The Birthday Parties

Every year around the boys’ birthday, I am struck by the amount of love and support we (and consequently the boys) have in our life. I am so thankful for our friends and family! Each year Sam and Seth are blessed with multiple parties, with many different people—all celebrating with us these joyful boys!

Our first party was with our Morris-side cousins. Their cousins Judah and Titus’ birthdays are also at the end of May so we usually do a combined party. This year we met at Sky High Sports and let the kids jump themselves tired on the trampolines. Seth and Sam had been asking to return there for a long time, and were thrilled to go with cousins!

The babies of the group: Selah and Josh

We had the boys’ party on the Saturday before their actual birthday. They chose a football theme solely based on the football party hats we found at the store. I had fun looking for ideas on Pinterest and then was thankful for my mom helping me implement them. We even made 2 gluten free cakes that tasted amazing (and I have been craving cake ever since—it had been over a year since I had cake!) It was fun to have a cake for each boy to blow out his own candles on.

My mom carved this: didn’t it turn out awesome!?

Dollar Tree table cloth and a little while paint…so easy fun!

A cake for each boy

Even Uncle Levi loved the party hats. And here’s Seth boy eating his nachos and fruit salad.

The kiddos: the Gowen’s, Wesley and Seth and Sam.

Josh had a rough evening, due to the fact that he had graced us with his presence at 5:45 am that morning. Thank goodness for Grandparents to hold him!

Sam was so intent on reading his cards.

Seahawks football helmets! (other gifts included swords, razor scooters, nerf guns, a Bible, and water guns. Later on their birthday Ben and I gave them the game Labyrinth, some new shoes, and a Dr. Seuss book each.)

The big 5 year olds (Sam, Seth)

Mike giving the boys their pre-game pep talk…it must have worked because they took Uncle Nate down

Seth, Sam

Logan running races with the boys; Mike and his girls

Ben and I and are 5 year old twins (Sam, Seth)

On their actual birthday, my mom was still in town, so she could watch Josh while Ben and I took just Seth and Sam out. It was nice to not be constrained by a babies nap/feeding schedule. The boys picked “fishing” as their outing, and Ben, who’s not the biggest fan of fishing, took it in stride. Ben and I didn’t last long at the pond as the bites were non-existent and the seaweed plentiful. It was fun to be with boys’ on a sunny afternoon, though. We ended our afternoon with ice cream for Seth and Sam.

Such a good daddy!

We love you Seth and Sam! Happy 5th birthday!

*A couple more notes that I didn’t include in their 5 year old summary:

-They are 44 inches and 40 lbs. They still weigh EXACTLY the same almost every time they weigh (which is almost every day)…even to the ounce. It’s crazy!

-They are such great helpers and hard workers! They love helping Ben and I, or our neighbors do yard work.

-They love singing, but have horrible voices. Today at church, they were singing very loudly, while trying to read the lyrics on the screen (which meant they were about 2 lines behind). The people in front of us kept cracking smiles, and commented to us after church on how sweet it was—I think they were being very gracious.