Two July Birthdays!

I am really behind on my blogging and have a list of things I want to write about, but I thought I would start with our two July birthdays. Jovie turned one on the 6th and Olsen turned four on the 24th! We had a joint birthday party for them on the 7th at the park by our house. We have been looking forward to the summer Olympics (and it brought back memories of when Olsen was born and how all we did was watch the Beijing Olympics while feeding and holding him), so we had an Olympics theme. We started with the opening ceremonies with the Olympics theme song and wooden maracas.
 

Then we had a series of events: the 30-yd dash, the balance beam, rhythmic gymnastics, shot put, discus, and long jump.

 





We kept things really simple and ordered pizza. We did do presents this year. I was undecided for awhile if we should do them or not. Last year, at Olsen's party, we specifically requested no presents, and it was a really nice time. Olsen had a lot of fun at that party being with his friends. However, he had been going to several parties this year and has picked out gifts for his friends, and I also did not want to be too grinch-y. They are only kids once and there really is not that many years where he will be getting birthday presents, so we decided it would be okay to have them. We brought Jovie's portable chair and I thought Olsen and Jovie looked really cute sitting together and opening presents.

 
Ready for cake! I bought little country flags and we placed them around the cake. There were not very many countries represented by the flags, though.

 
This picture makes me laugh for some reason. I was standing in front of Jovie, but I went to walk behind her to help her with her cake, and she started crying because she thought I had left.

 
 painting their wooden maraca Olympic torches

 
opening presents

I think the kids' favorite part of the party was the medal ceremony. We wrapped cookies in gold foil and hot-glued a ribbon to it. We played the anthem and called each kid to the podium.
 



We had a good time and were so glad that so many of our friends could come.

For Jovie's actual birthday, we got black forest cupcakes from Sweetly Divine. The sad thing is that after I blew out her candle, she touched it and started crying because I think it must have been a little hot. Then, Olsen started crying because he was so sad that Jovie got hurt. All was better after eating cupcakes.

 


Jovie's birthday present, a pink ball.