A two month celebration

We've always celebrated Nate's birthday for at least a month, with visits to various grandparents, or trips, or dinners. We just make it a big deal, and Nate starts thinking everyday is his birthday! Well, add in Georgia's birthday one month later, and it's the summer of birthday celebrations. We had a Day Out With Thomas, a trip to Cincinnati, a birthday family dinner, an ice cream outing, birthday pictures, a party, and now we'll do something special on Georgia's actual birthday on Saturday! I wish people celebrated my birthday like that! :)

I decided to spend a small fortune at the Picture People for their birthday photos, since it's Georgia's first and they always do such a great job. If you've ever taken small children to get their photos taken, you know it's stressful and exhausting, but the results are priceless! This time I was fortunate to have Alisa go with me to help wrangle the kids and keep them distracted during the arduous process of deciding which of the thousand awesome pictures to order! Nate went first, and although he typically does his big fake cheese or doesn't smile at all, I was pleasantly shocked that he was a little model! He smiled so naturally, and posed! It was hilarious and impressive. Georgia, on the other hand, was a little pistol and didn't do anything we wanted her to. It seems like kids go through stages of what they think a smile is. Well, right now she thinks she's smiling when she has her mouth wide open! Of course she kept running off the backdrop and being generally difficult. I had gone to a lot of trouble to stop and get some cupcakes on the way to work (even asked for them to be decorated special with the color icing I wanted) and  kept them upright and intact all day at work and on the way to the studio, and don't you know this little stinker wouldn't eat the cupcake? She stuck her hand in it and looked at her hand and cried. She wouldn't lick it, and she certainly did not want to make any more mess. Fine! The pictures came out great anyway.

So I'm going to go the lazy route and just post a link to the photo album I posted on facebook. Even if you don't have facebook, you can still see them. Take a look, they are ADORABLE!

Birthday Pictures

Picture People actually prints the photos out and even frames them for you, so I was able to bring a bunch home that day. I put the framed ones on the couch, and Georgia pointed to her picture and said, "Juh juh!" Then she pointed to Nate's picture and said, "Naaaaayyy!" That was the first time I've heard her say Nate! And I probably wouldn't have realized what she was saying if she hadn't been pointing at his picture. Since then, she's been chasing him around yelling "Naaaaaayyyy!!!!" It's cute. Nate was also a big fan of the pictures and wants to look at them and identify whose in each all the time.

So, we had the big birthday bash on Sunday (July 24). Last year on Nate's birthday, I was so big and pregnant and just trying to get ready for Georgia, and I figured it was the last year that Nate really wouldn't care if he had a party or not, so all we did was get a Thomas cake and go to the zoo. So this year I wanted to do a big party, especially since it was Georgia's big number one! It was kind of a crazy weekend because I hosted a playgroup at work the day before and we had a friend's birthday party the night before, but I've realized that a party isn't too hard if you ask everyone else to do the cooking for you! :) Blake grilled burgers, Memaw brought beans and the cakes, Grandma brought chips and pop ... what else do you need? The party was a lot of fun, especially since there were a lot of kids there. We ate, played pin the tail on the donkey, busted a pinata, sang happy birthday and ate cake, and opened a lot of presents! Good friends, good food, good times. I think the cakes were the biggest hit. Aunt Kathy sent a polka dot sheet cake for us, plus a little princess cake just for Georgia and a little Thomas cake just for Nate. They were adorable, and tasted awesome! When we started singing happy birthday to Nate, he just stared straight ahead like he was being bashful. When we sang to Georgia, she just looked confused. At least she didn't cry this time when she stuck her finger in the icing. She preferred the cake part more than the icing, and Nate ate just about all of his 7 inch cake by himself! Once again I'm going to be lazy and just link to the pictures on facebook.

Birthday party

We're still writing thank you notes and putting together gifts and recovering from our big weekend! We still have balloons and a happy birthday banner hanging in the living room. We'll keep right on celebrating.