Brundage Birthday Bonanza X 2

Well, before Christmas hits us, I'll take today to reflect on the two December birthdays we celebrate in our family.

First, Maggie turned 10 on Monday December 6. Her celebration started early with a Friday night sleepover. It seems to be quickly becoming a tradition that Maggie celebrate her birthday by going to the Downtown Christmas parade with friends. This year was no different.



After the parade, we enjoyed chocolate fondue and the obligatory facials and cucumber eyes that must be included in any ten year old girl sleepover.





Saturday morning, we enjoyed traditional {Amazing Balls of Goodness}, bacon and juice.



At this point, we paused our celebrating until Monday morning, Maggie's actual tenth birthday. Those first double digit birthdays are a pretty big deal! At least to the person who it's happening to.



We had early morning present opening, and then it was off to school. At lunch time, Dad pulled Maggie out of school for a lunch-date at CPK (can you tell how sick of these CPK Birthday Dinners I am? I'm doing anything to avoid them). Dad and Daughter both enjoyed the time together though, so I'm thinking the traditional CPK family dinner may transform into a more intimate lunch for two from now on.

In the evening, we decided to go Chinese. We had orange chicken, rice, fortune cookies and other yummies...eaten right out of our take out boxes. Easy? Yes. Fun? Yes!



Finally, it was time for Strawberry Trifle and presents. Grandpa Joe and Grandma Carole really stole the show with this American Girl Doll Nightgown for Maggie and her doll. Thank You Thank You!





And thus ended the ten year old's birthday bash. But don't worry, in just ten more days, we had another birthday to celebrate. Yesterday, on December 16, Harry turned 8. We started the day with presents. Harry has come full circle back to a love of all things Star Wars, in particular, Darth Maul. His haul yesterday included a new Darth Maul Cloak (made by me to Harry's particular specifications), new black pants, black boots, and a double-sided lightsaber. I pulled out my old cake decorating skills and whipped up the double sided lightsaber confection. Have you ever tried the spray-on color for cake decorating? It made making red icing actually happen without the terrible taste of all the food coloring necessary to make the icing red and not pink.








Then it was off to school, only to be picked up by dad (and grandma and grandpa) for Harry's CPK Birthday lunch.

At this point, things got fun. While they kept Harry out to lunch and then running errands, I picked up the rest of the kids from school, as well as three of his friends. We all went home, and hid...waiting for Harry to come home. That's right, it was our family's first official surprise birthday party! He walked in and everything went to perfection. His friends jumped out and yelled "surprise", they blew their horns and then gave him hugs. It was fun...my kids have ALL always said they'd like a surprise party, but I was a little nervous about how they would actually react to people jumping out at them and yelling surprise. Harry's reaction was classic...even a few tears (of happiness he kept telling me), but mostly just so excited that his "friends threw him a surprise party". Apparently that's an ultimate compliment in Harry's book. After the surprise wore off, everyone suited up in Star Wars costumes with matching lightsabers, and had a great time on the trampoline, re-enacting scenes.



After a pizza dinner and lightsaber cake, we headed downtown for Farmers and free night at the Children's museum. We ended the evening at Cold Stone (for yes, even more ice cream), and a silly string fight in the back alley. Doesn't get much better than that. And even though the night ended with tears from Harry ("I'm just so sad it's over") was his only complaint, I think I can say that his 8th Birthday Party was one of the best we've ever celebrated.

So now, we have nine more days before Christmas. The kids are enjoying their last day of school today before break. I also am enjoying the last day of the kids being in school before break :). We have lots to look forward to though, including Harry's New Year's Eve Baptism. Talk about starting out the new year right!