Ryan's 4th Birthday Review

invite created by Christy

Can you guess the theme?

On Ryan's actual birthday (11/19), I surprised him with a lunch date at Friendly's! The waitstaff sang a silly birthday song and served the birthday boy a candy sundae. Ryan had a very confused look on his face during their serenade. After they left the table I realized we had never taken Ryan to a restaurant to celebrate his birthday! haha. He was a little disappointed that they didn't just sing the "birthday song" but quickly got over that after the first bite of his sugar creation.

Here's my 4 year old making his new "signature" pose...

Ryan insisted on taking a picture of Kara and me at the restaurant. I have to admit, he captured a really sweet picture.

That evening Ryan helped us make the bugs that would sit on top of his cupcakes.

Then we sang the traditional birthday song...

....and he blew out his 4 candles.

On Saturday, November 21st we celebrated a bug themed birthday bash with family and friends!

Ants, Spiders, Centipedes, Ticks...oh my!
The bug cupcakes turned out great!

Believe it or not, the bugs were a lot easier to make than the our failed attempt with Kara's flower cupcakes!

And what goes well with bug cupcakes?

Dirt Cake of course!

(hands down, the easiest dessert we have ever made and EVERYONE loved it!)

I came up with this favor bag the day before the party. Originally I wanted to just stamp the bag with some sort of bug stamp, but I couldn't find one I liked. My mother-in-law found a large container of spider rings and I thought, hmmmmm...wouldn't it be neat if we could string the spiders on the bags to make it look like they are crawling down the bag?! With some fishing line and a hole punch, we were able to make it happen! (thanks aunt gibby and sahira for helping me with the bags)

SPIDER BAGS!

Our friends and family are always asking why we "go all out" for our children's birthdays. My response to this question is, why not? We enjoy coming up with creative ideas, cooking and entertaining our guests. We only have to host two parties each year (one in June and one in November), so to us it's not a big deal...plus the look of pure joy on our child's face makes all the time spent planning and exhaustion afterwards worth it. :)

The one thing that I do find difficult to do while hosting a large party is taking the time to document the event!!! I always find myself saying, where is the camera? Hey Chris, do you have the camcorder? Shoot, we didn't get a picture of that before digging into it!

Well you get the picture (no pun intended)...

Luckily this year my nephew took some photos for us and I was able to snap a few myself. Here are some of my favorites from Ryan's big BUG day.

I love having a craft for the kids to do together. This year we had them create bugs with little pom-poms. Sadly, I did not get pictures of this craft! I also had planned a few bug games to play with the children, but it turned out to be such a nice day that they played outside instead. Which was fine with all the adults because the boys had a ton of energy to burn off.

I am titling the next few pictures Girls versus Boys.

The girls spent over an hour playing nicely in the sand box AND were able to keep the sand in the box. Amazing.

While the boys spent that hour running around the back yard and wrestling each other!

My nephew Joey turned 5 years old on Nov. 18th. Ryan and Joey are only one year and one day apart. We joke that Ryan didn't want to share his birthday with his cousin so our stubborn boy waited a few more hours to be born!

Here is Joey with the gift we got him....

This next picture of Lily makes me smile. Tired?

I will title the next three pictures Baby Fever because this little one makes me want to have another one!

Meet Emma.

Isn't she the cutest?! Kara really, really liked Emma too. (sorry the silly picture wouldn't turn) We were surprised how nice and gentle Kara was with baby Emma. It gives me hope that she will be a wonderful big sister someday...well that's if we decide to have more.


Just look at that face....sooooo adorable!


Here's an artistic shot of me and my mini me.


I am sad that we do not have a picture of Ryan with us. He was having too much fun playing with his cousins and friends to stop for pictures!

Time to sing to the birthday boy!

All we had to do was announce CAKE to get the children back into the house!

Kara enjoying some sweetness!



Then it was time to open the gifts!

I love this one from our dear friend Luci! Both Ryan and Kara (and mommy too) think this puppet is neat! We sing There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly all the time now.



This talking microscope with bug slides is really COOL!

Bugs, bugs and more BUGS!

Ryan loved that Pop-Pop and Mom-Mom Delp gave him a Leapster! He plays with it every day.

But Grandma and Pop-Pop High surprised him with what he wanted most...

Yep...that's right. Ryan is now the proud owner of his very first guitar!


Happy 4th Birthday to our funny, sweet, bug and music-loving boy!

Happy 4th Birthday Ryan!

You are Daddy's little buddy...

and Mommy's little sweetie.

You are a fun Big Brother...

and friend to everyone.

You can at times be naughty...


sometimes stubborn....

but always silly!

You are adventurous.

You make us laugh every day.

We love you to the moon and back....

Happy 4th Birthday Ryan!

A Birthday...A Giveaway!

Could it be? Today I turned 33!

Happy Birthday to me!

This year I decided to celebrate this special day with my very first GIVEAWAY on our family blog. If all goes well, I might just make it an annual event...or not. I guess we will just have to see. I am VERY excited for this GIVEAWAY though and hope everyone enters to win!

Before I get into the details of my very first GIVEAWAY, I thought I would pepper this post with pictures. I know how much you love seeing our smiling faces...especially our dear, sweet Nanie. These are for you! :)

Chris and Bobbi on our 5th Wedding Anniversary (8.21.09). We celebrated 5 years of wedded bliss in the beautiful Finger Lakes (NY) and this photo was taken on our sunset sail on Seneca Lake. (more pics and post coming soon...)

Here's our little ham, Ryan. He makes us laugh every day, can be sneaky at times and is extremely lovable! Ryan turns 4 years old in a few weeks!

And last, but certainly not least! Our beautiful Kara. She is sweet but feisty. Kara loves to dance and be her brother's shadow all day long. One look at her adorable smile and she will melt your heart!

I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful and loving family!

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Ok! Time for the juicy details of my very first GIVEAWAY!

Over the past year, I've met (via the Internet) some very inspiring and special mommy bloggers! One that I would like to introduce you to is Jennifer Thomas! Jennifer inspires me everyday with her creativity and her ability to juggle being a working mom with everything else life throws at her. We have become really good friends and I hope we are able to meet in "real life" someday soon! Jennifer is not only an amazing mommy to her adorable son, Preston (who by the way, is only ONE day older than Kara!) but she is also an amazingly talented composer and pianist!

Jennifer has recently finished her 2nd album titled The Lullaby Album. This album was inspired by her son, Preston, who as an infant had difficulty falling asleep. Jennifer along with her mother, Carolyn Southworth, collaborated to create this beautifully calming 2-disc lullaby album. During the year long process, Jennifer would often ask her fellow mommy bloggers for advice on the songs she was working on. I felt so honored that she allowed me to critique her work. We were a part of this album from the very beginning, so it holds a special place in my heart.

This clip shows Jennifer's creative side (she created the montage), her beautiful family (the photos are of her, her husband Will and Preston when he was just a few weeks old) and of course gives you a taste of what is on the album!

Do you want to WIN a copy of this beautiful 2-disc album?!

Of course you do!

Ok, here are the rules to enter....

First-

Click Here to check out Jennifer's website. Scroll down her home page to find 2 sets of music clips. Listen to them!

Don't forget to let Jennifer know you stopped by her website by leaving her some comment love in her guest book!

Second-

Determine which lullaby song is your favorite...then leave a comment on this blog post stating your name and which song is your favorite!

ie. Bobbi-Jo High: Baby of Mine (Preston's Song)

** For my non-blogging friends...the comment section is at the bottom of this post on the right hand side. You may sign into Blogger or choose to be anonymous (please make sure you leave your name in your comment if you choose anonymous!)

Only one entry per person. You have until 11pm (EST) on Friday, November 13th to enter this contest. A winner will be announced the following day. Good Luck!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today Chris turned 35 years old!

We surprised Chris (aka Daddy) at work with a bouquet of balloons. He really enjoyed taking a break from his hectic day to show off the kiddies! He is one proud papa. :)

Wanna know a secret about the birthday boy?

Chris is a creature of habit....he enjoys homemade waffles for Father's Day and only wants to enjoy a sirloin steak at Outback every year on his birthday. It makes planning his day very easy actually, so I never question his wishes. Chris also loves, LOVES, loves Entenmann's Chocolate Fudge Cake and it has become tradition to get this cake for his birthday each year. (how lucky am I? no baking!) I even surprised him on our wedding day with one because he turned 30 exactly one month later. The pictures of that surprise are priceless...I will post them someday.

This year the kiddies make hand print cards (sorry forgot to take pics of the cards...ooops) and gave Daddy a Penn State plant to put in his office. He will also be visiting Best Buy soon to pick out his birthday gift of either a new Blue-Ray DVD player OR Flat screen Monitor for our desktop computer. Two items he has been itching to get for a while now. What will he choose?

Happy 35th Birthday, Chris!

Ryan singing Happy Birthday to his Daddy and yes, that is a Sesame Street birthday balloon that the kids picked out. Chris was a good sport and kept in his office all day!

Singing, Dancing and Celebration!

This morning Kara had an appointment at GenSpan. As we drove down the highway, Ryan said, "Mama, turn it up. This is Ryan's song!"

This is Ryan's song.

Catchy tune, huh? Well now that you have it stuck in you head...watch Ryan sing it below! Sadly, the sound on the video is crappy so you can't hear much. Just watch his lips...he is hysterical!! (sorry it's sideways)

We were pretty excited about visiting GenSpan today! My good friend and fellow blogger (she is the main reason I got into blogging), Christy D'Angelo works there and she celebrates her birthday today! Happy Birthday, Christy! We came bearing gifts to surprise her with and from her smile below...we think she liked them!

Christy D. is one crafty and extremely talented lady. She created Kara's Birth Announcements and her Baptism Invitations for us and we loved how they turned out!

After years of making custom invitations, announcements and favors for her family and friends, Christy decided to expand her hobby into a business and created BRIDES to BOOTIES! Click on the link below to view her samples!

Don't forget to leave her some comment love and let her know you heard about Brides to Booties from me!

And in conclusion, here's Mr. Ryan (this is your final surprise for the day Ms. Christy!) showing us his signature moves in the middle of Toys R Us today! ENJOY!!