6 by His Design: Last Birthday Post of the Year {I promise}

We let birthdays play on and on and on around here. At least it feels that way sometimes! My man and I went for a run/bike ride tonite and I took a very deep breath in and out, then said, "I am so happy this weekend is over!"

It's not that I don't love celebrating with my kids. And it really isn't that their parties even require too much work anymore. It's just...stressful. I don't know why. Probably the pressure of the time crunch more than anything, I suppose. Peppered with a nagging fear of the real potential for chaos (not a fan).

Yet, both evenings went off without a hitch - the boy's party Friday night and the girl's Saturday. All said and done, 10 hours allotted for each due to early morning prior engagements for us to fulfill (certainly adding their fair share to the over-all feeling of being crunched for time!!!).

Nevertheless, Tommy's version of a 10th birthday party, complete with Domino's bacon pizza and Pokemon cake, as requested:

I love the dimmed light, cake on fire photo look:

Actually, I think half the boys at the table breathed out heavily just to save Pikachu's li'l plastic nose from melting. And yes, I really did re-light the candles because they spontaneously blew them out too fast! (See the worried expression over there? What are you doing, Woman?! He'll burn! Oh the humanity! ;))

I consented to having the boys bring their DS game systems to the party. We let them play them during a portion of the evening ~ Tommy was super thrilled!!! And the boys were quiet and well-behaved all night.

I always love the 'whole room' shots...

We topped off the morning with pancakes with strawberries, chocolate chips and whipped cream, bacon, sausage, OJ and milk.

Yum!

We are seriously blessed to have these boys in our boy's life.

On to Pookie's party! Her friends arrived to pizza and cake, as well. But, Pooks is more of a fluffy and furry girl vs, lightning bolts and fighting Pikachus:

She insisted on Hello, Cupcake's pupcakes, just like Sashi had at her first birthday.

I even taught the girls how to make these li'l puppers themselves!

Again. Yum! ...And the obligatory dimmed light, candle lit photo, cuz I really do just love them:

OK, I actually didn't completely lose the Pikachu tail-burning phenomena, did I?

Pookie's wish was to watch Soul Surfer with her friends. She is a HUGE fan of that movie ~ we can't wait for A Dolphin Tail to come out later this month!

It was a classic slumber party, with girls up watching TV til way too late at night. Whereas all the boys were up and ready to eat in the wee early morning hours, these girls had to be called ~~twice~~ three times to their breakfast (of pancakes, chocolate chips, strawberries and whipped cream, bacon and sausage, OJ and milk ... ... it's down to a science, ladies.)