A Month of Birthdays!

We get slammed each April by both Nate and Lauren's birthdays - 5 days apart.  For several years now we have whisked them away for the weekend and celebrated as a family.  They both begged for birthday parties with friends this year.  I. gave. in.             What was I thinking?

Our next door neighbor Pete taught Nate how to ride this the week before his birthday.  I figured if he was old enough for this, he could handle the the birthday party he wanted that involved shooting each other with guns...

So he invited some of his friends over for a "Pancake Bar" breakfast and an air soft gun battle.

For those that aren't familiar, air soft guns are kind of like paintball guns - except I think they are a little more "mom-friendly".  They shoot BB size plastic bullets that don't break the skin.  With eye protection, it's been a good compromise to a real BB gun or paintball gun (which I hear is pretty painful).

Lucky for us, this high tech facility open just in time for his birthday (ok, I use the term "high tech" loosely)...

After a debriefing by the facility referee, they put on their face masks and headed in to the fog filled warehouse to play for 3 hours.

A huge thank you to Uncle Tom who gladly ran around with them!

Fast forward a week to Lauren's party......

She was thrilled to invite friends over for a night of pizza, crafts, games and karaoke!

 What is it with the Justin Beiber thing?????  They sang their hearts out..."Baby, baby, baby....oohhh"

 Because I couldn't pull together traditional birthday cakes for my kids (a girl can only do so much), they split up into teams and got to decorate 2 cookie cakes.

Happy birthday Nate and Lauren.  I love being your mom!