The Bunch Start Birthday Season

It's true. Virtually every family member both immediate and extended celebrate their birthday from August until just before Christmas.  In our household, three of us celebrate our birthdays in 10 days, which makes it easier just to take a week off school; it starts with my birthday.

My kids, especially my youngest daughter, are so sweet about making a big deal for your birthday. I will really miss it when she out grows this. She literally spent hours making birthday signs for me and decorating after I retire for the evening the night before the big day.

My view when I first open my door.

I follow the arrows through the living room

to the kitchen.

Passing several decorations on the way.

We had lunch at the Mexican restaurant and yes they told them it was my birthday!

Yummy lemon cake.

She totally gets me!

He is so sweet to make me a card; he never likes to do stuff like that.

She was sweet to do all the decorating.

Four days after my birthday, our relatives from NE came for a visit. We usually only see them once a year and because of saving vacation time for our big trip next fall we weren't going to get to visit this summer. It was really great to them and their son even chose to stay with us (we invited everyone to stay here, but our aunt and uncle understandably decided they wanted some quiet time in more comfortable quarters). It is a long drive and they only had a couple of days so we kept it pretty low key and just took the kids to the trampoline park and ate out a couple of times and basically just chilled at the house catching up. We also threw the kids a joint bday get together and had everyone come over so our NE family could see everyone in one place and we usually throw a Labor Day birthday party cook out since 2 of our kids have bdays that week.

We had a blast at the trampoline park...next time Nerf Battlefield.

Hard Eight in Roanoke...a little weird with the ordering process but excellent food.

I don't think you will EVER stop seeing your kids as your babies, even when they are almost 25!

They had a fun party.

His brother got him the whole Lemony Snickets series. He was so excited.

She has wanted an instant camera for awhile, but at a $1 per picture she had better use it wisely.

T had a Pokémon chocolate chip cookie cake and A made a cappuccino that she made 100% by herself. L made T's cake. 

My husband brought me flowers for no reason other than to make me happy......or maybe for "I'm sorry for what I said while working on the camper"

Unfortunately about 3 hours after our NE guests left and on T's official birthday, T became violently ill and threw up about every hour or so. It was a horrible horrible birthday. It is now 3 days later and he is still sick, but doing better than he was. He still can't eat "real" food as he found out last night when unbeknownst to me he gobbled up mac and cheese. I don't think he will ever do that again. So far he is the only one who is sick and I think he just had too big of weekend. We stayed up late each night, ate out a few times, and ate richer food than we are used to. I think it just overwhelmed his little body. He never had any other symptoms other than stomach issues. He received ALL the Lion King movies for his birthday so he has been watching them , twice and my daughter received the Duck Dynasty seasons and we have completed 2 seasons of that as well.  I hope he is about done being sick. I can't take much more tv.

Happy Birthday Little Guy! We will make it up next week and go eat out at the steak house with the slide.

While getting chicken food at the farm store, I have to pass the clearance rack to check out. This week they had zero gravity camping chairs on clearance for $25 each. I have wanted these chairs forever, but never wanted to pay the $60 or so price tag. I picked up two and figured D and I could have some good chairs and the kids could fend for themselves. However, when the cashier rang up my find I found out it was 50% off lowest ticketed price. My chairs were only $12.50 each! I did what anyone in my position would do...went back and got 3 more. I am not sure where we will put them to go camping with because they are pretty bulky, but these chairs are awesome. In fact, the kids have been setting them up in the living room just to watch tv in. This is a trend that will not be staying long. I am not country enough yet to have lawn furniture in my living room permanently.