Natalie's 11th birthday

As I mentioned in my previous post, we had a really big snow storm in December that kept us all in the house for a couple of days. The snow fall started on the day we were supposed to have Natalie's 11th birthday party, so sadly we had to cancel that, but luckily her friend Kendall from our neighborhood was able to walk over, play in the snow, and have cupcakes with us.

 

The week before, Natalie was given this lovely card signed by all of the dance teachers at her studio, many of whom she's never even had! What a nice thing to do for the students.

On Natalie's birthday, although it was a Monday and Evan and I had to work, we wanted to make sure that it was a super fun snow day!

So we bundled up early and headed out. How lovely is my family in the snow?!

As we anticipated, Lucy REALLY loved the snow. I had to keep dragging her back in to pull the snowballs off of her fur (see photo above). Plus I didn't want her paws to freeze!

Our house and yard was just so pretty. I loved as the sun started to come out.

 

By mid afternoon the plows had come through, we had a neighbor kid shovel us out (with his fantastic snow blower!), and we were able to leave the house for Natalie's birthday dinner. She chose Bonefish Grill as she wanted seafood, and they gave her a small box of chocolates and a gift card for later use! She was one happy camper.

And since there wasn't going to be any school the next day, and it was her birthday, we agreed to some evening hot tubbing in the snow! It really is fun; I'd never done that before moving here!

And afterwards, was time for birthday singing and cupcakes. A pretty great birthday all around, I would say!

Henry's 8th birthday party

Three Henry posts in a row! April is always big for him, since it's his birthday. This year we were fortunate to be able to hold his birthday party just two days after his actual birthday. Henry asked for a Star Wars themed party, where he wanted to watch The Force Awakens (which we surprised him with as a birthday present).

While everyone was arriving, the boys had fun having some freeform light sabre/sword battles in the living room.

They then headed to the basement to watch the movie; they made it mostly through before a bunch of the boys got a bit bored. Not everyone likes to sit motionless through a 2 hour movie like my 8 year old! So it was time to come back upstairs for birthday cake.

Happy 8th birthday to my handsome guy!

Henry's 8th birthday!

We had to celebrate Henry's 8th birthday over two days this year, as Natalie had a school event on his actual birthday, so we decided to go out to dinner the night before to celebrate. Henry had eaten at an Applebee's while traveling with Evan and Natalie over spring break (more on that soon), and he enjoyed it, so he asked to eat there. We drove out to Sterling and it turns out...the Applebee's had closed! I had no idea, given that we never eat there. Try number two: Macaroni Grill, because their bread is delicious and they would have pasta for Henry. Turns out...they're closed too! Wow, we never go out to eat in Sterling. So, as Henry loves pasta, we turned to the ol' Olive Garden. Not my preference, but it wasn't my birthday!

 We turned around when we arrived and the kids were holding hands like this. Melts this momma's heart.

Family selfie after dinner (left) and the kids on the morning of Henry's birthday (right). Natalie can still pick him up, even at 8!

The kids came home after school so we could open Henry's presents before Natalie's school assembly. He really loved everything he got! 

 The Force Awakens from us, some books from his grandparents, a light for his room (with remote control) from Natalie, and his "big present" from us- a mirror for his room! (Hey, it's what he asked for).

Happy 8th birthday to Henry!

Natalie's 10th birthday party

Because of all the craziness in December, it just wasn't possible to schedule Natalie's birthday party for then. I found out that the Rising Stars Interns host birthday parties at the dance studio, and Natalie loved the idea of having her party there. I loved the idea of her being able to have a big party with a ton of her friends not at my house!

The big studio was decorated, and some of Natalie's favorite older dancers were there to help. They started by making a craft - a ballerina out of popsicle sticks!

Such cute popsicle ballerinas!

The party included a delicious ballerina cake, which I managed to get a picture of before it was devoured.

After craft time, it was time for freeze dance.

 

And just some general fun dance-around-the-studio time. I think at this point Natalie and Lily were doing one of their performance pieces together? Something they'd made up, for sure.

They then played "4 corners" for quite a while, which I hadn't seen before but the girls had a great time and it was a lot of fun to watch! The interns (and Evan) sat at a couple of corners, and the girls all ran around between the corners. When the music turns off, the "chooser" in the middle picks a corner. Whoever is in that corner is out. This pic shows Natalie hiding her face before she made one of her choices. There was much laughing!

And then Limbo!

I managed to get all of the kids together for a group shot. It was a great mix of friends from dance, friends from school, and friends from our group (my friends' kids).

The last thing Natalie wanted to do was perform their Showkids competition piece for the rest of the party guests. These are my favorite pics of her.

This pic cracks me up because the girls were giggling while performing, and they're supposed to be super serious.

And finally it was time for cake!

We started the party with 5 older dancers, running the party, but two had to leave a little early. Here's Natalie with the other 3, including her big sister Arran (right). She loved her 10th birthday party!

Natalie's 10th birthday

In December 2017, my oldest turned 10. How is this possible, that I have a child in double digits??? And such an amazing one at that. Happy 10th birthday, Natalie!

Her birthday fell on a Sunday, so we started the day with breakfast out at IHOP (her choice).

We then went home to open gifts. I had picked out this aqua unicorn blanket for her from Evan and I (she loved it), and she very much enjoyed this silly cat thing that I recommended Evan's parents get for her. The cat looks sweet until you squeeze its ears, and then it makes this angry face.

 

Around lunch time I had to get her ready for Nutcracker rehearsal! Just like last year, she had a full dress rehearsal on her birthday. She was excited to see all of her friends, though, and to have the opportunity to put makeup on on her birthday.

I brought cupcakes for all of her friends, and when we started singing the entire cafeteria got quiet, and everyone chimed in. Not a bad thing, to have dozens of people sing to you!

I then went to be with the makeup team (more on that in my Nutcracker posts); one of the other moms who stayed in the cafeteria took this photo and sent it to us. Silly, goofy girls!

Natalie was also excited to receive her birthday "surprise" that I arranged - some Jamberry nail wraps just for her, from one of the trade groups of which I am a member. Nothing like getting your own mail!

N

And, finally, after a very long birthday, I went into her room and found her asleep like this. I love that she wrapped herself up in her new blanket hoodie! Sleep well, big kid.

My 37th birthday

So, after my previous posts about the birthday surprise with my girlfriends in NYC, I realized that I never posted about my ACTUAL birthday, and what I did on October 3.

I was scheduled to be in DC all day, actually meeting a bunch of my sales colleagues for the first time. All of the other sales consultants are remote (living in their regions), so I didn't meet them in person until my birthday, which coincided with our quarterly sales meeting. Because myself and our VP of sales were new (he'd only started a week or so before), my director of sales scheduled a fun outing for us all on the first day....which just happened to be my birthday!

So, after everyone arrived at the office and we worked for a bit, we all headed down the street for the Heurich House, a historic museum/beer brewery in DuPont Circle. There we learned about the house and its history, and enjoyed some beer while doing so!

After that, we headed across DC to the H Street Country Club, which is a bar/restaurant/indoor mini golf place. We had some yummy food and drinks, and I was embarrassed with a birthday brownie sundae and singing.

Check out my fun necklace in the pic above - can you tell what it is? It was my birthday present from my mom - a dendrite necklace! 

Then we all headed upstairs for a round of mini golf. This was seriously the weirdest indoor mini golf I'd ever played, but it was fun nonetheless!

I then headed home to celebrate with my family. We couldn't go out to dinner because I didn't get home from DC in time (so we went out the following night), but Evan did get me Cold Stone ice cream cake which was delicious!

 

And then I got to open my presents. My big gift was the shows in NYC - I knew I was going to NYC on those days as I had to clear it with work, but I didn't know what I would be doing. Kudos to Evan for the letter, which I found amusing, and to my friends for pitching in on a big part of the planning :)