March is a busy birthday month in our family. We have four of them!!!
First it was Jordyn turning 14 on the 6th. I think 14 is one of the funnest ages to turn - I remember that I couldn't wait for it! Now Jordyn can attend dances, Stake Youth activities, boy/girl parties, wear all types of makeup and get her learners license! Eek!!!
Her birthday dessert is always a little tricky because of her Celiac Disease. So this year, her candles are on a plain chocolate cake that she can't eat!!! We each had a piece of her cake that we loaded vanilla pudding and whipped cream on. She used one of her gluten free brownies as her base and then loaded on the rest of the stuff. Sounds better now - she did get a birthday dessert!!!
Presents! I get presents!!!
(Up high on the piano, of course, so no little sister will open them!!!)
Oh! I'm so happy!!!
Jordyn with her loot. She was pretty excited over the makeup box with over 100 shades of eyeshadow to experiment with! She did some practicing on us!!!
Jenna's birthday was the very next day! She turned 10 on the 7th. I find these back-to-back birthdays challenging - it's hard to prepare for the second one because you're in the middle of the first one!
Jenna helped us out by choosing Black Forest In A Bowl for her birthday dessert - it's a family favourite! And we used the rest of the chocolate cake from the day before!
Jenna enters the double digits at exactly 4:00pm - her birth time!!!
And she got some gifts too!!!
Jenna with her birthday loot! Yes, Daddy got her the basketball shoes, basketball, and Yankees hat (to match his!). When I'd ask Jenna what she wanted for her birthday, all she could think of was an alarm clock. So she was very happy to get her very own purple alarm clock!
Then we got a little bit of a break until the 22nd when Richelle hit 19 - last year as a teenager!!! This was a new experience for us - the birthday of a child who doesn't live at home anymore. I asked Chelle what she'd like us to do to celebrate and she suggested that she'd come home on a Sunday to have her birthday dinner. So that's what we were planning. But then, we had to go into town to buy something for the house building on her birthday. So we were able to time it so we could pick her up from the college and take her out for an early dinner (that way she could party with her friends in the evening!). She chose Boston Pizza. We only had the two littlest girls with us as Tuesday was busy for the others with Activity Days and Young Womens.
Waiting for the food!
I guess it was Sunday the 27th when Chelle came home for her birthday dinner (we had steaks - poor starving student doesn't get that very often!). I made some simplified cheesecakes for her dessert. Sneaky girl removed one lit candle from the bunch and put it to the side. So when she blew her candles out, one was still lit - one boyfriend!!!
She really misses the piano and always goes right to it - and how nice is this? Getting your hair played with while playing piano!
And we just had a wonderful evening together - sitting around talking, laughing and singing.
And the birthday buddies - Richelle and Katia (13 years apart).
So Miss Katia turned the big 6 on the 23rd - it was easier with the back-to-back birthdays this time because Richelle's not here!!! Lovely new birthday shirt for Katia - she wore it proudly to Storyhour and the kids sang to her.
She chose the whole birthday dinner menu, right down to the ketchup!!! And she kindly chose brocolli for others to enjoy, even though she didn't want to eat any! What a thoughtful six year old!
Wow! So much birthday loot! She and Chelle really wanted the movie Tangled, but it didn't hit stores until the 29th - phew! (Actually, I have since bought it for them - gave Chelle her's on April 1st. When she opened the case, there was no DVD in it - just the words April Fools!!!
Katia chose a cherry-chip cake for her dessert, and she decorated it herself. I couldn't find our usual cake decorations (packed) so she had to make do with strawberries and marshmellows. I think she did a fabulous job, and it tasted so good with the whipped cream icing! That's a tradition I enjoy - letting them decorate their own cake! Saves time for me and they really enjoy doing it.
And that's it for the March birthdays! I always heave a sigh of relief when I can put away the birthday stuff for awhile!!! One thing that we usually do on birthdays is dig out the baby album and relive the birth of that child. And we always watch the clock for the actual time of birth, because now they really and truly are their new age!
Next family birthday: ME!!!
I delight in the simple family birthdays we do to make the day special. And I delight in the little trip down memory lane to remember the arrival of each special person and how special their birth was and what a blessing they are in our family.
