Happy Birthdayssssss!

I really like that the girls' birthdays are just five days apart. They're so competitive that it's nice to be able to do much of the celebrating together. Plus, they enjoy the same things, so they often get the same things, which is much easier to deal with when they are getting their gifts at the same time.

C kicked off the birthday season when she turned six. We had a quiet celebration at home with just us and the Mod grandparents. C picked out a menu of pepperoni pizza and a chocolate heart shaped birthday cake. Since her birthday follows closely on the heels of Valentine's Day, I'm sure that's why she was so adamant about the shape of the cake. The week before I ran across a recipe for chocolate ganache in the paper. I'm no cook, but I do love ganache, so I thought I'd give it a try. As luck would have it, not even I could screw it up! Yum!!

The birthday girl sampled the ganache and agreed it was fit for her cake.

The next day the girls each brought a friend for their annual visit with Chuck E Cheese. C and her friend had a great time. M's friend wasn't too sure what to make of it. Like any good hostess, M ditched her friend to pursue her own fun activities. Meanwhile, I tried to talk her friend into various activities, but the only one that piqued her interest was feeding the tickets you earn from games into the automatic ticket counter that made munching noises.





We tried to get a picture of all the girls together looking happy, but our suggestions to smile were met with resistance from one little party goer. So we resorted to turning it into a game - which seemed to work, as long as we didn't tell her to smile.

Roar like a lion!

Look silly!

Go to sleep!

Grandma and Grandpa Beachy made a trip in to town to take us all out to eat, and the girls got to open presents from them the next morning.


Then later that day we met C's birthfamily at McDonalds for another celebration. Although C wasn't shy about eventually requesting her presents, I was surprised at how reserved she was with the adults. She's normally quite outgoing with children and adults alike. Our shy one, M, was the one that snuggled up with C's birthmother when we attended her other daughter's basketball game after lunch.

I couldn't stop pondering the situation, and came up with my own theory as to why C was standoffish and M was perfectly comfortable with C's birthfamily. The next night I asked her why she seemed so shy. Without any prompting from me, she confirmed my theory that she was worried they might try to take her away. I assured her that while they like to be able to see her, and they love her too, they are happy that she is a member of our family. They don't want to take her away from us. I also explained that although foster children have been a part of our family and then gone away, neither of them were adopted by us. Both she and M are adopted, which means that they will be in our family forever and ever! She seemed to understand, but it remains to be seen whether she will be more relaxed at the next visit.




For M's fourth birthday, she requested chicken noodle soup and quesadillas for dinner, with popsicles for dessert. Go figure. I had to talk her into an additional dessert just so we would have something to put candles in. I have to say though, that with all the cakes and cupcakes we have had between our parties, and bringing birthday treats to their respective church and school classes, I was really ready to have something besides cake!



After six days of celebration, we wrapped up with the combined birthday party for all the locals in the Mod family to attend. It is by far the biggest party since P's family is so large and the girls have so many cousins. As giddy as I was for the birthday season to begin, it was a huge relief for it to come to an end!


A few days after things quieted down, we took the girls in for their annual birthday pictures, and decided to do a few of the family too - so be sure to check out the slide show at the top of the right column.