The birthday girl...
and the birthday girl.
A cute onlooker
He's always smilin'
On the night before Maleah's actual birthday we went out to eat at the NMN Club. It was delicious. And on her actual birthday, Daddy had to work, so I took the kids, plus the Duquaine kids rollerskating. I had just bought a new camera and gave it to Nolan to figure out. So a lot of the photo credit goes to him.
Opening something...
If the camera is out, he wants his picture taken. Unless of course,
I am paying someone to take his picture and then he doesn't.
She got new skates for her birthday. She had outgrown her others.
This made her very happy because her feet hadn't grown in years.
A new Nancy Drew novel (well, new to her)
The crew
Funny faces
They were really enjoying Nolan being the photographer as I drove us to Fairfield.
I like this one of Maleah. ha!
Silas thought he was cool, hanging with the big kids in the car.
Oh Max!
And Sam.
And a final selfie by our photographer Nolan. This time
he was trying out the black and white feature on the new
camera. This kid probably knows more about my camera that I do!
Maleah tentatively trying out the new skates.
Carissa Faith
Me trying to figure out my camera and a blurry Max. But it sure
is good of Maleah.
Having fun.
Cheese!
They won a bajillion tickets while we there so they all picked
out a bunch of junk from behind the ticket counter, including
the lovely green alien that rode home with us.
I was incredibly brave (I questioned my sanity) and had a friend sleepover for the girls' birthday. They both wanted to invite their friends over. I started out by saying they could each invite two friends. We quickly realized that wasn't going to work because they had so many friends that they really wanted to invite. So then I said "five friends each." It grew from there. That's when I knew I needed help. Not psychiatric help. Physical help. So, I enlisted my friend Melissa Smith (who doesn't have any daughters but loves to help do nails and other fun girly stuff) and our babysitter Vivian Duquaine. She is an awesome help to me anytime she is around. I asked her to help me with the party and she also put together an amazing scavenger hunt for the kids. She was a huge help. Jason and Silas left and spent the night at Craig and LuAnn's. I don't blame them. The party actually went so smoothly. The girls were all so well-behaved. There was no drama. Can you believe that? Not everyone spent the night but most did. Some were still awake at 3 a.m. (They were so proud of themselves!) I have no idea if they ever went to sleep because I didn't check on them again until morning.
Opening presents with our friends.
Carissa got a cash register
Maleah and her friends.
Carissa and her friends.
The slumber party guests. Four were neighbors that just stopped
by for a bit. Three others did not stay the night but instead went home that evening.
Maleah had wanted a Nancy Drew themed party and Carissa wanted a Hello Kitty party. She is so into Hello Kitty! So we did a Nancy Drew/Hello Kitty party. It worked out great. Jason's cousin Lora made the cakes as usual and she did an amazing job. Each year she blows me away with how awesome of a job she does. This year was quite possibly the best ever. She made Maleah's cake look like a Nancy Drew mystery novel and Carissa's Hello Kitty. Not only were the cakes so pretty that I didn't want to cut them, but they tasted amazing too. There was only a few pieces of chocolate cake left after the party and the strawberry cake was completely gone.
Carissa's cake made by Lora Harrison.
Maleah's cake made by Lora. Our scavenger hunt that Vivian
made was also called The Mystery of the Missing Doll. It revolved around
finding Maleah's hidden American Girl Doll.
I love this cake!
9 candles!
Five candles on this one!
The party started off with playtime in the backyard, then we had our big scavenger hunt all over the house and outside. Opening gifts happened somewhere around that time. After that was pizza and breadsticks and cake and ice cream. And then we did foot spa and foot massages, pedicures, manicures, and facials. The girls had a blast. Everyone watched Frozen next and made their beds that they never slept on. It really was a fun night. I managed to have a clean house, no dishes, and everyone gone by 9 a.m. the next morning. It was great.
The girls also had a family birthday party. We invited both sets of grandparents over, Great Grandma Zelda, and Craig and LuAnn were there as well as the Smith family. It was a fun party too.
A Hello Kitty alarm clock! This was on her actual birthday.
More presents
Carissa got a new Hello Kitty comforter for her bed. She was thrilled!
Family party and even more presents. Sigh.
They shared a cake at this party.
The girls had asked to go to Build A Bear as one of their presents. They both really wanted this for their birthday. So, Jason and I agreed to it but we weren't able to make time to take them until the end of April. They loved it though. Carissa picked out Hello Kitty (of course!) and Maleah picked out a puppy dog that is supposed to be Cinderella's Palace Pet? Whatever. It's cute. They had fun. That place is not cheap though. Dang. Good thing it was their birthday present.
Carissa stuffing Hello Kitty
Covering her ears of course. The air blowing/bath machine was too loud for the Coopers.
And brushing the new additions.
I will leave you with this video shot by Nolan on Maleah's birthday.
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