Sunday, December 14, 2008

Birthday, Please--Double Shot

Better late than never....here are the photos of Reuben's birthday!

This was the first year that we made a "do" out of Reuben's day--I guess because it was the first year he was really aware. His birthday is so close to Thanksgiving that we usually just celebrate with family that weekend instead. This year, he was emphatic that he wanted a Thomas cake and that he wanted to eat it with his friend Ella. We invited Ella and her family over for dinner and figured that was celebration enough (7 kids between the two families!).

I really really love making my boys' birthday cakes. This one was particularly fun.


It was mostly completed when Reuben woke up from his nap--of course he was thrilled to walk out of the bedroom and discover it, and kept saying, "that Thomas face is so funny, Mom, it's so FUNNY!" The cars are filled with black jelly beans ("coal"), green gummy frogs and candy legos. Of course.


After dinner we did something special: a Birthday Walk for our birthday boy. We lit a candle and placed it on the floor, to represent the sun. Then we put labels for each of the twelve months all around the sun in a circle, and asked Reuben to stand on the November label.

He got to hold a model of the earth that I had made out of playdough the day before. Justin talked briefly about the day he was born, then we had Reuben walk once around the sun, to represent his first year of life. He stopped on November, and Justin shared a little about his first year of life. We continued on in this fashion until he (and the earth) had made three complete circles around the sun.


The cutest part was that every time he would stop on his birthday month and listen to Justin talk about his toddler years, he kept trying to sneak a bite of the earth!








Happy 3rd birthday, Reuben, we love you!

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And Sean just celebrated his first birthday...with a STORE-bought cake (see how worried he is?),

a dinner of finger foods (in true one-year-old fashion) and a new rubber ball! Sean-boy, what a gift you have been to us this last blessed year! We love you and are so thankful for the chance every day to watch you grow and learn.

Dive in, little boy, welcome to toddlerhood!

8 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday to both of your boys! I love that birthday game you played. The Thomas cake is fabulous. And Sean's look of uncertainty about his cake is hilarious!

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  2. WOW!And you say you're not creative like Justin! My goodness the cake is awesome. :) All of you are creative in your own way and it's beautiful how it all comes together. What a great day. :)

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  3. Okay, I love the Birthday Walk! What a great idea, and an opportunity to bless your little man by sharing about his life. How cool. Hope you guys are surviving the arctic weather up north.

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  4. Absolutely love it! We've been talking lately about making birthdays a bigger deal as we seek to simplify Christmas and refocus. What an original and fun idea!!

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  5. Happy Birthday to both boys! I love the train cake! How you did that just during a naptime is beyond me! So great! I am also so amazed at your creativity about giving the visual of Ruebens 3 years, you guys are so creative! I am glad I can gleen from you! I love the excited look on Cole's face too! We see that look a lot around here now on Savannie! Lots of "Ooos" and "ohs" like that! Too cute!

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  6. Happy Birthday boys! :) Kim- the Thomas cake is delightful! You are way creative. What a cool idea about the earth-candle- talking about his birth and his little life. Awesome. Is Sean afraid of carrots? :) Love, Kristie

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  7. Kim, you are an amazing baker!! That Thomas cake is amazing! My 4-year old's birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year, so I know your dilemna. :-) The photo of your one-year old with his cake is hilarious. Glad to know you can do fancy AND simple. :-)

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  8. I *love* the birthday walk idea. How meaningful is that?! That Thomas cake is a masterpiece. :)

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