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. :)

Esther at Seven Months!

Because I forgot to take six month pictures!!!

While we were at Massanutten with my parent, my grandmother passed away, and so the children and I drove north with my parents. It was a long drive! They did great though, and we had a good visit.

Elias loves everything living. Including little pill bugs. He loved finding them while we were at my parents house in June. 

Spring days!

We have had some gorgeous weather in the last few weeks, though this week you would never know it. We jumped from snow to two weeks of 75-80 degree weather. It felt like we skipped spring and jumped right in to summer! We have been enjoying our time outside quite a bit.

I have NO IDEA what he was doing, but he looked cute while he was doing it. :)

I have been catching some of the most amusing expressions on Esther's face lately. She likes to wrinkle her nose at us, and her latest interesting (to her) noise is a really raspy sounding coughing noise. It makes everyone else wonder what's wrong with her, but she seems fascinated with the noise. Maybe it sounds interesting, or maybe it feels interesting to make the noise. Regardless, it is amusing trying to explain that it is just her latest sound. :)

Justin says this is a "blackmail" photo. I thin it is just amusing to look at Esther's face.

This one I think is just sweet.

And, Esther's face is highly amusing here.

 In keeping with what seems to be becoming a tradition, Esther seems determined to make her first solid food grass and clovers. She managed to nearly swallow a clover. It got stuck on its way down so I ended up having to swipe her throat to get it out, but she's very determined her first food will be green. She's even tried grabbing broccoli, kale, avocado, kiwi, and brussels sprouts off my plate!

Elias and Rebecca love to get the dandelion puffs and blow the seeds. Elias calls them his "wishes". I got told off for allowing Elias to blow the seeds. I don't know what child goes through life without blowing those little puffs though! And hey, he's saving the bees by planting their earliest blooming spring flower for them!

My sweet (though very dirty!) little boy. :)