We had a birthday…

The Birthday Boy was Jake! 

He turned 9 in the middle of January.  I can’t believe how late I am with this post!  I am going to get some catching up done this week on the blog. 

His birthday was on a Sunday.  Which made our breakfast in bed tradition a little tricky considering we have church at 9:00 a.m.  The kids had the next day (Monday) off from school so I told him we could do breakfast in bed then.  I tried to get him all excited about it by saying we could do Cold Stone on Saturday, birthday dinner, cake and presents on Sunday and then breakfast in bed on Monday.  Doesn’t that sound like so much fun to celebrate a little each day?

He didn’t think so. 

There was no way he was going to let me get away with serving him breakfast in bed on a different day.  Well, ok then.  :)  It’s nice to know that the birthday traditions we have created mean something.  That is the whole point! 

So it was a quick breakfast of Egg McMuffins and OJ.  His request.

Later that night we had a little family birthday party for him.  We do a family party each year and it always consists of  a birthday dinner (his choice) presents, cake and then just spending time together.  Usually playing with whatever it is he got that year.  Every other year we have a friend party also, always on a different weekend.  They like to celebrate with friends too and I understand that.  I have to admit that it was nice this time to have it be an off year.  I didn’t have to worry about planning a different party and spending the extra money.

So we partied at home as a family.

Here is a confession – I care about lighting for parties.  Gasp!  I know I’m not the only one.  :)  I kind of plan the party around the light.  It makes the pictures more fun and easier to take.   Well that didn’t work out for me this time.  There was something called a football game (or 2) going on and I couldn’t get my boys away from the T.V.  Since it was his birthday and all I let it slide.  I know, that is so thoughtful of me! :)  It kind of set a theme for our party that I wasn’t aware of.  Instead of eating in the dining room we should have been eating at the bar in the kitchen or taken it to an actual sports bar or something.  All manners were thrown out the window this night.  I am giggling right now thinking about it.

Before I get into the details here was his tablescape.  I kept it super simple and grabbed some things from Jake’s room that represent him right now.

 

About Jake:

He is very handsome if I do say so myself.  I love that picture of him.

He just turned 9.

He absolutely LOVES football.

He still plays a lot with his Hot Wheels and Legos. 

He is currently spending A LOT of time reading and I mean A LOT!  He will read late into the night (with out me knowing about it) and then tell me he has a headache the next morning.  Now I know why!  He LOVES the Harry Potter series and is currently on #4.

On the dinner menu:

wings

cheese fries

blue cheese and ranch to dip

lots of Coke.

Are you seeing a theme here?  So far we have football and your typical sports watching food.  The food btw,  was gone before I even had the chance to take pictures.  I guess you can tell how much they loved it!

They were eaten to the bone!  This is where things got a little crazy and our manners were long gone.  There was a lot of finger licking that included the slobbery smacking sound, even though we had napkins. (yuck!) There was an intense burping contest and lots of laughing.  Definitely not my proudest mom moment but it is always fun to hang out with the family and have some laid back fun.

After dinner was done, Jake moved on to his presents.  I love how Ady has to be involved.  You can tell in the first picture he is trying to be patient.  He is such a good brother and of course let her be a part of it.

Then candles and cake.

Did you notice in the series of pictures that Drew snuck up on Jake and “helped” him blow out the candles?  Typical little brother.  Jake wasn’t too happy about that. 

When I asked Jake what kind of cake he wanted he said his very own little one.  That was easy enough.  I just bought one from the store.  The rest of us had to have something too so I made these Homemade Oreo Cupcakes.

They are delish!  You MUST try them! 

One of the things Jake got for his birthday was boxing gloves.  Drew got a pair for his birthday and Jake has been wanting some ever since.  Of course they had to try them out.  Which raps up our little sporting theme party that I had no idea was going to be a sporting themed party.  Hahaha…

We used our dinner bell to start the boxing round.  How convenient, right?  They put on the appropriate attire which consisted of boxing gloves and stripping off their shirts.  A little lesson from dad (which they didn’t need) and the boxing began.  Casey got some of it on video which we all got a good long laugh about.  It is one we will keep forever!

It was the perfect way to end our night and Jake’s birthday.  I think he got to do exactly what he wanted to.

Happy 9th Birthday Jake!  We love everything about you!

P.S. This would actually make a fun themed friend party.  Plan your child's party around a game they are looking forward to.  Invite friends over to watch the game and serve sporting related food.  You could set the kitchen up like a “Sports Bar”.  (I hate using that phrase for children, but you know what I mean) Finish it up by playing whatever sport they were watching out side.  They can have a game of their own.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?  I know my boys would love it.  I am going to save this one for sure!

A Birthday Party for Kaylee

You should be forewarned that this is a really long post.  There are so many details to share.

In July we celebrated Kaylee’s 10th birthday.  She had a kitchen themed party.  She helped me plan the whole thing.

We started out in the pizza station.  One of Kaylee’s favorite meals are her daddy’s homemade calzones.

Each place setting had a silver cake tray along with their plate and napkins.  They used the silver tray to roll out their dough.  That way it wouldn’t stick to the table cloth.

I had glass containers out for all of the pizza toppings.

And of course her fave…Dr. Pepper.

We used the frozen package of Rhodes Bread.  It was easy prep.  Each loaf was cut into thirds.

It was the perfect size for them to handle on their own and plenty big for one serving.

The toppings were loaded up, the top of the bread was folded over, pinched shut and put in the oven to bake.

Casey was a huge help with this, plus Kaylee loved that her dad was helping with her party.

While the calzones were baking, it was time to move to the baking center.

The girls each had an apron tied to their chair.  I had the moms RSVP with their daughters favorite color.  We just did simple white aprons and then embellished them with the chosen color.  This was one of their party favors.

This one is Kaylee’s tied to her birthday chair.  (As a side note: this chair was free.  A couple of days before her party my neighbor had this chair and another one sitting out for the garbage man to get.  I snatched them up.  It was already painted green and perfect.  I have painted the other one a fire engine red.  Now we have a girl and boy birthday chair and two new photography props.)

Each place setting also had a chefs hat (their other party favor) a silver tray (with a lip on it so the sprinkles wouldn’t roll all over the floor) and their paper goods.

I baked sugar cookies ahead of time in 3 different size of circles.  They made their own birthday cake cookie by decorating and stacking them.

The party girls worked hard.

Here are some details of the table decor and what the girls used to decorate their cookies.

They had lots of fun and got so creative!

After they ate their calzones it was time to open presents…

and blow out the candles.

Each of the girls got one of Kaylee’s candles and made wishes together.

Here are a couple more party decorations.  While Kaylee and I were preparing for her party she kept asking me over and over what decoration was my favorite.  I never could decide but she always chose the cupcake garland.

Her other favorites were the fresh Gerber Daisies on the shelf and the centerpiece of the table. 

This was such a fun way to celebrate Kaylee’s birthday.  She and her friends are old enough to know their way around the kitchen and do things on their own while still enjoying a creative outlet.  My favorite part of the whole thing was spending time with Kaylee planning it.  We gathered ideas from my Birthday Party board on Pinterest together and shopped late into the night and spent a couple of days putting it all together.  She has an eye for detail and appreciates pretty things.  We speak the same language. :)

 

 

Linking up to:

 

An Ice Cream Idea

This is just an idea I thought I would share because it could be so versatile, especially during this time of year. 

Last Tuesday for Activity Days we had an Ice Cream Sundae Party with the girls and their Mothers.  We were celebrating Mother’s Day a week late.  I was in charge of the centerpieces.  I had 5 round tables from the church with white tablecloths.  I took these photos at home,  after the fact, since there was no time to take them there.

Aren’t they fun?  I was really happy with the way they turned out.  I bought the glass jars at Walmart for $3.00 each.  I also bought tissue paper, brown and white polka-dotted ribbon and sugar cones.  I made 3 pom poms from different colored tissue paper for each container(you can find tutorials on how to make these online anywhere.  Just Google “tissue paper pom-poms”.) I made the red cherry for the top by rolling up tissue paper into a little ball.  

I stacked the pom-poms on top of the cone to represent scoops of ice cream with a cherry on top.  A tip: the pom-pom’s are a little wobbly, so I would dab a bit of hot glue to help stabilize them.

Since we were highlighting their Mothers at the party I made a tag in Photoshop that says “Moms Make Life Sweet.”

  

I liked the way it helped tie the whole party together.

I think I am going to save these and use them for Kaylee’s birthday party this summer.  All I have to do is change the tag and make a new one to go with the theme of the party.  There are so many different types of parties you could use this for, whether it’s a birthday party, an end of the school year party or just a summer party.  Summer is the time for ice cream, right?  If you need an Activity Day idea, you could always throw the girls a welcome to summer Ice Cream Party.  

And just to highlight the rest of the party…

here is a real life photo of the girls in action.

They were in Heaven!

I had no time to take photos to highlight anything, but I did want to tell you an easy idea to label the toppings.  One of the other leaders was in charge of the dessert.  You can’t really see in the photo above, but she made labels for the toppings by cutting out the wrappers and sticking them onto cardstalk.  I thought that was such an easy and inexpensive thing to do!

Summer is just around the corner!!  Lots and lots of ice cream is coming our way! 

A Baptism

Hello Friends!  It has been a looooooooooong time, to say the least.  I think the last time I had a gap like this in my posting I was pregnant with Ady.  I was so sick and decided to hide out and ignore the world.  I am NOT pregnant but I know some of you have been worried about me and wondering where in the world I have been.  I can explain.  A lot has been going on in this head of mine, but that is another post all on its own.  For now I have a very special 8 year old who deserves to be spot lighted.  This poor post has been on hold for far too long. 

Jake was baptized a member of  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on February 5th, 2011.  I think he would say it was a very special day.  This was his baptism invitation.  To see more from his photo shoot go here.

Casey lets our kids choose who they want to baptize them.  Casey says he is happy to either baptize or confirm as long as he gets to do one of them.  When it was Kaylee’s turn, she chose her dad to baptize her and Papa Curtis to confirm her.  Jake chose his Uncle Bubby to baptize him and asked his dad to confirm him.  Jake and Bubby have always had a special connection.  Bubby was living with us when Jake was born.  They sort of grew up together.  I like to think that my kids helped prepare my brother to be a daddy. 

It was also special because Jake was the very first person Bubby ever baptized.  I like to think this will prepare him for his own children’s baptisms.  Which isn’t REALLY that far away. (Beth, it goes Drew and then Beck is next.  Crazy when you think of it that way, huh?)

Speaking of Drew…here he is.  Jake and Drew.  They are always so playful, even when they are supposed to be reverent.

My two handsome men in their suites and ties.  Jake is lucky to have his dads footsteps to follow in.  They are big feet to fill, but I know that he can do it. 

I hope Jake knows how much I love him and how proud I am of him for choosing the right.  I know it’s hard being a kid and trying to make the right choices all the time.  He is learning so much and I can see him growing and figuring things out everyday.   

My kids are growing up so much!  You know how sometimes it takes looking at a photo to see things how they really are?  That is how I felt when I saw this photo of my immediate  family.  I thought, “ Wow!  That is one big family!  When did that happen and where was I?”

We had family come from Utah and Arizona to support Jake.  It meant the world to us to have them here.  We know others wanted to be here and weren’t able to make it.  You were missed!  We love you all!

After the baptism, we came back to our house and had a little party. 

We were busy in the kitchen doing last minute preparations.  Our super, duper good friends the Dickamore’s were there to be a part of our day.  They are awesome!

 

The grandma’s were busy in the kitchen too.

My mom was even multi tasking, talking to my dad on the phone while preparing food.

On the menu was Chicken Salad on croissants, of course PB&J  for the kids.  Potato Salad, potato chips, fruit,  brownies and cookies.

Blakers could not take his eyes off the cookies. I love these photos of him.  He’s being so sweet about really wanting a cookie!

I took it easy on the party decor.  Just enough to make it festive.  Andrea helped me out and put some things in the mail for me. Like these green and black pom poms.

And this CTR penant.  For those of you who don’t know, CTR stands for Choose The Right.  The youth in our church get baptized at 8 if they choose too.  They also are held accountable for their own actions now so they are reminded to always choose the right. 

I made the centerpiece in the dining room.  These will be fun to use for other holidays and parties. 

  

   And that is that! It was a very nice day that couldn’t have gone any better. 

It feels so good to get this post done.  I promise to be back soon with more from the Moes household!

Thank you Beth for helping me by being in charge of the camera that day!  If you want to see more of Beth’s work go here.