Food, trucks, cake, more food and lots of family

Well, dang-it. I'm behind again. I'm sure this is not a real shocker to any of you. I am just now getting to uploading pictures and writing about our fun birthday weekend celebration two weekends ago. But it was so much fun I really can't skip over it, so I must write so that I can move on with life over here.

First of all, the kids were so excited for everyone to get here on Friday. They completely wore themselves out and were snuggling on the couch right before the first crew arrived.

Naturally, we started the weekend celebration with food. Pizza from Jockamo's - Yumm! And, like every other party we had way to much and finished the last few pieces yesterday (they were in the freezer so no one got sick eating it almost 2 weeks later).

The next day began with more food (of course) and a trip to the bowling alley (which involved beer and more food). I was super excited because for once I planned well enough and prepared enough ahead of time that I got to go too. I know you're probably thinking that since this was just a small family gathering there shouldn't have been a need for much planning or preparation but I tend to get excited about food and get a little carried away.

Of course this is an appropriate dress to wear when its 30 degrees in March, but she just had to  be fancy.

Birthday boys sharing a secret

Right before the big meltdown. We knew it would come since it was past nap time, but unfortunately someone forgot to bring a paci and it was quite a long ride home. Whoops!

I'm not really sure who won. I wasn't really paying attention to the scores and Brennan had pretty much given up halfway through the second game. But I think everyone had fun. And we all learned an important lesson. Don't leave the house close to nap time without a pacifier.

I believe this was supposed to be during quiet time, but someone started a game of balloon bellies.

And there was plenty of Mario action.

Finally, after we had all stuffed our faces, the boys got to open their presents. Bren's were a little more interesting than Tate's. Here he is opening his tunnel with a little help. I'm not sure who was more excited, Kaelyn to give it to him (she talked about it at least once a day the entire week) or Brennan.

He really loved all of his presents and has been playing with them all pretty regularly. So I guess everyone did a good job. And no huge new toys taking up lots of space in the house, so Mama's happy too! :)

And then there was cake! I cheated a little and just made one cake into two smaller cakes so each of the boys could have their own. Two full cakes would have been way too much anyway.

Gracious! I can't believe this boy is 14! I still think of him when he was Bren's age. I think he might stay 2 in my mind forever.

And I went for an easier version of the dump truck cake I made for Kaelyn on her 2nd birthday. This one just involved smearing peanut butter filling on chunks of cake, plopping on the back of the truck and pouring chocolate ganache over the top. Oh, man. My mouth is water looking at these pictures.

And I was able to make him his own little personal dump truck.

Say "cheese!"

Brennan's favorite present might be a new pair of pajamas. Yes, I actually think he gets more excited about these Superman pajamas than any of the toys. He calls himself "Super-Brennie" and points repeatedly to the "S." He wanted to wear them the very next night and has worn them immediately the night after they get washed ever since. Which means Kaelyn has been wearing her Supergirl pajamas a lot and they've been jumping off the couch before bed. Bren must have been too fast to get a good shot, but Kaelyn actually slowed down a minute to pose for me.

Luckily for us, Nana, Pop and Care-Care were able to stay a little bit longer and celebrate with us on his real birthday. And, thankfully they got him some of his own tools so he won't try to pick up the real hammer any more when we're doing projects around the house. I was pretty sure we were eventually going to end up with (another) hole in the wall.

Since it has been six months since we went for K's birthday, we figured another trip to the Columbus Commons was in order.

Bren ventured up the climbing apparatus this time. Though he was more hesitant than we expected with his monkey tendencies.

Luckily he had some help from his big sister,

and Dada.

Somebody wasn't quite ready to leave when it was time and had to practically be pried off his spinny thing. I had learned my lesson and packed a paci this time, but luckily we got out of there without having to use it.

It wasn't nice enough to take the kids golfing, but we did manage to swing by Dick's later on the way to dinner for some green time.

Birthday dinner at Red Robin! Yummm!

I'm not really sure why neither of them could manage a normal smile here.

What's a birthday without a second round of cake? I think he was having a hard time waiting to dig in this time.

We are so glad that (almost) all of our family was able to come from far away to celebrate with us. The kids really love having everyone here and so do we. We are so fortunate to have family who are willing to travel to see us and we hope that we'll always get to be with family for special occasions.

By the way, I didn't count but I think there are at least 30 pictures in this post. That's not too many, is it? Do you think I should add more? (Cause I definitely could.)