A Birthday Boy!!!

Well so much for being caught up!

Yes, I am still here,

Yes, I am still doing the blog...

Yes, we are VERY busy!

Yes, we have some crazy news...

but as you have noticed...

I like to keep this blog in the 

order of events..

so you are just gonna hafta wait

til I catch up again, before I spill

the news!

Which most of you already know by now anyways!

This posting is about my second child's birthday...

which was 2 months ago!

Well almost 2 months ago...

So again - 

we are going to play catch up...

Hang in there with me.

We had decided that we wanted

to do "experiences" with our kids, 

in lieu of parties every year.

We will still do little parties

and family parties...

but instead of the big gigantic

impress the other parents'

type parties...

that all the kids will forget anyways...

we wanted to try to do a family 

adventure

or experience...

So we asked J what he wanted to do

for his 7th birthday.

Is he really 7?  

I told him I wasn't ready for him to turn 7,

he basically told me, 

too bad cause he was turning 7

whether I was ready or not!

Haha!

We gave him a couple of options

(that we were willing to do)

and 

he chose a family camping trip!

(More about that in the next post)

So the theme for his cake was a camping cake.

And if you have been following me long enough,

you know I make all the kids cakes...

it is something very special to me.

And a gift I give them every year no matter

what kind of cake they want!

Camo,

army fighting cake,

Skylander portal of power,

Hello Kitty,

Princess-ish,

The kids are getting more and more 

creative with their requests as they get older...

which means mommy gets more and more 

adventerous with her cake decorating!

Anyways,

we had a small party at the house with just 

the fam and papa & mama grande.

J got to pick the food

(also tradition in our house)...

I am pretty sure we had

rotisserie chicken,

mashed potatoes & gravy

and

roasted broccoli & cauliflower

(those are his favorites).

After dinner,

it was time for presents:

This child has ALWAYS

had the BEST smile!

His smile is going to light up the world one day!

(it already lights up mine)

He never really asks for much,

so he is harder to buy for...

but I think daddy hit the nail on the head with this gift!

(more on this gift in another post as well)

Mr. T decided to "take pictures" with

"his phone".

(one of mommy's old phones that he 

trudges around with now)

More gifts,

this one is from me.

He is our "do-er"...

he loves building,

using his hands, 

cooking...

so I thought this block set looked fun.

They are called Keva Planks

And the final 

"wow" gift 

was a bubbler for our fish tank.

We got him a giant treasure chest 

for our teeny tank!

But that was the smallest one I could find...

I think he liked this too...

And here is the cake!

I made a camping cake!

I *love* how it turned out!

Complete with a tent, campfire, marshmallows

and yep, those are tall trees...

nope, we don't see those kind in Texas!

I attempted to put the candles

around the fire to make it look like the campfire

was lit.

Right before presenting it to the birthday boy.

We keep the cake a surprise right up until

they see it at the official presentation.

I think he liked it!

Actually, I know he did.

He told me many times how much he loved it!

Look at that smile!

Here he is...

cutting the cake,

also the birthday kid tradition!

They gave the Keva blocks a try.

The flooring was textured,

so they didn't work well,

but they gave it a good shot!

And had a fun time with them.

Parting birthday pictures:

Daddy and the birthday boy 

goofing around!