Wacky Zacky turns 9!!!! Happy Birthday Zachary Jason!

     Whew, another birthday to celebrate!  We have had birthday banners up since Grayson's birthday in January.  Grayson, Brayden and now Zac.  We don't skimp around here.  Each child has their own banners and balloons etc.  Zachary turned 9 on a crazy day.  His Daddy had knee surgery the morning of his birthday.  I had to wake the boys up early to get Dad to his surgery and then Zac off to school.  Here he is early in the morning, feeling very sleepy...

     So we dropped Dad off, his nurse made a big deal about Zac's birthday, which was nice.  And off to school it was for Zac.  I picked Jason up around 11am and brought him back home.  Then it was off to Zac's school to drop off his cupcakes.  I made basketball cupcakes.  It is very hard to get white icing to turn orange.  They turned out great but were slowly melting because the icing was a bit runny after all of the food coloring was added.  Brayden and I took them to the school so Zac wouldn't have to carry them in.  Here they are....

Brayden and I then went off to buy Zac a sports balloon and his presents.  Jason and I got him the new Star Wars 3 video game for the Wii.  Kaitlyn got him some lead pencils and beef jerkey!  And Brayden got him a nerf gun.  The night of his birthday Zac had another party to go to at CN skate palace in Aston.  It was my Godson's birthday party.  And he let Zac blow 4 of his candles out.  On Sat. Zac had his actual birthday party at Oasis.  Oasis is a giant indoor playground with bowling, trampoline basketball, rock climbing and video games.  Every kids dream is here.  It was such a rowdy bunch...18 kids in all....

Let's see...Cammie, Cullen, Coleman, Zac, Vicas, Scott, Andrew, Ben, Shane and others I can't make out in the back!
We had pizza (had to order a 3rd one because these kids were hungry) and cake...

And boy did they sing....

Kylie and Brayden

They all played hard on the playground, did some tampoline basketball, climbed a nice rock wall and just had a blast, how could you not at Oasis?



We also had a family/friends celebration for both Zac and Brayden in between their birthdays.  This was where they got to choose the menu and Zac got his beloved cookie cake that I make each year.  Our good neighbors, the Boyce's, came and so did Gramy and Papa.  We had BBQ ribs (which Jason grilled to perfection), corn on the cob, grilled shrimp, cornbread, fudge, brownies and more! 

Brendan, Gray, Zac, me, Kaitlyn and Brayden with Zac's cookie cake





So I think it was a pretty good year for Zac.  He also got a little brother (like Brayden did as well), went to Disney, spent 2 weeks at the OuterBanks, played football, tried Gaelic football and improved his Basketball game tremendously!  









Bye Bye 8!  What a great year!

Happy 4th Birthday Brayden Noah!



Ryan, Brayden, Merrin, Kyndal, Garrett and Luke





Blowing out the candles!



Pinata time!



     On Tue. March 15th, we celebrated our little Brayden's 4th birthday.  He looked forward to his birthday so much this year.  There is something magical about the 4th birthday.  The whole birthday idea clicks in their little heads and they get it, and it's all about the party too.  Before this birthday, parties have really been for me!  I got to choose the theme, who was invited, food, etc.  But not for the 4th birthday.  Kaitlyn's theme was "The Little Mermaid".  She just had Kerry and Kylie over and they watched it over and over again, we had a Little Mermaid cake and lots of Little Mermaid decorations and goody bags.  For Zac, his was a pirate theme.  We went all out for his party because it was his first birthday being celebrated in our house.  We had a walk the plank game, pin the X on the treasure, a pinata, pirate music, cake and cupcakes.  Brayden decided to have a dinosaur party.  So fun to plan!  His party was right after preschool.  He invited Luke, Merrin, Garrett, Ryan and Kyndal.  We had a giant dinosaur balloon, triceratops pinata and pin the horn on the triceratops.  I made dinosaur cupcakes by coloring the icing green and then putting crumbled graham crackers on top.  On top of the crumbs sat a dinosaur on each cupcake, 4 of them were candles.  We served dinosaur chicken nuggets, bagel bites, chips, pretzels and fruit.  And I made grilled chicken salad for the Moms.  The Moms always stay for a 4th birthday, it's still too young to just drop off.  So it was nice having lunch with the Moms while the kids played.    

     That night we ate dinner together (leftovers from the party) and he opened his presents from us.  We also burned his birthday candle.  Each child has one and every year on their birthday we burn the last year.  So bye bye 3 ):!  It was a great year for Brayden!  He got a new baby brother, started preschool and just has captured everyone's hearts.  He is such a special funny little guy!

Bucket of Toy Story soldiers from Zac

Birthday Candle