Velani turned 6 years old on April 25th. On the day of her birthday we (daddy, Mia, Adan and I) went to her school with some yummy, gluten-free-jello-poke-cupcakes she helped me bake the night before and sang to her. Her teacher was nice enough to let us stay for about 10 min. while she helped pass out the cupcakes, sing to her and eat them. All of the other parents would just send them, but I wanted this to be extra special for her and for me so I had to just do it! We also celebrated later that evening with her "big" friends for cake and ice cream and she got some presents from them, a really cool one from her "mom" and she even received some from her aunts all the way from Texas! That really made her one happy cookie!! On May 5th we threw her another party, because the weekend before that Jahvel had his PA olympic games, which they won, but this time with a few selected friends. We had a hard time deciding what to do because our place is little to fit everyone she wanted to invite from her school and there aren't really any nice parks around here with grills, some tables and shade so I remembered that on one of my birthdays my mom took some of my friends and I to celebrate at a restaurant (Planet Hollywood) and I thought why not do the same? I asked her and she agreed! She really wanted to go to Mc Donald's, but that wasn't going to happen! She finally decided on Chili's. Only 2 out of the 5 friends she invited went, but she had a good time. I was happy that she was happy. I baked her a gluten free brownie and we sang to her and then she opened her presents. I even made some goody bags for her little friends so it really did have that party feel! I can't believe she is now 6!! That girl needs to stop because I'm not quite ready for her to grow up any more. Love her so much, she is a very special girl and I think she's too mature for her age and she needs to chill a bit and enjoy her childhood.
Did you see the slices of cake she cut? and I didn't take pictures of the presents she got from all of her aunts, but thanks for the 3 wii games, scavenger hunt board game and the Mega mind movie.
Moving on....
Adan's birthday was on June 17th and he turned 1!!! Now that was a very fast year. My little boy is all grown up, sort of! He has been such a good boy and I love him so much! It's amazing how much they learn and accomplish in just a year. Since his birthday fell on Father's day we sort of had to also celebrate Jahvel, too, but the attention was still more on my little baby. I had to have dinner and decorations and take lots of pictures of him. We really missed throwing him a big party with all of the aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and great-grandparents, but because of this long distance it wasn't possible, but we know you were thinking of him on his special day! So we invited our close friends again. They have been great in just being there for us on these special days and we thank them a lot. We had hotdogs, chips, fruit, potato salad, drinks, cake and ice cream for dinner and dessert. He didn't know what was going on, but he sure did enjoy digging into his cake and getting all dirty! He doesn't know about gifts, but I enjoyed them, I looooove clothes...I mean he loves clothes :)
Mia turns 4 tomorrow, but we had to celebrate her birthday early because she wanted some of her friends to be there and because it's the summer many go on vacation. I invited some friends and their kids from church. I made some chicken fruit salad croissants for lunch with chips and fruit on the side. I also baked some gluten free BTS or pineapple coconut cupcakes (better name for kids) and a small cake for her, they turned out better than I expected especially the cake! The kids made a monster puppet craft and I read them a cute bug book, too. She opened her presents and had a really fun time. Who says you have to have lots and lots of friends and presents to actually enjoy a good birthday?! She was really happy and that's really what counts. My little Mia isn't so little anymore, but she's skinny and the way she talks still feels like she's my baby! I think we will do a little something for her again, but it'll just be us this time (update: we took her to a yogurt place and then to Barnes and Noble upon her request).
P.S. Now you know why we celebrated early! We would be on vacation and weren't going to be able to celebrate on her day. We loved spending time with my dad and in Dallas with the family.
