Birthday week

March always marches into our house with a flurry of birthday activities.  

We started the revelry on the last day of February (Saturday), when 6 of Joseph's friends joined us for a party at Ultrazone lasertag.  It was the perfect party for a group of 10 year old boys.

The boys "toasted" the birthday boy with their rootbeer while they inhaled pizza.

 Joseph and best buddy Alex.

 I thought this was so cute - the present from Gabe was decorated with some pictures of the two boys from years ago!

All suited up for the second laser tag game.

 We were the CHAMPIONS! (Partly due to the way in which Dan and I aggressively protected our team's bases.)  It was intense.

The next day (Sunday) we celebrated Aubrey's birthday a day early with a special dinner of her choice - homemade fettucine alfredo with homemade bread, ceaser salad, and cherry chip cupcakes (a nostalgic choice for her - her favorite childhood dessert).

Monday morning was Aubrey's REAL birthday - 15 years old! She started the day by attending Seminary at 6 a.m. Dan brought her home after class and Aubrey climbed back into pjs for the traditional breakfast in bed: crepes with nutella and whipped cream, strawberries, and milk.  Then she opened her presents before getting ready for school.  

For lunch I picked up Aubrey and we zipped over to her favorite restaurant, Olive Garden. Dan was able to join us and we spent an hour eating delicious carbs and reminiscing about our favorite Aubrey memories.  

After school Aubrey spent the rest of her birthday auditioning for a play - Little Mermaid.  To her, this was the perfect way to spend the final hours of her special day.


Two days later (Wednesday) was Joseph's big day - his entrance to the world of double digits - 10 years old!

He had very specific requests for his breakfast in bed: bacon, strawberries, milk, a powdered donut, and a chocolate donut. (The powdered donut was inhaled within seconds).

 After eating, Joseph opened his gifts.  Pictured here, a fun sports xbox game from Grandma and Grandpa Springer. And his big present, Lego Mindstorms, which combines Legos with entry level programming. With this set he can build many different robots and program the robot to do cool stuff.

 Joseph would not allow me to pick him up from school for lunch because he didn't want to miss anything. He wanted to go to get a Burgerville shake (yum) and Burger King nuggets after school. He wouldn't even skip the bus ride home, so I picked him up from the bus stop and we drove to get his food. Then it was home to play with new birthday toys for a few hours, after which time a friend came over to play and share Joseph's favorite dinner foods - pizza, fritos, and oreos.  With a few carrots thrown in for good health.  (Birthdays are definitely not about healthy eating).

 And finally, two days later (Friday) we had a birthday celebration with Aubrey and a few friends.  After Aubrey was done with play rehearsal we picked up her friends and then ate a gourmet pizza dinner.  Bailey kept me company on the girls night out. 
Then we drove to Portland for some adventures. The girls loved the quirky, weird, and fun Alberta Street.  We walked about half a mile to the famous Salt & Straw ice cream store.  As is always the case, there was a long line out the door, but we didn't care. Totally worth the wait.

 Then, because it was a birthday and birthdays are all about unlimited desserts, we walked to the also famous Waffle Window and got a Bananarumba homemade waffle to share (plus a plain liege waffle).  So yummy!

Finally, we drove the girls home to hang out for a bit before we all collapsed into bed and declared the end to birthday week.