His Birthday, My Birthday.

I nearly cried all those years ago during my first prenatal visit when I discovered my baby's due date was three days before my birthday. It was like a bad flashback to my wedding planning when I realized the only available dates were during *gasp* my birthday month. So now not only was I sharing my birthday month with my marriage, I was pretty much sacrificing my birthday completely for this little being I just created. How dare he?! Here we are four birthdays later and I'm over it. Mostly over it. OK, so I'm working toward being over it. But we've made progress. What can I say? I LOVE birthdays. A lot.

Last year Spencer's party was on my birthday and this year was no different. On Saturday if you asked Spencer whose birthday it was, he would adamantly exclaim it was not Mommy's birthday yet. Mine was at night; his was during the day. Get it right, people!

I spent quite a lot of time preparing for the big party. I don't normally go all out, but I do like to make them special. The theme came about from Spencer's love affair with Finn McMissile chasing bad guys. I'm not in love with character birthdays, so I decided to go a different route, using the Cars character as inspiration. That's how the spy theme came about. I scoured the internet for ideas and then worked to recreate them myself for much cheaper.

Although the party was a success, I'm contemplating not doing a big party for Spencer next year. He said there were too many people and it was too loud for him. He prefers smaller groups. Perhaps next year there will be two small ones so as to include family and friends separately.


***


The invitation.

The decorations.

The party favors.

Spy badges.

Spy sign-in.

A fingerprint scan app on my Kindle.

I used an inkless fingerprint kit to create their spy badges. 

They each came up with their own unique spy name.

The crime.

Reading the mission to the spies.

Evidence #1: Dog bone in the jewelry box.

Evidence #2: Follow the dog paw prints.

Evidence #3: A letter.

Evidence #4: A map.

Evidence #5: A briefcase.

Get the bad guys!!!

The guests.

Guestbook page for Spencer's scrapbook.

The gifts.

Ashton colored his brother's present.

I made him a quilt, pillowcase and valance.

The food.

The cake.

***

Once the afternoon faded to night, and the party guests tapered off, I shrugged off my dress in exchange for my night attire. My mom, sister, brother-in-law and a handful of my closest friends hit the small downtown bars to celebrate my birthday. If anyone asked, it was my 24th birthday. Surprisingly, that age wasn't questioned. Not bad for a 32 year old to pass as a young 'en, eh?

But young 'en I am not! I am quite out of practice with the bar scene. You couldn't tell Saturday night. We tore up that dance floor! And laughed. Oh my goodness, we laughed! If my birthday celebration is any indication of how the year to come is going to be, I'm thinking year 32 is going to be hard to beat.
















Thank you to everyone who participated in our birthdays--the gifts, the cards, the well-wishes, and most importantly, your presence. We love all of you so much!

Getting a start on the Thank Yous.