Happy Birthday, Annette!

We decided to have Eli’s birthday party a little early, just in case the baby came early, so we planned it for January 22nd, which happens to be Michael’s sister, Annette’s, birthday. Luckily Annette was able to get the evening off work and make it for Eli’s party. And of course we had to stick a candle in her piece of cake (I was willing to just let her blow out her candle, but Michael had to be a big brother and make all of our friends sing “Happy Birthday” to her too. She only looks a little embarrassed, right?) Happy Birthday, Annette!

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Eli's 4th Birthday Party

So, we had Eli’s birthday party on Thursday (he will turn 4 on January 31st). I made a Lightning McQueen car birthday cake which turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. The boys were excited to help me curl ribbons and hang them from the ceiling, and to blow up balloons too. Since it was a Cars themed party, we got out the boys’ box of matchbox cars for all the kids to play with. We also got out several little boxes that the boys like to play with like they are garages for their cars, and a large box that we happened to have from the dishwasher that had to be replaced earlier this week. The kids enjoyed climbing in and out of that big box until it finally collapsed at the end of the night. Eli liked his cake and ice cream, and enjoyed the treat of drinking soda (we usually only get soda for birthday parties). And of course he had fun opening a few gifts from his friends, which he has been carrying around and having fun with the last couple of days since the party. Although it was a traditional Bradshaw family kid’s birthday party [lots of loud kids running around for the entire evening], the kids had fun and it was nice to see the parents and get to say hi to them too. You can tell from the pictures and video clips that Eli enjoyed the night – he has a big smile in every photo.

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Eli's Invitation

So, I’ve been thinking about planning Eli’s 4th birthday party lately – especially since his birthday is on January 31st and my due date is February 9th, so I thought it would be wise to plan his party a little early just in case. I usually don’t do too much for the kids’ birthday parties (I think that organized games and activities for children this small isn’t really necessary yet, since they usually just end up running around and playing together anyways), but two things that I always do for their parties is make a cute little invitation and decorate a cake. I always let them pick a theme for the invitation and cake – usually a character from their favorite Disney movie or sometimes they pick their favorite thing at the time, like puppies, trucks, or trains. So, I asked Eli what he wanted for this birthday party, and he said Tarzan (which is an interesting pick, because we have that movie, but he hasn’t asked to watch it in quite a few months now). The thought of trying to create Tarzan out of frosting on a cake didn’t really appeal to me, so I asked him if he had any other ideas. He said, in his cute little kid voice, “Ite-neen Ma-deen” (Lightning McQueen), which is the red racecar from the Disney movie, Cars. I thought that would be a little easier for decorating a cake, so Lightning McQueen it was. So I designed these invitations that evening. Whenever I do birthday invitations for the boys I print two extra invitations – one to put in their baby book and one that they can have to play with. So, Eli has carried his invitation around for the last few days, and yesterday I noticed that it was getting a little worn out. It had been folded up and one end was a little wet (he had probably sucked on it), and when I noticed him using the hole punch to put holes in the invitation, I just let him know that that was the only invitation I had for him to play with, so if he wanted to keep it he shouldn’t ruin it. He looked up at me, a little concerned, and asked, “Can I still have a birthday?” So I reassured him that he could. I also asked him ona different day if there was anything special he would like for his birthday, and his answer was, “A cake.” Pretty cute!

Camden's Birthday

We had a birthday party for Camden with Daddy and his friends and some cousins before we left Utah, and then when we got down to San Diego we got some key lime pie for his birthday cake on his actual birthday.

Our New Favorite Dessert

This is our new favorite dessert. I love that it tastes good and it's easy -- I am all up for any food that is easy and quick to make! I found the recipe for this cake in the Kraft cooking magazine, but changed it up a bit, because the original recipe called for pineapple and that didn't sound very good to me. So, you get an already made angel food cake and slice it into three parts. Then you mix together one packet of pudding mix (I've tried both vanilla and banana cream flavored pudding) with a thing of cool whip, and I cut up a carton of strawberries and 2 or 3 bananas and mix those in as well (save a few strawberries for the top). Then you just layer the fruit mixture and put it in the fridge for at least an hour before eating it, then add the strawberries on top before serving. So easy, and so good.

Eli's Third Birthday Party

Eli's third birthday was January 31st, but since we were traveling on his birthday, we did his party in February. He has been really into trains lately, and he especially loves Thomas and Percy (which were recently introduced to him and Kolby when they got some Thomas toy trains for Christmas from my mom). He wanted a Thomas the Train party, so I made an attempt at decorating a cake with Thomas on it (it didn't turn out professional-looking or anything, but the kids liked it a lot). The main event at the party was getting out the train set and letting all the kids play with it (I think that at this age most of the kids are too young to really get into organized party games, and they are too much work to organize, so playing with trains seems good enough to me). And then he opened presents. You can see in the pictures that the coveted gift by the kids at the party was the ice cream cone that launched the foam "ice cream" ball into the air at the push of a button, from Jordan and Carter Hedgecock -- each kid wanted a turn shooting the ball. Eli loved all of the nice gifts from his friends and had a lot of fun playing with everyone and eating cake and ice cream. I love doing these little birthday parties for the boys, especially while they are so young and it takes so little to please them.

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Camden's 1st Birthday Party

Camden gets Birthday Kisses from his Brothers:

We had a little birthday party for Camden last night (his birthday is on Thursday next week, but this was Michael’s last day off of the month). Amy and her kids, Christopher and Maria Teresa, came and so did our friends, Jana and Keith Wells. After the kids played Simon Says and Shoots and Ladders, we sang Happy Birthday to Camden and he got to eat his cake. We have a family tradition of letting our kids have their own cake on their first birthday, and both Kolby and Eli were pretty hesitant to eat their cakes on each of their first birthdays – they only ate about one piece each. Camden was a little hesitant at first with his cake, until he realized that it was food, and then he really went at it. He sat on the table for a long time, eating and playing in the cake – and by the time he was finished, he had probably eaten about half of the cake. We were surprised that he didn’t get sick afterwards. “Happy Birthday, Camden!”

Before:

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