Dale's Fourth Birthday

November 8, 2012

Dale's fourth birthday

 

On Dale's birthday, he got to be the special birthday kid at school, which meant he could bring a favorite snack and a favorite book to share with the class.  Our snack choice was homemade cookies with extra messy sprinkles, and our book choice was "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by Oxenbury and Rosen.  We made a big deal out of Dale's day at school and even got all dressed up.

 

Cute kid.

Pretty school.

 

Once school started, Dale got to sit in the special birthday chair, where everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  Then he got to pick a little gift from the birthday box and show the class his pick.

 

Ms. Armstrong and Ms. Grogan are Dale's teachers.

Rose entertained herself with all the toys.

Where on earth does he get this from?

 

Once we left school, Rose, Monga and I ventured to Starbucks for some coffee, treats, and chatting, and then we shopped for new dresses at The Gap.  Rose is unbelievably adorable in the mornings after dropping Dale off at school.  It makes me want to buy her things.  I'm in big big big trouble.

 

Dale's Tiger Party

When I first asked Dale what kind of birthday party he wanted, he immediately said, "Cars."  Flat out.  I knew he meant race cars, and I started mentally planning the best race car party I could think of.  But then a few weeks later...just to check...I asked Dale again what kind of birthday party he wanted.  "Tigers."  Well crap.  Every time I asked after that the answer stayed the same, so even though I had already ordered Dale the cutest little race car invitations, a tiger party it had to be.  Mostly he was concerned with the cake.  He had to have a tiger cake on his tiger birthday, and he would tell me this fact almost daily while growling and clawing like a tiger.  How can a mother resist that?  No seriously, I just wanted him to stop growling at me.

 

The morning of Dale's party, we took a few pictures of Dale before he went tiger wild.

 

 

Rose, although she had maximus adorable-us curl-us, refused photographs that day.  I'm guessing it's because she had a pretty dress on.  Yep, that must be it.  Put the girl in stained jammies and don't brush her hair for two days, and voila, she'll give you the cutest faces for the camera.  But if you put Rose in a pretty dress, you can forget about pictures.  In fact, I only have to have my camera in the general vicinity for her to start crying real tears.  Real tears.  I have no idea where she gets that from.

Yes, yes she is a perfect angel.

 

Then the party started!

 

 

Dale's birthday present from Mommy and Daddy was his brand new big boy bed.  We stretched that toddler bed as long as we could.  The poor dude barely fit in it anymore, so he was thrilled to walk into his bedroom and see his very own big boy bed.  Bear and Elephant were waiting for Dale on the new bed, and when Dale saw the scene, he crawled right in and got all comfy.  It was a good thing.

 

Before Dale opened all his presents, we forced five children to sit with a screaming toddler for the sake of an awesome photograph.  Awesome it was.

Lily, Mary, Rose, Dale, Max, Matthew

 

I sure do love that Dale's birthday is right after Halloween.  HEHE!

 

 

As for Dale's tiger cake, Daddy did a magnificent job giving Dale exactly what he wanted.

 

Best tiger cake ever!

Lily and Dale Buzz tiger

Daddy and Uncle Brandon

Lily, Max, Matthew

Matthew and Max

Dale and Lily, Matthew, Marci and Mike Rice

The Birthday That Ended With a Miracle

September 26, 2012

 

Dale's dance class fell on the day of Rose's actual birthday,  but she didn't mind.  While Dale was in dance class, Rose had her own fun with the other little siblings.  They shared raisins and boogers and giggles and cries.  It was a grand ol' time.

 

Once Daddy got home from work, we went out for a tasty birthday treat.

This was the first time we had been to one of these build your own frozen yogurt places.  Dale had a blast with all the toppings.  Princess Rose loved hers so much that she got very upset at me for snagging a quick bite of her treat.

My children are quite agreeable after they are given treats.  This is the face Dale makes when you ask him to say "cheese."

The clouds parted, the angels trumpeted, and my children both looked at me and smiled at the same time.  That's right, a miracle occurred on Rose's second birthday in front of the frozen yogurt store in Manhattan, Kansas.  I think I may have even seen the face of Jesus in Dale's yogurt.  Write it down, folks.

Dreams really do come true.

Happy Birthday to the cutest little Princess ever!

 

Ballerina Princess Party

Rose is quite the princess.  No, she's a ballerina princess.  Or is it a princess ballerina or fairy princess or fairy princess ballerina or fairy ballerina?  Whatever it is, she's my cutie patootie princess pie.  So for her birthday, Rose had the most precious ballerina princess party ever.  She loved it.

 

Party tutu.

Our little princess.

 

To celebrate Rose's second birthday, we had the family come over for food and princess ballerina fun.

 

Matthew, Rose, Dale, Lily, Max

The backyard was decorated as froufrou and fabulous as possible, with ribbons and sparkles everywhere.  Both Monga and Aunt Sara brought special touches to help out, and it really made the backyard magical.

 

For this birthday, I somehow convinced Daddy to make cupcakes instead of his usual elaborate cake.  He made his now famous red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.  Yummmmm.

 

 

What a magical day for Rose.  Happy second birthday to our precious princess!

 

Dear Rose, I promise I was there at your birthday party, but I have not a single photograph to prove it.  Sometimes I forget to ask Daddy to take the camera.  I'm working on that.  I love you!