February is ALWAYS a crazy month for us. But never so crazy as it was in 2004 and 2006. It is hard to believe that 13yrs ago on the 5th of February Zander and Gavin were born… 10 weeks early and tiny little peanuts. Here we are, the parents of TEENAGERS! When did I blink and miss that one happening?
11yrs ago and at a much calmer pace we welcomed Emanuel into our family on February 3rd. He was my chubby eternally napping and happy baby. He still loves a good nap and has definitely thinned out! But still, where did the time go?
We have done the larger parties in the past, but this year we decided to go small. On the 3rd we had a mini celebration just for Emanuel. He got to open the small gifts from us, what Aunty Holly sent him from Canada, and any cards that came in the mail.
We had the dinner he requested – potato soup and dumplings, hung out together and had cupcakes for desert.
On the 5th we did the same for the twins. They chose sausage-strata. A breakfast casserole.
As an added gift we took the whole family to McDonald’s for breakfast after Sunday School. A very rare occurrence for this family of 7, eating out at a restaurant, fast food or no.
We also opened the bigger gifts which we the same for each of the boys.
Emanuel had an additional outing he requested – Aidan joined him and Ken to go see the new Lego Batman movie. And to go to McDonald’s for their appropriately themed Happy Meals. I am told it was all great amounts of fun.
And then after when Darcy and Andy came to get him we had MORE presents (so sweet) and hung out for a while.
Nothing hugely fancy, but I think we really felt like we celebrated properly. I love these 3 so much, watching them grow and change has been a great privilege, even with all the ups and downs.