May 9- Mother's Day
May 16- Jaden's Birthday
May 25- Martin's Birthday
June 6 - My dad's birthday
June 7 - Martin's dad's birthday
June 20- Father's Day
June 24- Micah's Birthday/ My Mom's Birthday
July 6- Martin's Mom's Birthday
July 12- My Birthday
Phew! That is 10 celebrations in two months, and that is NOT including our siblings' birthdays (and between us we have 7 siblings). We aren't big "party throwers" in our family - birthdays have never been a huge deal and we've never thrown big birthday parties for the kids, other than their 1st birthdays. This year will be Micah's first "big" party, where he has told me names of 21 kids he wants to invite. Well, then! Since he's turning 5 we are going to oblige, but we normally keep it small.
Two weeks ago we had a small birthday party for Jaden at Chuck E Cheese with six of his friends from church. I didn't want to pay the $18 a person for the "sponsored" birthday party, so I got there early, reserved two tables, and went to town with Cars decorations. It was a blast and he had so much fun.
This week we celebrated Martin's birthday, and we were able to have an overnight "away" at a nice hotel near our house. I had taken photos of this hotel's 25th Anniversary Celebration, and in return they gave me 2 free nights with free dinner and breakfast in two of their restaurants. My mom came and stayed the night and we used one of the free nights on Monday. It was GREAT! We ate dinner, walked around Borders bookstore for an hour (which is in the same parking lot), had dessert, sat in the jacuzzi, and went to bed. I had a hard time sleeping and woke up early (it's hard for me not to be in my own bed), and then we went to breakfast and checked out by noon.
At Borders, we perused books on The Strong-Willed Child (I know, how romantic), and sat down in an aisle and just read together. When we got back to the hotel, I wanted to check out the Concierge Lounge on the 12th floor. Someone opened the door for us, and we went in and were treated to free chocolate-raspberry cake, Starbucks, and free sodas. Little did we know (until I tried to get in the next morning), that we were not supposed to use the Concierge Lounge - it was only for the elite members :) Oh well! We'll know for next time, right? ;)
Now I am off planning Micah's "Spiderman/Ironman" themed party. It will be at Chuck E Cheese too, so my challenge is to make it creative and low cost. Feel free to pass on any ideas you have!
Wow - that is some serious celebrating you have in May and June! April is our busy month with my sister, both kids and my mom + Easter. Your "Cars" birthday looked great - can you believe we've never been to Chuck E. Cheese? So glad you had such a nice getaway and browsing at Barnes and Noble sounds like a great date to me! :)
ReplyDeleteWow! Lots of birthdays! May was a busy month for us too! June is just father's day, a sibling bday that we don't celebrate, and my bday. July is "just" our anniversary :D I'm the same as Mindy...our kids have never been to chuck e. cheese. We've convinced them that it's not a fun place to go :D Ha!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea to decorate yourself and do your own "sponsoring" of your birthday party. I'll need to consider that for next time...would you be willing to email me on how you keep a low budget Chuck E. Cheese party? I want to have Ruthie's party there, and possibly Rachel's. It is so much easier than doing it at home!
ReplyDeleteI also LOVE his cupcake birthday cake!