the winter birthdays

February and March brought a whirlwind of birthday parties. First up was Archie’s 4th birthday which was art-themed! Mae had fun painting a canvas and made a cute picture of a train.

I made Archie a doorway puppet theater for his birthday. I managed to sew it in just 3 days! It hangs from a tension rod and has dowel rods sewn in to support the “stage.” It’s the perfect way for Archie to show off the puppets he made with a kit from Aunt Kelsey!

Two weeks later, we were back to celebrate Lillian’s first birthday. It was animal-themed and each kid got to take home their very own Teenie Beanie, new in package. (Yes, the original ones from McDonald’s happy meals in the late ‘90s.) The weather was beautiful so we spent most of the party outside in the yard: Mae climbing the swing set and Colin eating cheese puffs. Lillian thoroughly enjoyed her birthday cake!

That evening, we had a nice adults-only dinner for Dad’s birthday. We deviated from his traditional Benihana birthday celebration... but only slightly since we ended up at a different hibachi place instead. The food was pretty similar to Benihana except all the meals came with noodles. When the chef told us, there was a unanimous cheer of "NOODLES!" from our table. I've never seen a group of adults so excited about noodles.

In between the birthday weekends, we managed to squeeze in a trip to the zoo to see the Penguin Parade. It was a little chilly, and I am definitely looking forward to some warmer zoo trips this spring and summer!