Birthday Cookie (and Rainbows) Party

Rebecca and Esther's birthdays are only 16 days apart, so we chose to have their parties at the same time as one big birthday bash. They had a great time! Rebecca started asking in January for a rainbow party, so I had most of the food concepts planned for that, and I ran across a very cute idea for a cookies & milk birthday party for a first birthday, so that is what we did with rainbows thrown in to make it big enough to feed the masses.

The three dishes along the side were for popcorn and two types of cookies, we had sugar cookies with icing and sprinkles on the left, a rainbow of fruit in the middle, and the girls' cakes in the back with the rainbow of flowers.

Esther's cake was decorated with piped buttercream ruffles.

Rebecca's cake was simply frosted, but there was a surprise on the inside!

Rebecca wanted to paint sun catchers with her friends.

Esther LOVES cards!

Surprise! White on the outside and a rainbow on the inside! 

The colours were done using fruit & vegetable juices rather than the more traditional food colours, which resulted in a more muted set of colours, but lots of different flavours in the cake!

Esther was very excited about her cake! :)

And, what the first birthday cake is really about.... letting the baby make a mess!

Mess-making was a success!

Our Baby is One Year Old!

October 26 marked Esther's first birthday!

It's always hard to believe when they reach that first birthday.

My parents gave her the push & ride doll thing... she LOVES it. She refuses to share it with her siblings! This is okay-- they are too big for it, really, anyway!

Rebecca was very excited to use her own money to purchase Esther a gift this year. She chose a stacking owl toy. Esther likes the stick that runs up the middle better than the rest of the toy. :)

We went to Massanutten (in May)

My parents and niece came to Virginia and we all went to Massanutten for a week. While we were there, we celebrated my birthday, so we made a cake, since the kids all felt that a birthday wasn't a birthday without a cake!

There is a really neat children's discovery center in Harrisonburg my friend told me about, so we went and spent the afternoon there! The kids had a blast exploring the whole place.

Elias was feeding a puppy

Every princess needs a knight!

...I'm not sure what to say...

The view from the top of the mountain at Massanutten was beautiful!

Off to the right is the building we were staying in.

My parents!

Birthday "Party"

We went to the petting farm with a small group of people for Rebecca's birthday today.

Me talking with Karen while carrying Elias in the Moby wrap.

Rebecca with Grandpa

Grandma... this is about how we almost always seem to see her, lol. She's CONSTANTLY taking pictures!

Rebecca with Grandma

Elias!

And again! Isn't he cute? :) (I know, I'm a little biased!)

Rebecca with her friend Lexie.

Rebecca's birthday "cake". Lots of cupcakes made it easier to travel with cake! The candle ended up not wanting to stand up properly, hence it has some icing on the curl of the 2.

Blowing out the candle!

Yummy cake and juice!

Caylee is our next door neighbour, and almost exactly 2 months older than Rebecca. On the left is her mom, and on the right is her big sister.

Aaron, Lexie's little brother. He enjoyed his cupcake too. :)

The gang... minus a couple of people.

Opening the mini Etch-a-Sketch from Caylee.

Present from the Dan and Janet...

They couldn't have picked a better one-- they just filled that yellow envelope with all sorts of sheets of stickers! They'll probably last her until Christmas at the rate she likes to go through the things, hehe. :)

Grandma and Grandpa gave her some bath toys...

...and a "Chatter" Fisher Price telephone.

Duck!

Justin, Grandpa, and Elias... 3 generations. :)

Aaron and Karen

Lexie

Aaron

And, Elias. :)