Birthdaying in Cannon Beach

Isla got to ring in her 6th year during our trip to Cannon Beach. I fretted that this would be somewhat of a let down for her but that was definitely NOT the case. She was thrilled to be both the center of attention and the recipient of all the "extras" that already come with vacations. 

She opted to eat out for breakfast (I've trained her well!) and the staff at Pig N' Pancake treated her well with a balloon and a candle in her crepe. For the rest of the trip, Emma identified this restaurant as the If You Give a Pig a Pancake place which was rather endearing. 

Isla was boss all day and got to choose the order of events so we hit up the beach next. 

 We were treated to gorgeous weather during our time there and lazied away the hours digging and building and kite flying and untangling very knotted kite strings. 

 I just discovered this next picture, captured unbeknownst to me by the hubs. I think just nabbed the title of My New Favorite Picture because it is oh such a very accurate representation of my life: wrestling to contain a very active and opinionated toddler while Emma marches around with a bucket on her head. Not pictured is Isla who would probably be sitting in the sand with a clip board writing letters and asking me how to spell things or begging for a playdate or making beaded necklaces. And then there is Graham who is taking pictures of it all. :) I sort of love it though.

Isla got to open one gift upon returning to our cottage and was so pleased by her new clay charm making activity book that it came with us on our girls trip to town to explore while Jack was napping. Of course we had to get a picture with this iconic whale from my childhood. Emma was quick to inform me that it was NOT a whale but rather and fin-less dolphin. She was insistent that daddy said so. Upon further research it was determined he did nothing of the sort....whatever floats your boat, kiddo.

 Our girl time consisted of park time, window shopping at the kite shop and then of course a trip to the candy shop where I spend SEVEN DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS to solidify myself as the Best Mom Ever for purchasing the face-sized lollipops in the picture that opened this post. 

Isla couldn't wait a second longer to open the rest of her gifts and successfully coaxed me to break my own self-inflicted rule of waiting until after dinner.

 She got the haul this year: a spool of elastic string for her jewelry-making, a hairdresser shop set of Legos, a new dress, a pencil sharpener and Bubble Tape.

 Oh and of course the clay charm making set that already joined us on the Tour de Cannon Beach.

 Isla requested pasta for dinner (no surprise there!) and we found a pizza place that also served pasta to appease her. After dinner, we came back for vanilla cupcakes with pink frosting and strawberry ice cream.

 I think the birthday girl had a great day!

Isla turns 5 1/2 (and 66 months)

 Last week was a busy week around here: two of our munchkins advanced a half year in age which meant some extra fun and celebrations. Isla's half fell on a school day and she requested (with only a smidge of parental influence) chocolate waffles with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast. She'd talked to her teacher earlier in the week and asked permission to bring in a special half birthday treat for the class and so we sent her off to school armed with lollipops. Her teacher (we love her!) had a half birthday crown prepared for her to wear. 

The half birthday girl requested a playdate with her classmate Savannah and the two of them spent the afternoon doing all sorts of arts and crafts and painting up a storm. For dinner, Isla asked for pasta THAT WASN'T SPICY and she loaded up her adult-sized plate and proceeded to down the entire thing. She eats pasta like her mama. We are both still mastering the whole twirl-around-the-fork technique.

Red Velvet Cupcakes were on the menu for dessert. Isla had requested they be topped with dogs (her latest passion) but Amazon let us down and they didn't arrive on time and so Isla told me she had an idea. Next thing I knew, she had pulled out some strawberries and arranged on decoratively atop each cupcake. *LOVE* You know what else I love? This picture of Graham and Isla. Their relationship has been rather precarious as of late and I'm so proud of Graham who has been charging on and pursuing her like crazy despite frequent rejections. I so love that I captured this tender moment of bonding.

Did I mention Isla is obsessed with dogs? I don't know how it started because she's always been my timid one around canines. But she came home from a trip to her grandparents in Bellingham insisting she was going to raise puppies and sell the babies at the Farmer's Market. Oh wow. I just can't wait to run a puppy farm. Anyhow, we capitalized on this new passion and bought her a TOY dog complete with leash and all the accoutrements. She was quite pleased and we have thus delayed the entry of a dog into our family until, God forbid, she "turns 6," according to the source.

In other news, our eldest remains a very social creature and is enjoying playdates as frequently as I can schedule them. She is also quite the homebody and usually requests to "just stay home" when given a choice of adventures. We're beginning to encounter a little trouble at school with her missing me and growing teary in class. It's about time we experienced some side effects to all our stressful life changes lately, I guess. Poor girl! 

 

Overall, she remains my energetic, enthusiastic, busy eldest who is soaring with her reading skills and makes a pretty great companion for chapter book reading too. Love her!

Partying like Penguins

 Oh my word! How did this happen? My baby is pictured there sitting behind a cake with a candle in it. A FIRST BIRTHDAY CAKE!!! Gah. I'm feeling all weepy today but I'll try and spare you. I really don't know where the time went.



We had a very small gathering on Saturday with my sister and her family and my parents to celebrate.

Jack was still under the weather (isn't he always) and was a bit shy with all the attention but eventually warmed up to his new stacking cups and water bottle. 

 The boy loves meat and so I served a lunch of BBQ pork sandwiches, slaw and grapes along with hot cider. He ate three servings of meat!!

We took a party intermission after lunch so the birthday boy could take a nap and the rest of us carved pumpkins.



 The kids were uber-creative with their carving requests. Both Emma and Gid wanted the stem cutout to be the shape of a fish. Good thing I was assigned to help Isla!!!!! She just wanted a simple heart. 

Then she requested heart eyes and a heart mouth. I drew the line when she asked for heart eyelashes...this is about as artistic as I get, folks!



Grandma asked Emma if she wanted a happy or sad face. She said a sad face. "I LOVE sad!!" I'm trying not to read into that one too hard. I gotta say, I sort of love her sad pumpkin.

When Jack woke up, it was cake time! It wasn't hard to figure out what kind of cake to request for the boy. I have never seen penguins flock to a kid but if you ever want a good show, take Jack to the zoo. They just LOVE him and it's obvious the feeling is mutual. He has this adorable penguin call that brings them all a'flocking. 

My mom made these ADORABLE cakes. (Golly, I'm so glad I'm learning to delegate!)



Jack was as impressed as the rest of us and didn't hesitate to dive in.

Pardon ALL the pictures but it was his first birthday.

He couldn't figure out when we kept pulling it away whenever he got close.

Whoops! That one was supposed to be for the adults...

He knows when he sees a good thing.

Classic one-year-old playing with fire.

And then the moment he'd been waiting for!

I'm not gonna lie. It was awesome watching him dive in with both hands. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have eaten that whole cake had we not cut him off after about 10 minutes of straight sugar.

Needless to say, he was up until 9 PM (but we didn't care because we were out on a date!) :)


Grandkid Birthday Fest!!

 I know, right? You guys are all wondering how I could possible have more to say about our birthdays after the gazillions of posts about parties and celebrations so far. Well, I PROMISE this is the last one. For us girls at least. My sister and I thought we'd spare our poor parents from having to come down every weekend during the months of August and September to celebrate the birthday of 4 of their 5 grandkids. So we planned one special joint family party and killed 4 birds with one stone.

We took the crew to the zoo...again. But no one seemed to mind in the least. Graham treated the kids to a birthday ride on the carousel.

The bear gave us an awesome water show, sprawling out in the waterfall, as if he knew it was a special occasion.

Uncle Josh treated the kids to seed sticks to feed the birds and they thought it was a riot having the birds land so close to them.

Just when we thought we were going to lose all the kids to sleep, we gave them cupcakes and they revived quite nicely!

Once we were officially zoo-ed out, we convened at the park outside the gate for presents. Jack was pretty into the whole thing and Emma was not too sure if she liked the idea of having a mobile brother.

Grandpa Wilson MADE the girls the most adorable doll beds I have ever seen! They were all in HEAVEN when they opened them. Grandma Wilson made custom bedding and blankets out of unique fabrics for each granddaughter. What a great way to celebrate being 2, 3, 4 and 5!!