Jeff’s birthday rainbow cake

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We made Jeff a great rainbow cake for his birthday a few weeks ago. Super fun to make, it turned out cute and tasted awesome. We had some good Chinese at Red Bowl that night too so I randomly took some photos of that. What can I say, I like pretty food.

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Hayley turns 12!

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As usual Hayley had many birthday celebrations – what can I say, we like to have fun. We had pizza with our neighbors on her actual birthday and then ice cream sundaes. Then Jeff’s folks came down and we went out with family to our favorite place Ginza that Saturday night and a cute cake that look like a horse pasture.

Then the next weekend we went to Frankie’s for her party with friends – go kart racing, bumper boats, video games, laser tag and the drop zone ride so many times I thought I’d puke just watching them. I have no idea how how they got back on that ride after dinner – and I mean a full dinner in the restaurant there and birthday cake.

We got a very cool cake done by Blue Moon Bakery to look like the book Eclipse, the third Twilight book and the next movie coming out in the series. The sides even looked like icing and spine of the book. Chocolate with chocolate mousse filling, so good. They do great work! The wait staff at Frankie’s begged us for pieces it looked so amazing.

The big surprise was we gave her a cell phone which she was dying for but we told her she wouldn’t get until middle school. She thought she was getting a flat screen TV for her game room (and she did get it later that weekend) but we faked her into thinking the TV was shipped here and she needed to open it. Of course it was a fake huge box full of peanuts with the cellphone hidden in it. It was so funny watching her dig through it and try to figure out what the heck was going on.

I had to put the video on youtube b/c it was too long for flickr:

Bless Jeff’s heart, he cleaned up all the peanuts for her and they were EVERYWHERE. All in all, it was a really fun birthday. I really didn’t take a ton of photos this time and I kept forgetting to at family stuff but there are more videos than normal though.

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Photos: Jeff’s birthday

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Jeff turned the big 4-0 on Thursday and he wished for a nice quiet night and dinner at home. So we made his favorite dinner and even made one of his favorite desserts creme brulee for dessert – I do love my culinary torch after all. I took Hayley to swim team practice so he even got some video game time.

We gave him several presents he wanted of books, games and movies but the big gift was a real ‘old man’ gift – a really cool pillow from the Sleep Number store. I suppose I shouldn’t tease him too much since I’m only 15 months behind him.

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Photos & Video: Hayley’s 11th Birthday Party

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I posted a few before but here are all sixty photos from the party!

Fhew, what a great birthday this turned out to be! Hayley had Emma, Kennedy and Mason over and they started with manicures and pedicures at Sweet and Sassy, the limo ride, dinner at Ginza, a Japanese steakhouse, then home for cake, Wii, movies and sleepover.

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Photos: Hayley’s Birthday Party

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A few early photos from the Birthday spa/limo/dinner/sleepover extravaganza Saturday.

After mani-pedis at Sweet And Sassy:

Getting in the limo outside of Sweet And Sassy:

Limo ride:

Dinner at Ginza (japanese steakhouse):

Playing Wii:

And then they went up to the playroom to watch Bolt until the week hours… I made waffles that morning and they played for video games and everyone headed home about mid-day.

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Photos: Hayley’s early surprise birthday treasure hunt

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Hayley wanted her own english cutback saddle for riding so her birthday seemed the perfect opportunity to get one. I’d asked her if that was what she really wanted since it was so expensive she wasn’t going to get a ton of other stuff and she completely agreed… but I wanted it to be special still so we decided to surprise her with the saddle on Easter weekend when Jeff’s family was here.

I meticulously crafted clues and designed them, planning out how to hide them through the house. Some clues she had to actually figure out the puzzle on it to get to the next step. One was backwards so you had to hold it up to a mirror. I was afraid see wouldn’t get them all and ran them by Jeff. In the end, Hayley did better than he did!

Mason and her family came over too and everyone watched them run from clue to clue trying to figure out how to solve the mystery. Eventually we ended up in the garage in my Jeep and there under a blanket was her new saddle. It was total surprise and she was over the top happy, thanking and hugging everyone. When I told her I had Coldstone ice cream cupcakes for everyone after, she even started tearing up she was just so excited by it all. I fretted so much about making this perfect and it turned out just as I hoped!

As soon as she was cleared by the doctor to get back on the horse, she was ready to try it out and already loves riding with it.

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Photo Gallery: Hayley at the SPCA

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As many of you know, Hayley had her friends give her donations for the SPCA instead of gifts for her 10th birthday party. They all had great fun getting gifts and we didn’t feel guilty about throwing a huge party again.

We got in touch with the volunteer education coordinator at our local SPCA in Raleigh and she gave us a personal tour of the facility when we dropped off our donations.

Lots of photos and notes from things she learned and wanted to share:

The new lovely SPCA center in Raleigh:

Hayley loved that the cats live in an open room with other cats and their own little cubbies:

A staff member’s husband made PVC pipe additions for the cats to have places to perch and roam:

Our SPCA doesn’t allow people to adopt animals they don’t intend of keeping outside all the time. They have an indoor/outdoor room to show the pets enjoying both:

Kitties:

The SPCA also has bunnies:

Microchip investigation:

Happy dogs with space to play:

Puppies:

We have lots of donations:

Oooo a certificate for Hayley!:

Other neat things she learned and remembered:

-Our SPCA loves to have people to come visit the animals because it helps them get ready to move to new homes.

-Our SPCA is a no-kill shelter, so the animals aren’t put to sleep.

-Our SPCA has a neat volunteer program for kids and parents.

-Our SPCA tries to keep most animals in group rooms because most people adopting from the SPCA have more than one pet.

-Our SPCA keeps kittens and puppies in more open cages because they are often young and new arrivals.

I’m so proud of her!

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Happy Birthday Jeff

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Jeff just keeps getting older while I stay forever 25, haha. His last birthday before the big 4-0. Enjoy 39 baby, old age awaits us both! Hopefully all of the rest of our birthday will turn out like this photo of us – those damn rowdy cupcakes!


You can click the image for the bigger sized one)

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Photo Gallery: Hayley’s birthday parties

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This might have been the longest party circuit ever! Cupcakes at school, big cookie at soccer, family party at home and then big party with friends at WiiBounce. WiiBounce is half flat screens and Wiis and half bouncy inflatables.

It was SO FUN. We didn’t take a ton of photos because we were having so much fun. The idea of having her friends bring pet items for the shelter instead of gifts was a huge success. Kids had fun getting them, parents didn’t have to worry about wrapping and getting the right stuff and we didn’t have to worry about unwrapping so the kids played longer. We’ll take all the stuff to the SCPA soon too!

The family party was fun too, she got her Wii and all sorts of goodies to go with it. Everyone joined in playing the Wii, even the grandparents!

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Birthday list for Hayley

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I’m posting this now since we’ve already had some questions about what to get for Hayley for her big 10th birthday. Also Hayley is having her friends bring special items for the animal shelter at her party – how cool is that! Feel free to help with that if you want.

Hayley is getting a Wii for her birthday (it is a surprise so please don’t spill the beans) and we’d love it if you all wanted to help get her some additional stuff for the Wii. Items range from $15 to $50.

You can use the links I have here or get the items elsewhere – they are available pretty much everywhere!

Also Hayley is asking all her friends to get gifts for the animal shelter instead of giving her gifts at her birthday party. If you want to get a few dog/cat toys to help her total, I know she’d love that.

The story behind this is that ASPCA commercial with Sarah Mclachlan singing? It kills me and it has been getting to Hayley and some of her friends too. She asked to give her allowance which was very cute and was upset over it. When the ASPCA stuff started up, we went their local website to look at it and they had a needs list. So … she and I decided to have her friends bring gifts for the ASPCA animals instead of gifts for her. I thought she might balk at the idea but she was through the roof excited about it.

She is always showered with gifts from family so she knows she going to get a ton anyway. She loves animals so much and it is a great chance for her to learn about helping others. She is so excited to get all the stuff and bring it to the shelter – I think that is what is making her the most excited. She’s told some of her friends and they are all excited about going to PetSmart to get dog and cat items – and especially the nursing bottles. I’m so happy her friends got on board with this, it made her happy. Have I mentioned how much I love this kid and I’m so proud of her?

So if you want to help … here is the list

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