Party all the time

Something tells me that when the phrase "'Tis the season!" was coined, they were not referring to birthday parties...but you'd never know it in our house! Sammy and Brie celebrated THREE birthday parties this weekend alone!

It all started on Friday afternoon when Brie attended Brenna's fifth birthday party at Build-a-Bear! This was our first visit there...such a cool place. Like the Santa that Brie built??

After the party, Brie gave Santa to Sammy...so very generous! He was thrilled and Santa's enjoying his new home!

On Saturday morning, Brie and the rest of her Ballet, Tap & Jazz class performed for a local senior center.

One of the elderly women actually took Brie's hands and started dancing with her (we did not photograph it), but Brie didn't seem to mind too much! So glad the recital was really positive experience for her and her friends.

Later that afternoon, we headed to the bowling alley to celebrate Sammy's 6th birthday! SIX! Can you believe it?!

Most of the boys in Sammy's class came, as well as his buddy Eli who lives in our neighborhood.

I should probably mention that there's no photo filter here...Sammy's party was during "Glow Bowling" hours. Each of the kids got a glow-stick necklace, so we could keep track of them. OK...it wasn't that dark, but it was easier to know who was in our party.

Brie invited her buddy Robbie from school. Here they are eating bagels with cream cheese, so they can keep up their strength while bowling.

Like Sam's bowling style??

Like in year's past, it was fun to bake a special cake for Sammy. This year, Sammy asked for Captain America's shield. I used gel icing and M&Ms to decorate it, and the inside was Ina Garten's Birthday Sheet Cake recipe. It made a delicious yellow cake!

 

Soaking it all in as his friends sang "Happy Birthday" to him in both English and Hebrew (per Sam's request)!

Blowing out his candle with gusto!

Best wishes to the birthday boy...

 and his sweet sister!

Following Sammy's party, he enjoyed opening his gifts...many of which--by no coincidence--were art supplies. Since Sammy and Brie have so many toys, we asked Sam's buddies to please give art supplies...so we could in turn donate them to our local Ronald McDonald House. Sammy very much liked the idea of giving art supplies to kids (and their siblings) who are going through a difficult time.

"More parties?" you ask? Well, this morning, the kids attended a Hanukkah party at school and then Brie headed back to the bowling alley for her classmate Riley's 5th birthday: phew!!

After all of that, we figured a quiet dinner at home would be the best way to wind down after such a busy, celebratory weekend. But not before introducing Sebastian to solid food! Here he is in the Bumbo...ready for good eats!

Sebastian ate up his first rice cereal...he really liked it! And Brie and Sammy were the paparazzi on the scene!

Sammy took this one of his messy baby brother.

"This solid food thing is wonderful! More parties please!"

P.S. For all you '80s music fans out there, you might have gotten the music reference in the subject of this post. If you didn't, here's the music video from before Eddie Murphy was the beloved Donkey!