Growing Up

Jared and I are now the proud parents of a FOUR year old and a TWO year old.  That's odd to me.  I know it's a little cliche, but I really don't know where the time goes!  Even though it's hard for me to believe that much time has passed, going through pictures makes me realize that it's TRUE and also that I've neglected posting some of these milestones.  So here are the pictures from the recent birthday parties marking the passage of FOUR years for Gavin and TWO years for Jaynee.

Gavin wanted to have a dinosaur party.  His birthday invitation, although I can't find one to scan, said something to the effect of "Roar!  Gavin's turning four!"  We were blessed to have MANY family members from Hermiston come to celebrate with us.  Unfortunately, this must have been when the memory card out of my camera mysteriously vanished, so I only have video from that night.   Here are a couple of stills from the video...

The thought that came to my mind when looking at the video and seeing the sweet faces of my nieces and nephews was how MUCH Gavin loves his cousins.  It was really special to have so many of them there to celebrate with him.

 

Here's the video of the birthday cake.  Time was not on my side for this party, so cake decorating was limited.  Judging from Gavin's smile, he didn't seem to mind!  :)  Seeing his (thoroughly washed) toys on top of his cake cracked him up.

The theme for Jaynee's birthday takes a little more explanation.  Since Jared and Jaynee's birthdays are one week apart, we hosted family dinner at our house on the Sunday in between.  I was thinking about decorations that included a girl color with a more neutral color for Jared's sake and came up with pink and green.  Plus, I knew our menu consisted of summer-type barbecue foods, so I was sold on watermelon.  This was a "we're longing for warm weather" kind of party.

That's when the ideas started flowing.  If you know me, then you know that my ideas tend to come freely, but execution is usually sketchy.

Watermelon cake pops, complete with chocolate sprinkle "seeds".  Double dipped to look like a watermelon rind.

I realized that my visions of cake grandeur were not supported by the cake decorating supplies I had on hand.

Again, the chocolate sprinkle "seeds".  I promise, I will invest in piping materials (and learn how to use them!) before the next round of birthdays!

Jaynee loved her stack of quarters from Uncle Matt.  She LOVES finding change to put in her piggy bank for "cahwidge(college)".  Very thoughtful, Matty!

These last two pictures sum up the birthday girl perfectly.  She loved all of her presents, but all she wanted to do was pack them and repack them in the gift bags...over and over....different configurations, same cute result!

 

When the bags got too heavy, she resorted to pushing them around.

We Royers sure like to party!  :)