California Dreamin'

To celebrate my dad’s 60^th birthday, the family came together in California in July for a week of fun.  My dad rented a big, beautiful home in La Jolla, and we spent a fabulous week together.

The weather wasn’t as warm as we'd hoped, but we had a few afternoons of sunshine when we were able to hit the beach and the pool.  We also explored the tide pools, visited the San Diego Safari Park, and went to a great park downtown.  Honestly, it doesn’t matter what we do; we always have an awesome time when we are all together.

It is so fun to see all of our kiddos playing together.  They are good little buddies, and I especially love how much Noah adores Callum.  Cal is a pretty remarkable little boy (kind, curious, creative, independent), and I couldn’t think of anyone better for my son to look up to.  I hope he follows Callum’s example forever, and I hope as the rest of the cousins get older, they will all love, support, lead, and help each other. 

Since it’s a rare occasion for us to be all in one place at the same time, we also had some professional photos taken on the beach, and amazingly, they turned out pretty good.  You just never know how things will go with that many little kiddos!

After the photos were done,  Noah stripped off his pants and waded into the ocean and Ryan and Sally checked out the seagulls overhead.  I love moments like this: being on the beach at dusk with my family, the sound of the waves lapping on the shore, the wind whipping through my hair, my son's maniacal giggles as he raced the surf...perfection.

My favorite photo of all is my dad with his five grandkids.  I love it because the joy is so obvious on his face; he looks so happy to be surrounded by his little people.

My dad has endured some tough trials in his life—his wife fought breast cancer for 13 years, he lost her at age 48, and he has been a widowerer ever since—but he never ceases to amaze me with his gratitude and optimism.  He is truly grateful for all of the abundance in his life, I think particularly for his children and grandchildren.  During one of our nightly family devotionals in San Diego, my dad quoted a favorite scripture from Isaiah: “Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things.”  He said this is one of the mottos because he has been so richly blessed, and he thanks the Lord daily for all of the excellent things in his life.

I wish that my mom were physically by my dad’s side in that photo of him with his grandchildren, but I know, without a doubt, that she is amazingly proud of him and the way that he has carried on without her.  And I have a feeling that she is by his side more often than we realize, observing the chaos and fun of our growing clan.  

I love my family, and I love the opportunities that I have to spend time with them.  I am grateful to my dad for making trips like this reunion in La Jolla possible, so that we can grow closer and continue to cherish each other.  

Sally's Birthday Luncheon

On Sally's actual birthday, we took her out to breakfast for chocolate chip pancakes and let her pig out.  For her party a few days later, we thought we'd do something a bit more refined for our little lady. ;)  We ended up hosting an afternoon luncheon out on the lawn.  Quite fit for a princess, I'd say.

We didn't intend for it to be a mostly-girls party, but when Grandpa had to stay behind to help his aging father and Uncle Nate couldn't come, our guests ended up being Grandma, Aunt Ashley, Cousins Kate and Lucy, and my good friend Taryn and her three daughters.  I hope Noah and Ryan didn't mind all that female company!

We had a yummy lunch under the trees, and then we all watched Sally smash her birthday cake.  She could hardly wait to dig in!

Mmm, I think I want that. 

Come on, Dad, let me at it!

This cake was another team effort!  I baked the cakes; my mother-in-law frosted them.  Didn't she do a great job??  My kids are so lucky to have domestically-gifted and creative grandmas and aunts.  I don't know if Little Sally cared much what the cake looked like, but she sure seemed to enjoy it!  I will never forget how she grabbed fistfuls of frosting and smacked her lips appreciatively while she dug in.  Sweetest sweetest girl.

After cake, we did presents, and Sally was so patient with all of the kids swarming her and grabbing the gifts.  Everyone was so excited about her new toys, especially the princess car from Grandma and the water table from Bapa, and it wasn't until after the party that she was able to actually enjoy them on her own.

The highlight of the party for me was showing our guests the video that I put together of Sally's first year.  I compiled some of my favorite photos and video clips, picked out a few special songs, and spent several hours putting it together in iMovie.  I made a similar video for Noah when he turned one, and this is a tradition that is worth the effort to me.  I am a sentimental sap, and I love the way that both videos turned out.  (If you're interested, you can watch Sally's video here and Noah's video here.)

We borrowed our friend's projector again and created "Cinema Sally" in Noah's room to watch the slideshow.  Even though a few of the kids were super crazy and jumping around during the film (eh hem, Noah and Kate!), it was a special way to end Sally's celebration of one year of life.

I love our sweet Sally Grace.  She has brought us so much joy this year and I know she will continue to in the years to come!  I feel beyond blessed to be her mama, and I'm so glad I was able to host a little luncheon in her honor.

Noah's Minion Mayhem

It's birthday season in the Nielson household, and this year, Noah got a real, all-out, invite-friends birthday party--his first ever.  He loved it.

We chose "minions" as the theme for his party because Noah thinks they are simply hilarious.  My sister who is a craft blogger directed me to a few great ideas online, Noah's birthmom who is a cake decorator sent me a photo and instructions for the cake, and then Ryan and I put our heads together and came up with a few additional activities. It was actually quite fun to put it all together.

When guests arrived, we let them watch a few short minion clips which we projected onto Noah's wall because we don't have a TV.  The bedroom cinema was a hit, and it gave the grown ups a few more minutes to scramble and finish up party preparations.  (Eh hem, it's possible that the cake was still being decorated in the kitchen.)

After the movie, we made some minion hats.  It was absurdly chaotic with all of those little hands attempting to make their own hat, but the grown-ups all jumped in to help, and the hats turned out so cute!  This was one of those ideas that came from the miraculous internet (here).

Noah and his minions

Tiniest minion of all

Cutest cousin Kate!

Then it was time for the obstacle course, which was an extremely random assortment of tasks created by Ryan.  He masterminded the whole thing, which included going into a minion transformer, spinning in a twirly chair, climbing through a tunnel, zooming out of Gru's laboratory on a firetruck, rescuing a minion from a hammock full of stuffed animals, throwing balls at a giant Lego head popping in and out of a window (yeah, no idea what this has to do with minions, but the kids were beyond thrilled to do it), and grabbing a banana out of a tree.  It was so cute to see Ryan explain it all to the kiddos--I love it when he gets silly.

Evil Lego head?

Just look at the delight in their eyes

Noah even got to take a turn as the Lego head

After the obstacle course, it was time for the piñata, which Noah and his minions smashed to smithereens after a good ten-minutes of whacks.

And then, we admired and devoured the cake.

A word about that masterpiece cake.  I would never, not in a million years, attempt such a cake if I didn't have a team of people to do it with me.  I would make a boxed brownie mix like I did last year.  But when I have Katie, Ryan, and my mother-in-law to help me, it is somehow possible to create these magical cakes for Noah, and I feel like it's a special thing that connects him to his birthmom, which makes the extra effort worth it.  I baked the cakes (four round pans and a glass bowl), Sally frosted it with yellow buttercream (my mother-in-law, not the baby), and Ryan made the fondant details.  Victory!

He looks quite amazed with the final product.  

 

And then, the party was over.  Phew!  After all the kids left, we headed to the movie theater with the family to see an afternoon showing of "Minions," of course.  I did not go because someone needed to stay behind with the napping babies, and to be honest, I needed a couple of hours to recover after all that minion mayhem.

As soon as the movie-goers returned, we were back at it with pizza and gifts.  We didn't do any presents at the party because Noah just gets really overstimulated and turns into a me-me-me monster (don't all little kids?), but he got plenty spoiled by family that evening.  Ridiculously spoiled, as a matter of fact!

Katie and Drew gave him a set of rescue vehicles that he is obsessed with.

His birth grandparents gave him a darling firefighter costume, which he insisted on wearing immediately.

Grandma and Grandpa gave him a set of Rescue Bots which he had been wanting ever since learning about them from his hero, Cousin Callum.  

Bapa gave him the world's biggest set of Magformers--as big as he is! These are such a great toy and provide hours of fun!

Mom and Dad didn't give him any gifts at the party but instead gave him a new book to open each night of week leading up to his birthday.  I love this tradition, and I love these amazing Usborne books that we've discovered since my sister became a consultant.  Their non-fiction books are truly amazing, and he loves this one called The Big Book of Big Sea Creatures.  

We ended the day with a little quiet time with Katie and Drew, who stayed for a couple of hours after everyone else had left. We ate leftover cake in the backyard at dusk, and then we let go of Noah's birthday balloons one by one, making special wishes for his coming year.  Noah loves this tradition.

I love that we get to spend time with Katie and Drew around Noah's birthday every year--it's such a special reminder of that night four years ago when we were all together in the delivery room as Noah came into the world.  Adoption is such a miracle, and so is our little Noah boy.

All in all, it was a perfect day for a perfect boy.  I felt so blessed to not only have some of his little friends participate in the fun, but also to have our family members from Pocatello drive to be there (two weekends in a row, thanks to Sally's party the Saturday before!) and his birthparents from Utah drive to be there.  So many people love Noah, and it's easy to see why.  He is hilarious, spunky, smart, energetic, a tad wild, and truly one-of-a-kind.  I'm so glad we could spend a day celebrating him.