Birthday Party!

We celebrated Ben's 5th birthday and Elizabeth's 2nd birthday while my parents were visiting in January. Elizabeth was able to state very firmly that she was TWO and say, "Birdday? Birdday?" Ben requested a chocolate football field cake and was concerned about their not being any players on it, so Sunday morning we used my mom's suggestion to find football player images on the internet and attach them to toothpicks. Ben was very focused on coloring each one in the color scheme of the Seahawks vs. the San Francisco 49ers, though none of us was sure why.  For Elizabeth, I made a 6" double layer white cake using this recipe from The Kitchn. Several of the comments, including mine, were in the vein of, "I'm not usually a fan of white cake, but this is really good!"

In her birthday outfit and birthday reading chair from Grammie and Papa

Big smile!

Elizabeth's cake

Blowing out the candles (required help from Grammie and Mommy)

Grammie helping clean up the frosting residue afterward!

Ben removing the players so we could add the candles

Ben & Great-Grandma with his football field cake

Blowing out FIVE candles took the hard work of 3 people!

Grammie & Ben snuggling

Ben & his grandpas watching football

Examining her now-beloved new teddy bear from Grandma & Opa

Getting ready to check out someone's heartbeat (aka "bu-bum") with her new stethoscope

Grandma found a whole slew of cute new headbands and hair accessories for our bow-obsessed little one. She insisted on trying out several over the course of the party. She gets really goofy, intent looks on her faces while she's putting a new band on!

Uncle Jeff showing Elizabeth the features of the Leapfrog touchpad. She later made us have a dance party with the songs on it, over and over and over!

Dave, Papa & Ben working on one of Ben's Lego kits. He loved them all!