A Birthday And A Graduation

Mary Kate celebrated her 12th birthday yesterday!! 

When I asked her if she wanted me to wake the 3 younger kids to sing and have doughnuts with her before she left for school she said no.  Her reason?  "I don't want all the crazy."

She was just happy reading her new Tiger Beat that was packed inside her new backpack.

 

 

 

Since she had to sacrifice her End of Year Track party for Matthew's preschool graduation, I told her we could all go out to dinner as a special treat.  While we were there I asked the other kids what they liked best about Mary.

Annie wasted no time in answering with an excited,  "She's my sister!"

Tommy: "She's a good drawer."

Matt: "She's a good babysitter at the playground."  (she's in charge while I watch the boys' baseball games.)

Billy: "She's energetic and playful."

For dessert we headed home to have Cherry Cheese Tarts.

When I was growing up, instead of a cake, I asked my Mom to make these for me.   When Mary heard about them, she wanted to have them too. 

Then we headed to Matthew's preschool graduation.  The jury is still out as to whether or not he'll be heading to Kindergarten in the fall....so I was able to keep my tears at bay.

Here he is in the rainforest being introduced

3 Day Morning Class- Matt is on the right, striped shirt.

Boy on far left not mine, but I think we have that same shirt.

 

Such happy events for a Wednesday!

Billy Turned 13!

Last week Billy turned 13 years old!!

The little kids didn't mind one bit being awakened an hour early to sing Happy Birthday  have doughnuts.

Billy got a phone for his birthday.  No internet; that was our compromise.  He seemed happy.

Mary decorated his cake.  He requested the Nike Elite design and she obliged.

He had a baseball game that night.  This was the calm before the storm.  When all of his teammates found out it was his birthday, they tackled him and gave him his birthday punches.

 

They did managed to sing Happy Birthday to him and then got one of these.

They're baseball cupcakes, in case you couldn't tell.

Then it was back home to sing one more time and enjoy that basketball cake and sherbert.

Dad was away, so he called to sing with us.

 The gift that really got the hoots and shouts was the bag of Gatorade, Slim Jims, and gum we got him.  Go figure.  

We're so proud of you Billy!  Thanks for making my dream of being a Mom come true. 

We love you.

Tommy's Birthday

Tommy turned 9 on Saturday!!

His Gran and Gramps came for lunch and brought a surprise with them.

DUCKS!

 

The ducks were only visiting.  Gran and Gramps got two ducks for Easter.  All the other grandchildren had seen them, but because we live further away and hadn't seen them yet, they brought them up here to show us.

We all had lunch and cake to celebrate Tommy's birthday.

Later in the day we headed to the ball field to watch Tommy's team play a scrimmage.

Even though.....

....it was 9pm when we got home

...we still had to eat dinner

...we still had to shower and dress for bed

....mom was paranoid they'd all be getting sick from the cold air they played in at the ball field

....mom was also paranoid they'd be sick and miss PSSA testing at school


I still agreed to let them watch The Avengers movie.

Tommy was in Heaven, so the 11:45pm bedtime was worth it.

That scene with the Hulk taking care of Loky also made it worth it!  (anyone see that?)

So, Happy Birthday Tom-Bomb.

We love you.

Ann's Birthday

On Saturday Ann turned 8 years old!!

The day started with our traditional birthday doughnuts after breakfast.

Later in the day we had to shop for a new dishwasher.  It took forever and the kids were great, so we treated them to these.

Shamrock Shake

Ann wanted a lollipop drawn on the top of her cake.  Mary Kate, my cake decorator, decided to give Ann a few more options.

Ann's choice is circled

Then Mary went to work.

 

The finished product :

Ann's reaction:

We watched Wreck-It Ralph and had fun foods for dinner.

Ann requested a cake with a vanilla top and chocolate bottom.  Since I use a box mix, I had to figure out what to do with the other half of the batter....hence, the two cakes.

Happy Birthday Ann!!

We love you so much.