Oliver’s birthday celebration started on Valentine’s Day – I made him pancakes for breakfast and he got to pick whatever he wanted for dinner. He said Pesto. I went to three grocery stores and they were all sold out of Basil. So he settled for the next best thing – plain homemade noodles! We made schnitzel for the rest of us to enjoy with our pasta and invited over our neighbor Ila Mae. She brought over little stuffed animals for each of the kids for Valentine’s Day and let Oliver pick first. He picked a fluffy yellow duck who now sleeps with him every night and sometimes I catch him reading stories to it.
We asked Oliver who he wanted to invite for his birthday party. He named his favorite friend – “Elora.”
“Who else, Oliver?”
“Marion. And James.”
“Any other friends?”
“Warren, Jane, Maddie, and McCrae and her brothers” (McCrae and her brothers are Maddie’s older siblings who were at his birthday dinner last year).
Marion had a grandma lego who she decided needed to ride on the cow. This is now her favorite lego combo.
McCrae and Clay built a really tall tower. We didn’t even need to dinosaurs to knock it over. I made dinosaur tails for all the kids to wear and they got to come wave their tails and knock over all the legos. My camera malfunctioned and I did not get ANY pictures of the dino tail waving. So sad, the tails are really cute. We may have to re-enact it just so I can get some pictures.
The kids ate lunch and then worked on making dinosaurs out of paper plates while I finished prepping the cake.
Here is how I decorated the cake. Oliver wanted a strawberry cake, so I tried out a new recipe (I have never made strawberry cake before!) and used whipped cream for the frosting.
Chris added some embellishments after I left the room.
I brought in the cake and the best part was that Oliver was helping sing the Happy Birthday song.
Here goes!
Yay! Oliver blew out all his candles. I love how happy Elora looks in this picture. She is so sweet.
And we just love Marion and how she licks off the frosting. How much she manages to eat I am not sure… I think most of it just goes on her face.
Time for presents! Oliver got some Junior Mints from Maddie which is perfect because he LOVES mint.
There is the happy pair again.
I love little kid parties because the kid giving the present always wants to help open the present. Jane very excitedly showed Oliver all the things she got for him. His favorite was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles coloring book.
Oliver knew what Elora was giving him because it was supposed to be his Christmas present – only we forgot about it and Oliver found it in the car. But we hid it and wrapped it for his birthday and he was more excited opening this present than any other present. She bought him another dinosaur egg, and look how happy she was to give it to him! I love these two kids, they crack me up.
Oliver opening his big new tractor and big rig set from mom and dad. He said, “Look a truck!” to which Maddie replied, “No, it’s a big rig!” I love country kids.
We went outside to have a dinosaur dig. Here is a cute picture of Jane who just found a dinosaur.
And Elora found a real bone. Nice. I didn’t even bury that treasure…
It was so fun watching all the kids. They would all crowd around each other when someone found a dinosaur.
We made them use paintbrushes to brush away the sand so they wouldn’t damage any fossils.
At the end all the kids got to pick out a few dinosaurs to take home.
Oliver also got a big digger to use in the sand. He calls it his tractor.
Here he is playing outside with his new big rig and tractor. Poor kid just had the stomach flu the week before and had to go to the ER for an IV, so he was really tired out by the end of the party. We love this little guy. He had a rough time being sick just before his birthday and it took him awhile to get his normal crazy energy back. He is our happy, always running, always pretending, dressing up, skiing, story reading, driving, package delivering little boy who brings a smile to my face every day. He loves to give hugs and kisses to everyone, and is the sort of boy who when you ask him which friends he wants to invite to his party, he names his dearest friends first – his siblings. We love you Oliver! I can’t believe how grown up you are already!
