Naomi's Princess Tea Party-2011

Naomi is SIX!

I can hardly believe it!
'Round these parts, that means it's time for Naomi's annual Birthday Princess Tea Party!
We had so much fun decorating and baking together this year!
All the Princesses and handsome brothers came to celebrate Naomi with us!

I just love hitting the after Christmas sales and stocking up for next year's tea party!

This year, we added those cute little snowmen!!!
Isn't our Birthday girl just gorgeous?!

I can hardly believe it!
In ten short years, this little lady will be DRIVING!!!

OH! Be still my heart!

Daddy brought out the fun with his wintry games!

The kids had to put on as many layers of warmth as they could when the music was playing.

As most "Young Life style" games go, we got a little outta control.

...and we momentarily lost the Birthday Girl.

True to form, every party needs a "pooper." Ours apparently needed three. (wink, wink) Sweet little Ellie declared, "I don't want to play this game." Hey. The girl knows what she wants. She came for a Princess Tea, and last she checked, PRINCESSES do NOT roll around the ground in snow gear!

We played "Pin the stuff on the Snowman."

We had fun making Christmas ornaments for the kids to take home!

While we were busy making ornaments, "The Little Redhead" was busy sneaking candy.

Then we all settled in for tea! 'Til next year, Princesses and Manly Men! Thank you for coming to celebrate Naomi with us!!!

TATE IS EIGHT!!!

Tate is eight!
For his birthday, Daddy gave him a BB Gun!
(Naomi's face is probably mimicking my own first reaction to giving him a gun, but I'm over it)
He learned how to shoot at Boy Scout Camp over the summer.

Everyone in my family loves Spongebob...much to my demise.
So, I laid my hatred for the poor sponge aside for one day and went nuts!

Then, the kids slid down the biggest, longest, steepest homemade slip-n-slide I have EVER seen!
(our backyard is STEEP!)
I underestimated how fast the kids would be going.
We clocked them coming to a grinding/flying/flailing/tumbling hault at about 30mph.
(joke)
(sort of)
This thing was probably about 70 feet long.
Now I know why slip-n-slide puts a disclaimer on their directions that you should not assemble the slide on a hill.
...and remember how slip-n-slides used to be WAY longer when WE were kids?!!
We went retro.
We live on the edge.
At Tate's party, we almost died on the edge.
That's how we roll.

Here's the birthday boy taking the first slide of the day!
(I thought about sending someone else's kid down first so the birthday boy did not die on his birthday, but thought that was not the best neighborly choice.)

...and sister cautiously slid down, too.
(note: You cannot actually see the top of the slide here. There's another 20+ feet up there.)
(note 2: No fancy camera tactics were used in the making of these pictures! This is the actual hill)

Happy Birthday, Tate!
We love you!
We are proud of you!
(I promise we were not trying to injure you OR your friends at your party.)

Disclaimer: If you try this at home and are injured, you did NOT see this idea here first!

Tate's 6th birthday party!

We celebrated this year at Cluggy's (which, both the kids called Clubby's) We had a blast in the batting cages and playing mini golf! A pretty easy party for mom after our big trip to Disney!

Tate, Nathan, and Jake wait their turn in the cages!

(Don't they just look like they're about to destroy the ball?)

Tate did really well in the cages!

Tate and Devin playing minigolf

Naomi's presents

Naomi's friends brought her all the Disney princess stuff a girl could want!

Check her out with her new fairy wings, her Cinderella costume!

She's also wearing her very first cross necklace from Mommy and Daddy!

Naomi's 3rd birthday!

We had a birthday tea party for Naomi's THIRD birthday today!

Mommy and Naomi baked the cupcakes yesterday!

We brought Naomi's tree down from her room and she was FINALLY able to wear her cupcake shirt and tea party skirt that we bought two weeks ago!
Naomi even blew out all three of her candles by herself this year!

It worked when she got a little closer to the cupcakes!

Seems just yesterday we were listening to Christmas carols in the delivery room!

We love our sweet baby sister!

Tate is FIVE!

We celebrated Tate's 5th birthday last weekend at an amusement center in Greencastle, PA with our friends and family! We even had a DQ ice cream cake with Hot Wheels on it!

Tate got a guitar for his birthday!

Tate's first time behind the wheel! He was a fantastic driver!

Daddy took Naomi out for a spin!

Grammy and Gramps gave Tate a red beanbag chair for his birthday! He loves it, but we almost had to pry it out of Naomi's hands!

Naomi is TWO!

Naomi thinks hard about her wish...

Although it looks like Mommy needs to take a cake decorating class, we thought the inside of the cake looked very pretty!

Naomi turns ONE!!!

She's one now and running like crazy trying to keep up with big brother, "Tayta." Her other hobby is opening up the dishwasher and climbing in. She loves helping mommy with the dishes, "Dish." She also loves, "Fish," but we think that's just because it rhymes with, "Dish." She loved her birthday cake this year and totally dug in!

Then came her sugar rush...

Then she threw her cake on the floor. Mommy thought she was thinking ahead by putting the plastic bag on the ground, but slightly underestimated Naomi's "cake radius." The good news is that there was a whole other cake for everyone!!!

TATE IS 3!!!

We celebrated Tate's 3rd birthday with friends and family at Baker Park in Frederick. Tate wanted a Ball Birthday, of course, so we celebrated with a Baseball Pinata and cake. We fed the ducks and blew bubbles! At the end of the day, Tate had a GREAT birthday. When I tucked him in that night, he looked completely and totally satisfied...it was a great day!