The Continuous Party

It is hard to believe that we started celebrating Keira’s birthday almost a month ago and have just now wrapped up with her birthday party with friends. We started out celebrating Keira’s actual birthday in Philadelphia with Grammy, PopPop, and Aunt Meghan. Keira woke up on her birthday and stood up in bed asking me how much she grew over night (it was so cute – she thought that by turning a year old that she would have physical grown as well). The morning started with opening gifts from Colin, Blair and I. The biggest hit was a play makeup set from Colin which I thought was just pretend but after Keira beautifully decorated her entire face, I quickly realized that was not the case (Note the makeup in the picture). Grammy then made a delicious “birthday pancake” breakfast for us – pancakes with Cool Whip and sprinkles. The afternoon was spent at the movies with Blair, PopPop, Uncle Matt and Caroline. Finally a fun dinner out with Grammy, PopPop, Aunt Meghan, Colin, Blair and I followed back at Grammy’s with a wonderful cake that Grammy made. Exhausted, we all crashed hoping to get some rest for Easter the next day.

Easter proved to be a test of how much sugar Colin could handle before crashing. Upon waking up, Keira and Colin immediately took stock of their Easter baskets. Luckily, the Easter Bunny brought each child a new toy instead of too much candy. Colin’s little hands quickly master unwrapping candy and the smart little guy focused on Blair’s Easter basket. Keira easily found the most Easter eggs on our egg hunt as Colin would stop to open and eat the contents of each egg. Mass went better than expected as Aunt Meghan managed Colin’s sugar crash and got him to take a short nap. Uncle Matt, Aunt Christine, Caroline and Patrick came over for a delicious Easter dinner and another egg hunt. My attempt at a nice Easter photo was ruined by Keira insisting on changing into a baseball outfit that we gave her for Easter and Colin needing to change into a clean outfit after getting chocolate all over his first outfit.

The next week went by quick as we prepared for and picked up Maddux (see earlier post). We also went to our first baseball game of the season.


After only a few days getting settled into our house, Maddux journeyed with us to Philly for a fun weekend that included a birthday party for Keira and Mara and Cloe’s First Communion. Maddux was an angel on the car ride and adjusted very well to being at a new location. Keira had a great time celebrating her birthday with a number of her cousins. Cloe’s First Communion went very well (from what we saw while trying to handle two kids who were very restless due to the heat in the gym). Cloe looked beautiful!!!

We finally concluded Keira’s “birthday season” with a party with her little friends this past Saturday. A lot of planning and effort went into preparing for the party (Thanks Grammy for sewing so many wonderful mermaid tails for all the girls!). We were smart and held the party in the party room of a local community center. All in all, I think Keira had a terrific time but 18 kids ranging in age from 4 months to 11 years old was more chaos that I could ever have imagined. Next year we will be opting to go somewhere with a birthday party package and letting someone else run the party.

The last few weeks have all left us exhausted. I’m just hoping Blair doesn’t expect such a fuss when he turns forty later this year!