Capri and Sable's Birthday BASH

Phew.

For the last 2 weeks here in the Runyan household we have been deeply emerged in what I like to call "Birthday Mania", or "The Never-Ending Birthday", or "Party till you drop, literally".

Yup, in these last 2 weeks we celebrated both Capri's and Sable's birthdays. And in a fashion true to ourselves we started celebrating last Wednesday and didn't finish till Saturday night.

Here's the lowdown:

1. Wednesday the 6th we had Capri's "Family fun Day". This is where we take whoever is having a birthday to do something fun, get some food, and generally devote that day to the birthday boy or gal. Unfortunately, this year, Capri's birthday fell on a Sunday and Jeff was unable to get Saturday off so we had to do this on a day he did have off. So Wednesday was the day and we set off to pierce Capri's ears. This is something she has talked about nearly non-stop for about 8 months when she learned she could do it if she wanted to.

I had warned Capri about 1.7 million times that it WOULD hurt, and that if she didn't think she could handle it than she shouldn't do it. Turns out all those warning were a waste of breath because when they pierced her ears she didn't even flinch. Not a tear, not a grimace, nothing. Only jumps of joy and, "Mama, they are SOOO beautiful!!!"

BEFORE




AFTER










Here's the video (well, silent video) of her piercing. WARNING: If you are too squeamish to watch this (I am mostly addressing my father here), then you are a wimp.



After we had successfully put holes in our daughter's ears we headed over to one of our favorite dives, In A Tub. If you haven't ever eaten there then you are truly missing out (Mom, you know what I'm talking about here). It's a true KC experience. Try the meat and cheese tacos and the corn nuggets, seriously we LOVE it.

Later, after some much needed naps, we headed off to Air Zone. We'd never been there before but a friend wrote about it in her blog (Thank you Heather G.!) and it looked perfect for Capri's day. It turned out to be an AWESOME place and a great time. I even won a family pass in a drawing they were having. This is a little misleading, no we won't be getting in for free. But we will get a dollar off each admission every time we go for the next year! Woo hoo! I'm being a little sarcastic here because RIGHT before I won it I was telling Jeff how stupid it was. It costs $45 dollars and all you get is $1 off each kids admission for a year (adults are free). That means if you have one kid you'd have to go nearly every single week to actually save money. That or you'd have to have like 20 kids and go a couple of times. I'm not sure that second one is physically possible.

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2. Sunday was Capri's birthday but we had to go to church before we could do any actual birthdaying. Except Capri did open the present from Gramma and Papa so she could wear her gift to church. I have to say she was the prettiest girl in Primary. Unfortunately I forgot to get a pic of her actually wearing the dress, next time Mom!

When we got home we got straight to the good stuff, presents.

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Later, before Jeff had to head off to work we had dinner and cake.
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3. Thursday, Sable's family fun day. We just got a brand new Chuck E Cheese built right nearby, so we headed over there. The kids were more than a little excited. This is probably their third favorite place in the world. The first is Silver Dollar City, second is getting to fly to California to visit Gramma and Papa.
Between the tokens we had left over from our last visit to CEC and the 40 free tokens we got for Sable's and Capri's birthday, we managed to have a couple hours of totally free fun.
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Sable did NOT enjoy the rides. But she did really like walking around and the little carousel. Mostly she liked nearly electrocuting herself on all the plugs for the games and the red lollipop she got from the prize counter.

4. Friday, Jeff and I worked our tails off in our yard. After quite a bit of neglect it had started to turn into an actual jungle. We waged war on our front flower beds pulling out ten tons of weeds and grass and then putting in mulch. Jeff mowed the grass, which isn't actually grass so much as it is just weeds, all the grass was in the flower beds. Seriously, we're quite sure there isn't an actual blade of grass in our yard.
That night we all went out together for a family date night. We ate at a Chinese restuarant recommended by our good friends the Thorns. It was super yummy and Capri wowed us by trying yet another new thing, egg rolls. She LOVED them. Sable made a mess and we got to see the GITANTIC fish in the little tank that the Thorns told us about. You were right Mike and Anne, that thing is a monster! After dinner we headed to one of our favorite places, old Liberty for ice cream and a walk around the square. The kids love this and Sable gets to actually walk around now too. Or RUN around, that girl is fast. But she's still very prone to the effects of gravity and paid for it with her face. She got two major scratches on her forehead from a fall and looked quite a sight for her birthday the next day.
That night Jeff and I stayed up till about 3 in the morning decorating the house, wrapping presents, cleaning, and finishing up all the games for the BIG party the next day.

5. Saturday, the BIG party. This was a combination party for Capri and Sable. It was Capri's kid party and Sable's actual birthday party. Originally I had really wanted to do 2 separate parties but a few weeks back, when I started to plan them I started to feel like my head was going to explode. So I forced myself to pull back and settle on one party. Capri had decided on a theme, Strawberry Shortcake within a week of her last birthday and had held onto that desire unwavering for the last year. So it was a Strawberry Shortcake party, and it turned out pretty cute if I may say so myself. For the decorations, I DON'T have a color cartridge in my printer. This meant that I did a LOT of coloring!!
During the party we played good old fashioned party games - strawberry bean bag toss, stick the jewel on Strawberry Shortcake's crown, "Hot" strawberry, and had a stawberry book walk. There was strawberry cake, strawberry lemonade, and Capri and Sable wore Strawberry Shortcake hats.
(I want to thank my brother in law Justin for taking most, and the BEST, of the pictures during the party. He always ends up as our photographer and I am SOOOO grateful for his willingness to do so.) Sable wore the same dress that Capri wore for her first birthday and every time I'd catch a glimpse of her toddling around I could see little Capri. It was so bittersweet, but I held back the tears as I watched my two baby girls get one year older.
Among the organized chaos everybody seemed to have a swell time, and at the end Capri declared, "Mama, this was the BESTEST birthday party EVER!!" Mission accomplished.
Mom, that day I really did feel like "a Mom who bakes cakes".
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This has been a very long post, and if you've actually made it to this point I'm really proud of you.

I'll wrap up with this thought:
I have two girls.
A brown eyed girl and a blue eyed girl.
They are gorgeous in every way.
They make me smile, they make me laugh, they make me cry, they challenge me to be a better person and mother.
I feel blessed and oh so lucky to get to be their mom here on earth.

Happy Birthday Capri and Sable!!