Kelsey's Birthday

Kelsey's birthday was this past Sunday and as birthdays go, it was a pretty smooth one!  Kelsey wanted to handle a lot of the details herself, so with some help she and Stacy made all 48 cupcakes for her party and she made her own birthday cake.  It's funny...their birthday cakes used to be the big thing for me.  I tried hard to find a fun design that mirrored their interests and I had lots of fun making the cakes.  Let's face it though...Kelsey's been into horses for the last 4 years at least and I have made several different horse cakes and was pretty much out of ideas.  When she wanted to make her own cake I was a bit sad at first, but then realized it was probably for the best.  She'd be happy with it because she chose it and made it and I was off the creative hook.  Not to mention how proud she felt about having done it herself!  Those are two fox figures she borrowed from Stacy on her cake.

 Slightly out of focus, but a closer-up view...

We did the things we do on birthdays.  We opened presents...

This is her face for her present from Stacy.  Kelsey has the best present opening faces!  Stacy made her a felted wool buddy (inspired by this book) at school for her.  We Skyped./FaceTimed/called grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, and cousins...

Kelsey's birthday party was a board game party which turned out to be super-fun for people of all ages!  The dads spent the time playing game after game of ultra-competitive Jenga while kids played everything from Hungry Hungry Hippos to Cribbage.  It was one of my favorite birthday parties so far!

Kelsey got this amazing drawing from a community member who is volunteering at school teaching the kids art.  She is such a neat young lady and this is such a cool gift.  Right away Kelsey saw it and knew which moment from class had been drawn.  

After the party we had a smaller group of friends over for dinner.  The kids played and the grownups talked and played round after round of Apples to Apples.  I love that game!  We ended the night with (more) cake and ice cream.  After all, your birthday only comes around once a year!