A Donut Birthday Party

Sadie turned 9 back in May.

She wanted to have some friends over for a party.

Sadie came up with a Donut Themed Birthday Party.

I thought her idea was so cute.
We sent out Donut Invitations.

Sadie wanted to do a craft.
We made paper plate donut purses.
Here is the idea and instructions.

We played some Donut Games.

Game 1:

Try to eat a donut from a string using NO hands.

Game 2:

Try to throw 3 inflatable donuts onto a stick.

(We used a brother's play sword stuck in our couch.)

I got the donut inflatables from Amazon.

(They are small, and not swimming pool inflatables.)

Game 3:

Pin the Donut!

The girls put their initials on the bottom part of the donut.

We blindfolded the girls and had a donut box tacked to the wall.

The girls had to try to put their donut top on their initialed donut.

We did a donut cake, of course!

(For you locals,

Sweet Sensation Donut is are favorite place to get fresh donuts!

They are YUMMY!)

We gave out these mini donut chains in goodie bags.

My oldest turns 14 and my youngest turns 5!

My 2 December Birthday kids, my bookends, were both due in January.
They both did the unexpected and came more than 3 weeks early, by natural labor.
When I was due with Brandon in January, I never even considered that he would come in December, let alone, on Christmas Eve.
What, Lindy, my oldest did, by coming 3 weeks early, by natural labor,
I thought, was a once in a lifetime experience. WRONG!
What I keep learning over and over is that life is UNEXPECTED.

Brandon's 5th Birthday on Dec. 24th:

He wanted a superman birthday cake. He designed it with me.
Telling me he wanted buildings on this cake.
He wanted to take some friends and family to our local open gym to play.
Luckily, his neighbor friends, cousins, and the gym were available on Christmas Eve.

He got some metal cars larger than hot wheels size, some miniature trains,
and a teepee.

 Money and Clothes from the Grandparents!

Lindy's 14th Birthday on Dec. 28th:

This year Lindy requested a 7-up bundt cake. Which is delightful.

(Leave a comment if you want the recipe, which you do, it is sooo good.)

She got some running clothes and foam roller to roll her sore muscles when

she will run track this spring. She got a blanket,

and a ceramic white elephant for her room decor.

And the books from The Giver's series by Lois Lowry.

Sadie's Seven!

Sadie wanted a roller skating birthday cake, which she helped decorate!

The party blowers!

It's a good thing Sadie has brothers who like fire,

and who are Scouts to help us light up her b-day cake.

Make a Wish, Sadie!

Birthday Hug from Brother Brandon

Birthday Cards and Money from Aunts and Grandparents.

We gave Sadie a pink bean bag chair, some swim toys,

and she helped tie a new fleece blanket for herself.

I also painted an old desk we had for her room,

and finished it just in time for her b-day!

We love celebrating Sadie!

How lucky we are to have her in our family.

Happy 4th B-day Brandon

This year Brandon wanted a real b-day.
A party with friends.

Since he was born on Christmas Eve,
we're still working out the best way to
do his b-day, in the midst of Christmas Festivities.

When he was 1, we just kind of skipped over it.
When he was 2 we celebrated quickly at lunch on Christmas Eve.
When he was 3, we quickly celebrated before we packed for our
Christmas vacation last year.

He was old enough this year, that he had been looking forward
to his b-day for a long time, and wanted to celebrate it for real,
without it being an quick after thought.

So, I cheated a little and we did his b-day on Dec. 23rd this year.
All the cousins his age were in town for Christmas,
and we invited a couple neighbor kids over.

Brandon requested a Disney Cars themed party.

First, as the kids arrived we colored a picture of Brandon.
This was a fun, easy idea.
Google how to turn a photo into a coloring picture for instructions.

Then we ate Brandon's favorite food.

Chicken Nuggets and French Fries.

Favorite Cousins all about the same age:

Hunter, Claire, and Nathan!

Next the kids split into 2 groups.

One for pinning Lightning Mcqueen onto a race track,

and another group for some hot wheels races.

 

It wasn't too cold,

so we sent the kids outside for some red light/green light up down our driveway.

The kids used paper plates for steering wheels.

We came back in for birthday cake and present opening.

We did a race track cake with 2 rectangle cakes.

It was a fun b-day.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Aunts, Grandpa, older siblings, etc.

I asked Brandon how he enjoyed his birthday after it was over.

"It was the best birthday ever!" he said with a huge smile on his face.

SUCCESS!