Braden's Birthday Extravaganza!

Braden had a really great birthday. When he woke up, he crawled/bounced/wiggled into bed beside me and layed there for a bit until I fully woke up. (This is the normal routine by the way.) Then I sang happy birthday to him and we talked for a little bit until Zekers woke up and made it very clear that our presence was needed. For breakfast I made smiley face chocolate chip pancakes and I put a sparkler in his. He really liked that. Then the most important thing happened. He got to open up his first pair of skates, which he calls skaters. They have three wheels each and for the first stage there are two wheels on the back and one on the front. When he gets really good at it, we'll put the wheels in line like roller blades. Pretty neat skates.:) When he first tried to start skating, I was holding his hand and trying to help him balance. After a whole bunch of flopping around, he finally said, "Mom, I want to do it by myself." So, I let go and off he went just fine and dandy! He kind of shuffles around, but he's doing just great and I know it won't take him any time at all before he's all over the place!  Zekey was having fun, too.  He got this little truck for his birthday (we let him open it early about a week or two ago after getting permission from my mom:) and so he and Braden were both on wheels.

This year we did things a lot differently. Usually I ask him what theme he wants and give him a couple to choose from. This year he chose everything. First he said he wanted a Thomas-Dinosaur cake. Then he got to help pick out stickers for his scrapbook and help pick out the decorations for his cake. I decided that the easiest cake to make is a cookie cake and after over-cooking the first one, I had success the second time around. Most of the time when I make cakes, I really go all out and make everything from scratch and totally stress myself out. I'm telling on myself, I know, but this time, I bought ready made cookie dough, got decorator's icing in white and chocolate from Hobby Lobby, writing icing from Wal-Mart (which I will NOT use again because it was very runny as you can see from the pictures...yuck!), got a little dinosaur scene set from Michaels and used a Thomas train that was on Braden's cake last year! For the grass, I bought a little tip at Hobby Lobby that was specifically for making grass or hair. I totally rigged a piping bag from a ziploc bag, actually several cuz it kept popping out, to do it because I didn't want to buy a piping bag. I thought I could use my Pampered Chef icing decorator and that would be enough. Not so much... Even though I used to be a Pampered Chef consultant and I use and love a lot of their products, this is one that after repeated attempts to use it, I'm NOT loving it. I'd rather use a piping bag and tips. Much more user friendly! Okay, moving on.

We also kind of did everything late this year, too. Usually, I've got decorations, candles, presents, etc all bought and ready to go way in advance. We went to Target and let Braden pick out his present a couple of days before his birthday. That was a first, too. We looked at several things that he has pointed out or mentioned and it came down to a choice between Ratatouille the movie or the roller blade skates. Really it was no contest, he was all into the roller blade "skaters"! It was so funny because he just could not stop talking about his birthday skaters and was telling everyone we passed in the store about it. For the next couple of days he did the same thing to everyone he saw. (He's definitely NOT shy!) He also talked about his train/dinosaur cake, too. He was soooooo excited and asked everyday if it was his birthday yet. So funny...

On his birthday, the second successful cookie cake was made and then I piped all the icing into place and then Braden placed the dinosaurs and Thomas where he wanted them. After we finished, I gave him a paper plate and let him practice piping icing onto his "cake". He really had fun doing that and you can see his masterpiece below.:)

For dinner I asked him what he wanted and originally he said cereal. I was going to let him have that, but when Sam and I decided we wanted an all out breakfast for dinner, he wanted in on that instead! We had biscuits and gravy (Sam makes the gravy and he's so good at it...yummy!), hashed browns, fried eggs, lil' wieners and sausage patties. Mmmmmmmm...excuse my drooling.... Then Braden went outside to show Daddy how he can skate. We were all having a really good time together. Zekey really likes Braden's skates, too. He was trying to get a hold of them every chance he could get, much to Braden's chagrin! He'll be on some soon enough, I'm sure!

Then it was time for the cake. I put five candles on it, one to grow on, of course! I then decked it out with several sparklers. I'm a pyrotechnics expert in training:) We lit it all up and sang happy birthday as Braden tried to blow them all out. It was really fun. There was one sparkler that refused to give up and Braden was determined to see to it that it went out! We all then had some yummy cookie cake, including Zekers, who just started shoving it into his mouth squirrel style. Braden decided he wanted all the dinosaurs and Thomas to be on his piece. It got a little crowded.:) We really just had a great time and Braden really loved being the center of attention for the day. Zekers is up next on Sunday. I think it will be interesting. I'm also going to try and have a little party for both boys when we visit family in a little over a week. Get all the cousins together and have some icecream and cake and play til we all drop. Yay! Okay, as promised, here are pictures....