Emily's 15th Birthday Party!

Emily's birthday party was unintentionally late, but intentionally small.  March and April were so busy, that it wasn't until after Memorial Day that she could invite people to celebrate her latest birthday!  Sadly, that meant that people already had summer things planned, and of the four she invited, only Lydia could make it.  

Luckily, Emily has a whole slew of siblings who make everything feel like a party anyhow, so with the decorations and party food, it was a very festive day!

I sure enjoyed celebrating my Emily!

It was a much prettier day than it would have been in March!  I was happy to get to use my yard signs for a second time!

later days

edit 6-15-26: backdated for continuity.

Grace and Juliet's 12th Birthday Party

Just like Emily, Grace and Juliet had to wait until robotics season wrapped up before they could have their birthday party.  So, in early May, we planned their party, but Grace wanted to invite everyone she met this year, and Juliet wanted a sleepover.  

The compromise was that Grace could invite whoever she wanted, but only those that Juliet invited would spend the night.  Zoey was an exception, because she's been Grace's BFF forever, and 5 is an odd number.

 

The girls didn't seem to mind sitting on the floor at the coffee table from in front of the couch!

Grace and Juliet made their own cake, I have no memory of where I was, but they did a pretty good job!

We did order it cold this year, because we were unclear about Emily's tennis commitment that day, and if it had to sit for a long time, in the refrigerator seemed like the way to go.  So, when Billy got it home, I heated up half of it, and we ate on it for lunch. Then, after the day partiers left, I heated up round two for dinner!

They both seemed to really enjoy having their friends over, and no one ever complains about eating chick-fil-a!  Another big happy birthday to my all-time favorite twins!

later days

edit 6-15-26: backdated for continuity.

William's 13th Birthday

 As of November 11th, we now have three teenagers in the house!

The night before his birthday, we took one last picture of him as a twelve-year-old!

And, then just a few hours later, we all got up early (some of us twenty minutes, some of us hours) to sing happy birthday to our newest thirteen-year-old!

He was able to open most, if not all of his gifts before it was time to leave.

Juliet played him "happy birthday" on the clarinet.

He really liked the m&m dispenser.  We bought him a solid bag of green m&ms to fill it up.  He was super sweet and shared with everyone!

And, the long-awaited day, he finally got to ride up front!  Alice didn't even fight him, though she usually sits there.  It took some maneuvering, but we did get his trombone in a better configuration.

With all of the robotics events, we didn't plan a birthday party, but I reached out to two of his friend's moms and we were able to have a 'birthday outing' for him at fun city one Sunday.  We didn't rent a room, but did have cupcakes and snacks at a dedicated table!

It was wonderful for him to have Weston & Jacob in attendance, and I think everyone had a good time!

We sure do love our little growing boy!

later days

edit 12-3-25: backdated for continuity

Alice's 16th Birthday Party

Somehow, my little bitty baby Alice turns 16 this year!  She chose a Cold War theme for her party, and it was such a fun theme to collect for!

Her invitations came to me one day just a few weeks before the party, and I was able to cut up some file folders that I had already collected, and pump out her invitations in just a few hours!  Truth told, the USDSBPC* seal took as much time to create as the rest of the invitation!

Since her party took place later the same morning that Billy and I drove in from our 24 hour travel from Poland, Alice was in charge of placing most of her props around.  I thought she did an excellent job.  Avia stayed over to help too, and I was so thankful!

Alice even sorted the food by color on the table! Warm colors were on the Soviet side.

And most of the food went on the American side of the table.

A happy Birthday Girl!

Hanging out with her friends. = )

The party favor pins, as well as some of Alice's souvenirs from Berlin.

Time for Birthday Cake!

On my first publication, I totally forgot to include that Grace was in charge of making Alice's cake, and she did a great job!!!

Her friends got her some delightful and thoughtful gifts!

I want to give a shoutout to Kristy for her help in sourcing some of the decorations for the party!  She found these pots, which gave a nice 'empty' balance to the table! 

I think Alice had a lovely time, and we look forward to celebrating her one more time, for her official birthday, which also falls on the first day of school this year!

later days

 *United States Department of Sixteenth Birthday Party Celebrations

edit 8-17-25: backdated for continuity.

edit 8-21-25: edited to add content.

Grace and Juliet 11th Birthday!

This year Juliet referred to 'her' birthday more than year's past, but aside from that, we had a typical build up to their birthday!

Grace painted some 'unicorn' rocks to pass out as favors.

They agreed on passing out 'dirt cups' for class treat on their birthday, for a second year in a row!

The worms crawling out of the 'dirt.' lol

One final picture as 10 year olds!!!  They started short, for Aunt Rocky's benefit, but then showed just how tall they actually are!

After the twins were in bed, Emily helped me make a bubble solution that I found online.  Alice came out and asked why I would make bubbles for them, then proceeded to be entranced by said bubbles for 10 minutes! lol.

The next morning, so incredibly early, the twins were also entranced by the bubbles, and excited to celebrate their birthday before Alice left for school at 6:40!!

Their birthday fell on a Wednesday, so they were dressed in matching shirts for talent show practice.

Grace gave Juliet a magnetic heart necklace as a gift, and they wore them the following day!

We managed to land a party date really close to their birthday, at FunCity!  As I hung the unicorn banner, Juliet mentioned, offhandedly, that this would probably the be last year that we would need that banner. = ( ::sniff:: ::sniff::

Tiny unicorn favor boxes with erasers and candy and tattoos! 

I was so excited to reuse the streamers that we hung on their bedroom door for their party decor!

We also used some fresh decor, but the tablecloths were provided by the venue!  They just happened to pick the perfect color scheme!

I had time to take a few action shots!

I actually ended up making two cakes for this party. The first cracked when I moved it to the serving tray, and continued to crack after frosting it. eek!  So, I made the orange cake, and it was super well received, so it was probably for the best!

We stayed just a bit after the end of the party, since the guests all left, but everyone  had a good time, I think!

When we got home, Grace and Juliet sorted through and played with all of their new gifts!

I had no paper to write the gift list on, so ended up using a paper plate to record the gifts!  The twins did a pretty good job of filling in the blanks, since they opened their gifts out of order of giver, and I had a hard time keeping the record straight!

Not long after their birthday, I read a book about twins, and must whole heartedly agree, twins are a "very nice arrangement!"

 later days

4-26-25: backdated for continuity.