Birthday weekends

A little over a year ago, we were given a choice of birthdays for Theo, since he refused to flip over and had to be delivered by c-section.  They offered us July 8th as one of our options, but that is Sebastian’s birthday, so I vetoed it.  I don’t really care for sharing things like attention or birthdays or pints of Ben & Jerry’s, and it seemed safe to suppose that one or both of my biological children might feel the same way.

So we chose July 10th, knowing full well that while the boys don’t share an actual birthday, they would almost certainly be sharing birthday parties every year.  This year we decided to break it down like this:

The weekend before: The party with extended family
We headed up to B.C. on Canada Day planning to stay for the holiday weekend. Theo got sick and had to go home a day early, missing his first party.  Sebastian and I stayed to have his strawberry ice cream cake and balloons.

the design was a clue to his gift

July 8th, Sebastian’s birthday:  The outing

My sister and her kids came down, along with their Grampa, to celebrate with us.  We surprised the three boys with a Day Out with Thomas train ride!

train rides are really fun

July 9th, the day between:  The cakes

I had this crazy need to make Theo’s cake myself and make it cute because I did an adorable turtle cake for Sebastian’s first birthday, and heaven help me if my second child ever feels like I didn’t love him as much as his brother.  So I ordered these amazing puzzle cake sets from Wilton that are really silicon cupcake holders that come in different shapes.  When you put them together, they look like one big cake.  And they are rearrangeable if you want to do a different shape the following year!  Incredible, and SO easy.  I highly recommend them, and I was really pleased with how they turned out.  So were all of our taste testers (the two birthday boys and their cousin X)!

SP and his cousin decorating his train cake

Theo's bear cake

…and the cake on face pictures everyone wants to see…

I can't shove this cake in my mouth fast enough

Ahh...delicious.

July 10th, Theo’s birthday:  The presents

The boys got several things each from their relatives.  Typically Sebastian played with the gift (no matter which of them it was actually for) and Theo liked the box, wrapping paper, or plastic wrap.

The only disputed gift is the mini-kitchen. Sebastian’s main present was the outing, so we got Theo this little kitchen to play with, thinking Sebastian has his big one.  Well, I’m glad I snapped the picture below, because since then his brother has pretty much taken it over as his own.

I love to press buttons and flip switches

Mostly Sebastian likes the songs.  Today I overheard him singing, “La cocina…that’s the kitchen!  Where it’s fun to cook all day…”

If only he’d learn how to cook instead of just learning the Spanish word for kitchen, and this child could finally earn his keep.

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So we had a fabulous set of birthday weekends – despite Theo’s ill-timed cold – but breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday night when the boys went to bed.  It’s good to be back to our normal lives for a while!

Note: you can always click on the pictures to see the full size.  You know you want to see that cupcake-covered face up close!