Vida. Risa. Amor.

It feels so good to put my feet up after another busy week of birthday celebrating...the balloons have been deflated, the leftover cupcakes and pizza are slowly disappearing, the neglected laundry is done, and the kitchen is decoration-free once again. My girls turned 11 and 14 this week and it doesn't seem too long ago that they were only 3 and 6! I've done a gazillion different birthday themes throughout the years for each of my girls birthdays and it was fun to remember a few of them...

When Josie was one, we celebrated with a cake in the shape of a chicken since I used to call her my "little chicken"....(not sure why...but she just was and still is). Some of the themes throughout the years were Little Mermaid, Tarzan, Gold for her Golden 6th, Cowgirls, Flip-flops, Tie-die, Bowling, 70's Flashback, and Unicorns. Probably the most memorable was last year for her 13th when she invited 26 girls to come over for 4 hours to play Guitar Hero and jump on a rental bouncy thing in our backyard! We toned it down a little this year as she "only" invited about 10 friends to go see a movie and come back to just "hang out". I think we've finally made a turn in the road now where I don't have to plan games and crafts at her parties anymore...though she still let's me make a cute cake!

Lanie was born 3 days before Josie's birthday, so she's mostly shared her parties with her big sister for many years. She also had a Golden theme for her 3rd, Rainbows on her 5th, a princess dress up tea-party, monkeys, a Hawaiin luau, sleepovers, and decorate-your-own-cake with homemade aprons and crafts to paint! This year Lanie, (like her big sister), was all about Team Jacob from the latest Twilight movie: New Moon. I'm secretly a fan as well, but I'm constantly remembering that I'm exactly twice the character's age!...so boo for me getting older I guess, but yay for a fun party!

I also love decorating cakes that go with each parties theme. My favorite cake I made for both of them to share was a few years ago when I decided to try and die the cake batter with food coloring and stacked about 7 different rainbow layers to make a rainbow cake. Recipe following isn't my strongest character trait, so I just stick with cake mixes sold in boxes. Coupons is my other excuse, which sometimes makes their cakes free!! I'd also like to add that there will probably never be an exciting new recipe with cute pictures to go with it on this blog. Betty Crocker and I get along just fine.

So the girls "birthday week" is over and they're another year older. I love to be able to take the time with the little details for their parties because for one reason, I have the time, and also because it's a little way I want to show how much I just love them. They're both special to me in their own way, and they're both fun to watch when they're hanging out together...especially when they do their random 5 second dance parties together! They'll probably have to "share" their birthday celebrations every other year or so, if not for convenience for the family, but because they want to...because sisters are forever!