A Birthday Bash

Ella rarely sees either of my sisters' children. In fact, this is the first time she's seen Marna's 4 kids since August! This is mostly due to the fact that they were in Mexico over Christmas and when they returned, 2 them got chicken pox, followed by the flu.

So, I defintely wanted to make it down for Dylan and Kaitlyn's combined birthday party. Kaitlyn was turning 2 and Dylan had just turned 7. And wouldn't you know it, Ella and Kaitlyn are the same size, even though Ella will be 3 next month.

It took awhile, but by the end, Ella and Kaitlyn were giving each other hugs and kisses. And jumping on the trampoline together. And playing in the sandbox. And splashing on the pool steps. It was WAY too cold to actually get in and go swimming. This was 2 weeks ago and the water *may* have been 74 degrees. Of course, Marna's boys got in. I just think boys can do cold better than girls can. But Dylan did put on his flannel PJ's after getting out, though he insisted it was NOT because he was cold.

And I had to thank my sister for making more work for me. As soon as Ella saw Kaitlyn's brightly colored Dora cake, she exclaimed, "Mommy, I want that cake for my birthday, too." Now I have to try to duplicate that. I've made a vow to make all of my children's cakes. Not that I'm much of a cake baker, but it's something special I get to do once a year, so why not? And I always loved my mom's cakes. In fact, I still remember one year (I think I was turning 16) when my mom's cake flopped, so she ran out to buy one. I took one bite of it and knew it wasn't homemade. Thus, my mom was forced to bring out the falling-apart-cake and *that* was the one that got eaten!

Enjoy the sweet pics.