Skylar's Birthday Shindig

I love celebrating stuff, especially birthdays. I always try to make my kid's birthdays a big deal because my kids are such a big deal to me. I usually go all out and spend a couple of months planning it. However, I've decided that for the sake of my sanity (and my patient husband's) that we need to limit the birthday parties to every other year. So, with Skylar's big 8 being next year, this was definitely a good time to skip the big party. This also worked out great seeing as I'd be a whopping huge 9 months pregnant at her birthday. So I explained this to Skylar, promising we'd still do something fun for her birthday and forego the party this year.

I guess Alexis didn't want to be left out of the celebration and decided to come before Skylar's birthday! So, although she was brand new, she was able to join us for Skylar's birthday shindig. It all started the Saturday before Skylar's birthday-Alexis was 1 week old. We headed up to SLC and went to the circus! Now, Ben & I are not big circus people and actually felt a little guilty taking our kids because of the whole treatment of the animals. I shouldn't condone this but Ringling Bros. & Barnum Bailey will actually give you a free ticket in the first 12 months of your baby's life that they can use anytime before they are twelve. I had signed up all my kids for this but we'd never used the tickets. The circus always comes on the weekend of Skylar's birthday but we'd been involved with other things. Anyway, this year, we promised her we'd go. So, even though we had a new baby, I was recovering from a c-section, and the circus is evil, we went. Our seats were totally in the nose-bleed section but the kids didn't seem to mind. Skylar and Nick loved the acrobats (Nick-because Robin was in the circus, of course), Ben and Kade loved the tigers, Alexis enjoyed the nap, and I thought the elephants were totally the coolest but saddest thing! We all had a pretty good time, celebrated Skylar's birthday, and Alexis' first outing!
Then, on Sunday, after church and naps, we headed up to the Alpine Loop. It was absolutely the very best day to go. The fall leaves were beautiful! I wish that I had enough energy to get out and walk around but we decided to just watch from the car. Later on that night I read that you're actually not supposed to ride in a car much after a c-section because of the seatbelt being right on your incision and such. I'm glad I didn't read that before because I'm sooo glad we didn't miss out on the Alpine Loop this year!
Skylar's actual birthday was on Monday. On Sunday night, the reality that she wasn't having a birthday party sunk in and needless to say, she was upset. So, we're suckers and told her that we'd let her actually invite one friend and their family over for cake and ice cream after dinner. So we went out to eat at Olive Garden and then came home and had our little "party" with Millie and her family. It wasn't much, but it was hopefully sufficient for Skylar. Of course, there were also presents-isn't that the best thing? Skylar really wanted Pancake Puffs this year. She has had the TV commercial memorized for months and it was on the top of her wish list. We have yet to try them out but she sure was excited to get them! She also wanted art stuff and Aladdin and Pocahontas "barbies". She lucked out and got it all. Hope you had a happy birthday Sky!!