The First Birthday Party!

You must me thinking "But Eva's been 1 for a month already!", right? We wanted the entire family there, and my sister (Aunt Kathleen to Eva and Ethan) wasn't going to be home for spring break until mid-March, so after all was said and done, the party was scheduled for St. Patrick's day. And no, we didn't have green beer or anything like that. Just pink, pretty and princess. Officially, the theme was ballet, but Mommy ended up too lazy busy to make all the decorations, so it was up to the Princess party section at the dollar store! There's always next year, right?

We had both sets of grandparents over, Great Aunt Dixie and Great Uncle John, Uncle Mikey, Aunt Jen, Cameron, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Kathleen. It was a fun day, but thank goodness birthdays only come once a year - there is only so much frantic cleaning and cooking that I can take!

Sparkly pink princess cupcakes!

The birthday girl

Ethan showing Eva how to open gifts aka Ethan opening gifts

Cameron vacuuming while Ethan is opening gifts :)

More of Ethan's special help :)

Birthday girl with a big glob of frosting hanging off her chin!

Happy 16th birthday to me!

If anyone asks (sadly, nobody did), I'm 16! And I think I'll stay that way for a few decades :)

Today is my actual birthday, but Chris and I went out for dinner last night because our favorite restaurant, Niche, is not open on Sundays. It was nice getting out without the kids and having to get dressed up.

I love taking pictures of pretty food and Niche is an excellent place to do that - everything looks good and tastes good too!

Me and my eggs (so many nicknames in Chinese have to do with eggs, ie bao bei dan for precious egg, etc)

The Pink Lady - I have no alcohol tolerance anymore. Not like I had much to begin with, but after spending 4 years being pregnant/nursing, you really don't drink much!

My appetizer - crab salad and biscuits - this was seriously cute and dainty. I will have to remember this for when Eva is older and can have tea parties!

Chris's appetizer - duckopitas - a spin on spanakopitas!

My dinner - on the left is roasted cod and deep fried goat cheese on a spicy tomato sauce. On the right is roasted veggies! Fish and vegetables are healthy, right?

Chris's dinner - beef vindaloo - a fancy Indian dinner with filet and a veggie and potato medley.

My dessert - gingerbread topped with poached pear, lemon curd and honey marscapone. It was so yummy!

Chris's dessert - praline bar, chocolate and crunchy nutty goodness!

Parties, parties everywhere!

August is a super busy time for birthdays on the Barber side of the family - we have Cameron (our nephew) on the 6th, Ethan on the 12th, Chris on the 17th and Grandma Barber on the 25th.

This year was a little extra hectic with celebrating Liam's first birthday  (Liam is our friends Zaianne and Tom's sweet little boy) and Eva's 6 month birthday on the 19th as well!

Our first weekend in August started out with 2 parties - Liam's first birthday party on the 4th and Cameron's 2nd birthday on the 5th. We then had a week off before being hit with a triple birthday party for Chris, Ethan and Eva! Somehow we managed to survive all of this partying :)

All of the birthday boys and the half birthday girl received lots of nice gifts and were able to celebrate with friends and family!

Please enjoy the pictures.

Young love - Eva and Liam

Ethan teaching Liam how to play!

Cousin love

More cousin love

Eva in her conductor's hat and Grandpa Barber

So many choices

6 month old princess with Aunt Jen (yes there are 2 Jennifer Barbers in the family!)

Thomas cupcakes - please excuse the melting buttercream frosting!

Watch out, Ethan!

Eva and Grandpa Kuo

Ethan loves Molly

Ethan - 3 years!

My firstborn is 3! Well, he turned 3 exactly 3 weeks ago, so this is just a quick recap.

In the past year, the most exciting thing that happened was becoming a big brother! Ethan loves Eva, and Eva loves him back :) There has been surprisingly little sibling rivalry. We have been completely done potty training (both during the day and at night) since shortly after Eva was born. He is also sleeping in his own bed at night, although he likes to come in to mommy and daddy's room for a snuggle in the morning.

Ethan is all done with daycare now - the past year he had been going 2 days a week, and going to my parents the other 3 days. Now that he's 3, he'll be starting preschool! He is very excited about going to "big boy school" and I'm sure he'll do well. I will miss all the little arts and crafts projects that he brings home, but at least we still have Home Depot and Lowe's arts and crafts to go to!

Ethan is still super skinny - the little guy only weighs 29 pounds! He wears anything from 18 month to 2T clothes. He does love eating all sorts of things - his favorites are any sort of fruit, anything that can be dipped in ketchup and quinoa (yes, a little strange for a 3 year old!). He loves helping me in the kitchen by getting the appropriate appliance out of the cabinets, retrieving various ingredients and levelling flour.

I can't wait to see what this next year will bring!

Sibling love

Riding the mechanical horse at Meijer

Arts and Crafts at Lowe's

Birthday boy at 5:23pm

Birthday cake - Ethan insisted on pink frosting with blue and green sprinkles