despicable 7!

For Andrew's birthday party with friends we decided to check out the bowling alley in town- and it turned out to be so much fun and a great place to have a party!  This year we decided to stick with a few new friends from Andrew's class and family.  Our big present to Andrew is a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge with his cousins and so I couldn't go over the top with his party this year.  It was so simple and fun!

The awesome cake was made by my mom's friend- a teacher she works with.  I am so blessed I have found her to do my kids cakes, because she is the BEST!  And has the biggest heart.  She loves Andrew and has followed his story from day one and has always been a big supporter!  (By the way I experimented with Photoshop on this picture and it's not my favorite but the background was horrible so I wanted to block it all out!  Ha!)

We had to incorporate the evil minions somehow.  Andrew first had told me he liked the yellow ones best so that was what I made his banner and most of the decorations with.  Then the day before his party he said "Mom, we are having purple minion decorations, too, right???"  Ha!  

Luckily I had decided to incorporate them with the cake!

We rented a party room at the bowling alley and it was perfect!  The kids all had a great time.

Little Miss was stylin in her minion shirt and sparkly hat and tutu!  We had to dress up the minion shirt somehow!

Aren't they desipicable!?  Ha!

Andrew got a lot of nice gifts- this year was a "Lego" movie year!  Lots of books and stuff from the Lego movie.  We haven't seen it yet but hope to soon!

Kerigan and her big cousin Evi!

Best buddies and cousins!  I say this all the time but our kids are so blessed to have special cousins at similar ages to grow up with.  Most of them live several hours away, but Evi and Jayden are close so we get to see them a lot, and Andrew and Jayden are just the best of friends!

A little girl and her Ga Ga

He wanted to hold up 7 fingers every time I took his picture this year!

I could almost tear up about the sweet little boys Andrew has become friends with in his class.  All our adult family at the party commented on what nice, respectful boys they were.  They were so polite and I am just so grateful that this move worked out so well for all of us.  I was so worried about Andrew making new friends, and he is now surrounded by them.  Bless their hearts for accepting him and including him in their friendships- he is obviously so happy.

Lining up for round 2!

This sweet girl loved bowling for the first time!

She even knocked some pins over (thank goodness for the bumpers!)  Ha!

Luckily she had her daddy to help her... I love this look of anticipation to see how many pins will fall over!

My little man!

At this point, the little bowler was worn out.  We found her "pouting" back in the party room, ha!  So Ga Ga took her back home so we didn't get a picture of the birthday boy with Ga Ga and Papa or a family picture of all of us!

By this point Andrew's face says "stop taking pictures and let me go play!"  Ha!

Andrew was so happy Grandpa and Grandma could make it to his party, too!

This family is so special to us!  Thanks for coming Uncle Jay, Aunt Rachel and Evi & Jayden!  It meant the world to Andrew to have you there- we just couldn't have the party without you guys (according to Andrew)!

All of Andrew's new buddies (minus a couple more we invited that couldn't make it) and his cousins!  We also loved having our neighbor Jackson, who is also at Andrew's school in Kindergarten.  He is such a sweet little boy too and we are so blessed to have him in the neighborhood.  Andrew loved attending his birthday party last month!

We had to get a family picture back home since Kerigan had left the party a little early!

I'm not sure who caught on to the fact that Mama was a yellow minion and daddy was a purple "evil" minion- Ha!  Andrew thought it was funny!

The bowling alley gave him this real pin (it's heavy!) for all his little friends to sign!  He thought it was the best thing ever and has been hugging it ever since.  What a special token from a perfect day!

Happy "Despicable" 7th birthday, Andrew!

We love you!

Andrew's 7th birthday

I just can't believe my little man is 7 years old!  I can remember so vividly the early morning hours he was born on January 30, six weeks ahead of schedule.  This threw a bit of a wrench in my plans, as my Type A personality still needed time to prepare.  God sent Andrew that day, to teach us all about life, and love and most importantly, to trust Him.

Seven years later Andrew is still teaching us.  He has taught me how to live and enjoy one day at a time, which I never thought was possible.  He woke up on his birthday morning to a surprise!  His Elf, Buddy had come back and made his favorite chocolate chip muffins!  He got to eat on the "special" plate.

I have to admit, I thought this idea was cute in theory!  But actually carrying out what the book says is a little more than I can handle, especially while trying to also decorate, wrap presents and plan a party during this time!  The elf is supposed to get an invitation to his party (we leave one out for him), and then he comes wearing this outfit and decorates a chair for the birthday child.  I am not a fan of this idea, as I just don't have time to add that to my list of things to do.  So I sort of skipped a few pages and adapted it to work for us, and Andrew didn't know the difference.

He loved the banner I made for him.  I usually make a poster for him every year but did a banner for Kerigan last year and loved it so wanted to try it for Andrew and I think it turned out so cute!  I like the kids to have something special that I made for their birthdays each year with their theme.

"despicable!"

Andrew had wanted Skylanders for his theme this year, but I couldn't find any party supplies with the new Swap Force characters.  I was going to just adapt again like I tend to end up doing every year, but I found a super fun idea for a video game party that we have to put on hold until next year because of a surprise (and pricey!) birthday gift we had already planned for Andrew this year.  So I talked him into waiting on Skylanders until next year and choosing a different theme for this year, which he had no trouble doing!  He loves Despicable Me!

Little sister had to join the photo shoot!

She wanted to dress up for Bubba's birthday!

I had seen these on Pinterest and thought about making them, but I have to admit I was nervous to do it!  But I was so thrilled that we can bring home made treats to Andrew's school (this is unheard of most places!) that I decided to try it.  I made 48 of these!  And yes, they were as hard as they look!  Ha!

Before his class party at school I picked him up for lunch at his favorite place- Subway (I know, despite all that's being said about Subway these days... we still have to eat there!)  

He pretty much could not have been happier that daddy came to surprise him and have lunch with us.  It made his whole day!

After lunch, I dropped him off at school and went back home to put the finishing touches on the minions.  When I walked in the classroom with them, all the kids could see through the container and they all shouted "minions!"  Then they all started saying "Bee doh bee doh!"  Ha!  It was so funny.  Andrew was so proud.

I am so blessed this year to be able to do things like this.  I keep savoring every single moment of staying home this year, because I know how precious the opportunity is.  Nothing makes me happier than getting to take my son out for lunch, or stop by his classroom to make him feel special.  

The kids were rocking the blue frosting!  Ha!

 Everyone had a great time.  Andrew was so cute and serious.  While the kids were running up to me, wanting to see the cupcakes and talk to me about them, Andrew just stayed in his seat and was waiting for directions.  I couldn't believe he wasn't one that was off task- Ha!  

This is one of those moments I won't forget.  I was soaking in every single minute.

Later that night Ga Ga and Papa came over to celebrate with us.  We always love going out to eat to celebrate but I knew Andrew wouldn't want to.  He is a homebody (like his daddy!) and never wants to leave the house once he's home.  So I made his favorite meal, spaghetti.  And he was as thrilled as could be.  We all ate in the special dining room and Andrew thought it was so cool!

After dinner he opened presents.  He was so excited about everything he got.

Someone else?  Notsomuch.  Ha!  This is reality!  She kept wanting to touch his presents and he'd push her hand away, afraid she was going to rip into them!  He told her she could help, but she wanted to do it herself!  We decided a long time ago that we will not give our other child a gift on their siblings birthday.  I just think they need to learn that their special day will come.  She got over it!  Eventually!

Ga Ga and Papa got him this game for the Wii U he had been wanting for so long.  He was so excited and couldn't wait to go play it!  (After gifts were opened, he wanted to skip cake and go play!)

This is his favorite part of the movie!  (Mine too!)

This is our special surprise for Andrew... you can't really see the paper I printed out for him but it is a surprise trip to the Great Wolf Lodge... but the best part is, we are going to celebrate there with his cousins because it is Evi's birthday too!  They were born 4 days apart.  I knew that nothing would make him happier than this vacation with his very favorite little people.  

This was so funny, when he saw people throughout the day he kept saying "Say happy birthday to me!"  When we saw daddy at Subway, and when Ga Ga and Papa came, when Kerigan saw him in the morning etc.  It was cracking us up!  It's like he couldn't hear it enough!  He loved hearing the song too, this was the 2nd time that day, after his class sang to him.  I remember one year we actually sang to him twice because he loved it so much!

She decided presents were overrated and moved on to twinkies!  Ha!

Happy #7 little man!

Pictures from his friend party are coming up!