Rachel and Henry’s birthday (July 2011)

Rachel and Henry share the same birthday, so on July 30th Rachel turned seven and Henry turned 3.  Daniel and I were not going to be there on the big day (my parents were here with them while we were in DC), so we had an early birthday party the Sunday before we left.

Oliver had really wanted to buy something special for Rachel with his own money.  He begged and begged for me to let him get her a pet, so we finally settled on a betta fish (he bought the fish, I bought the bowl and food, etc.)  He was so excited to give it to her, and she was thrilled to get it. 

If you are wondering why Lizza is looking so grumpy in that picture above it’s because she wanted to give Rachel a special card she had made, and nobody was paying attention to her.

There we go.  “Rachel, Happy Birthday”

Here’s Henry, ready to open some presents.

He got three dinosaur puzzles:

And a Batman shirt:

Then it was Rachel’s turn.  The present she had been anticipating the most was a porcelain doll that I got when I was a little girl.  Earlier in the year I had told Rachel that if she finished reading all of the American Girl Samantha books before her birthday, then I would give her the doll as a present.  She finished a few months before her birthday, and then was just waiting and waiting.

She also got the Molly books:

And probably her favorite thing, a scooter.

After presents we had some chocolate pie with coconut cream sauce:

I hope these two never grow out of thinking it is extra fun to share a birthday together.

Henry spent the rest of the evening figuring out his new puzzles.  He gets super focused when he has a new puzzle to challenge him.

He had them all finished in no time:

On their actual birthday, while we were in DC, my mom and dad took lots of pictures so we could see all the fun they had.

They started out with their breakfast of choice, Lucky Charms:

Then the kids gave Rachel and Henry cards they had made and presents they had bought with their own money.  They were so excited to finally be able to give them – they had wanted to do it on Sunday when Daniel and I gave our presents, but I made them wait until the actual day.  My mom told me it was fun to see how earnest and happy they were in their efforts to make sure Rachel and Henry had a good day. 

Rachel and Henry were both excited about Henry’s new nerf gun:                                  

This picture makes me happy, and it’s not because Rachel just opened a pack of Kit Kats from one of the kids – it’s because in the background I can see that my mom was making a spinach smoothie and also had Cynthia’s bottle of milk all ready to go, and I just love how she was taking such good care of my family while we were gone.

I think this is my favorite picture of the day.  Rachel just looks so darn happy to be getting that gum from Oliver, and I can tell Ollie is feeling proud of having given such a great gift, and maybe giving some instructions or directions about it, and Henry is looking on like, “yep, this is a  good day.”

At some point during the birthday afternoon, they all went to the pool.  Here is my dad with the kids.  Sometimes it doesn’t hit me how many kids I have until I see them all with someone else, and then I think “wow, there sure are a lot of them.”  Also, nice pose, Lizza.

For dinner they picked pancakes with strawberry sauce, and my dad whipped up a few t-rex and butterfly pancakes for the birthday kids:

I didn’t want my mom to have to worry about making fancy birthday cakes, so before we left I let Rachel and Henry each choose out a special pie.  Rachel picked chocolate cream, and Henry picked a coconut cream pie.  I think it made a big impression on him – he mentions it to random people all the time, about how “last day when he turned 3 he had a coconut cream birthday.” 

Happy birthday to two wonderful kids.