Birthday Parties

I still keep beating myself up about not remembering to take pictures on both Steve's dad's and my sister's husband's birthday. We have video, but I really like pictures to go with my posts.

We celebrated Granddad's birthday at his house the last weekend in February. Steve's brother's kids came (well, the three youngest anyways), so, of course, Jared and Alexa were ecstatic. I love to play with the kids, and we have hours and hours of fun every day, but it's also great to have a rest and talk with the other adults, too. So, I was surprised when Jared still wanted me to play "Prison" with him when the rest of the kids were there.

The other kids are 10, 7 and 5 (all have birthdays within the next two months), so I didn't think our kids would wear them down. They did. They eventually retreated to dark rooms to watch TV on their DS.
I felt bad for our kids. They do not see these cousins that often, and to have their cousins just sit there watching a little machine was really, really disappointing to them. Not something I could really explain that well, either.

The next birthday party, the very next day, was so much nicer for the kids. We met at my sister's house, and her friend came with her two girls. The oldest is the cousin O's age, 2 1/2, and there was a newborn, just a month old. Alexa loved the baby. In fact, she's played baby Gabby several times since that day.

My sister did the greatest thing. She gave Alexa a camera, a real digital one, not a silly kid's version. Alexa loved it! But she still wanted to take pictures with Amy's expensive one with the big zoom lens. She looks absolutely adorable holding this huge camera to her eye. She kept telling everyone she was a photographer.

Jared amused himself for a long time, just playing with toys in O's bedroom. Both kids played with their Great-Grandmother, too. And I had several hours of great conversation with family. Beautiful.