then it was off to fun day lunch. I picked Mexican. Oy....it was sooooo good. Chips, white cheese, salsa, fajitas. Nom, nom, nom. I had planned on only have 1 major splurge meal for Fun Day. However, Joel and I didn't share a meal like we normally do and we both had SO MUCH FOOD leftover that Mexican Food Fun Day lasted into the evening as well. Delicious.

Back home with the kids for nap. Joel worked on a special game for Lily's birthday party (it's turning out so awesome!) while I ran back to run errands (Walmart - again, Target - again, Joann's, Marsh, Circle K) - all of that in < 90 minutes.

Run back home, grab the kids and head to another birthday party at the gymnastics center. Tyler and Graydon ran around and played together while Lily and Ashu (Lily pronounces his name "Ah-CHOO" and she INSISTS that is the way you say it) hung out. Well, mostly Lily bossed Ashu around and he happily did whatever she said.

Back home again for more birthday preparations for Lily's school celebration. I made these for the kiddos' treat bags. I was pretty happy with how it all turned out, but it was a lot of work. Which I know is totally silly because these 4 year old can't read nor could they care less about my little tags. They just want the chocolate inside.