With Thanksgiving right around the corner means it meant time for Craig’s annual birthday festivities. This year it wasn’t just any birthday, but the big 4-0! The girls and I had fun creating a plan for this milestone, and at this age they are game for anything, throwing out such big ideas. This was the first time I let them advise a separate gift from each kiddo, catered to theirs desires of what he might enjoy. After going through oh so many suggestions, we landed on a few well thought out and realistic innovations, and the crafts and shopping began.

Harper spent some time working on a beautiful heart box at Color Me Mine, painting it several layers of blue because that’s what dad likes. She also decorated her presents after they were wrapped, and added a secondary box full of treasures for him to open. The present stuffing took an entire evening to decide upon, with much thought and conversation!

Emerie shoved miscellaneous candy into her box, specific candy that she knew Craig eats. That in itself is sweetly thought out, literally. She also perfected a porcelain picture frame at Color Me Mine last month, with “princess” written across the front, and we printed a picture of her and Craig to slide inside it, much to her excitement! She insisted he would like the princess wording, and was adamant no other painting option was going to beat it.

Reagan declined a painting project, and after some Amazon browsing based on her search suggestions, an elephant mug that holds your tea bag was chosen, and an elephant yarn measuring thing. She also manufactured a custom cardboard elephant zoo enclosure (wow that’s a mouthful) and over the several days she created it, were yelling commands at Craig to don’t look at it!!!

In particular genius, I gifted Craig a quiet night at a hotel, a night to relax as he welcome the next decade of life. He also spent two nights in Juneau on a work trip, giving me more time to complete all the prep work. What that really meant was three full nights to prepare the surprise birthday party and presents, without the required sneakiness, and it worked like a charm. Everyone helped gift wrap and a lifetime amount of tape was used. They filled out questionnaires all about the birthday boy. It was particularly fun to ask them some random questions, and see their real opinions of Dad, which were all different! We hand drew posters for his party, filled with elephants, yarn balls, kid handwriting and colorful, sparkling glue. I’m pretty sure everything was sticky by the time they were done, and the elephants really cute! The party decorations were also underway, with a lot of paper strips littering my house, becoming long daisy chains. The balloon bouquet was designed at the party store, which was a HUGE deal for them to explore apparently, and we left with a few more goodies and whines that the balloons weren’t ready for a few more days.

The big day featured three wildly excited girls racing to finish decorations, tape up adorable childhood photos, and guard the surprise party secret like tiny double agents. Meanwhile I almost blew the whole thing at least five times; I don’t realize how many random thoughts I share with that boy, until I have to actively NOT share them (haha!). With a Charlie’s cake and all the party food stashed away, we whipped together the homemade elephant cake I’d started the night before, and the girls assembled a very serious breakfast-in-bed tray, complete with strict instructions that presents must be opened from a reclined position.

I think the cake turned out pretty well- what do you think?? Reagan perfected the sprinkle distribution on the face and helped with the eyes, while Emerie and Harper ran in and out and randomly sprinkled as I iced it. And it even survived the car ride there!

In the end, I got Craig all the way to the venue—and about ten feet from a room packed with people and treats—before he finally caught on, thanks to the giant “Halfway to 80” sign on the door. The “my car won’t turn over” excuse and a perfectly timed truck-shopping trip with Keegan kept the whole ruse intact. The night was a win all around: happy surprise, great food, and kids running wild for two straight hours while we enjoyed cake and company

We opted not to attend the Eugene Ballet Nutcracker over Thanksgiving this year. The girls were in grumpy, fighting moods for a good part of the holiday weekend, and we decided not to reward the arguing and will find another show in December to enjoy together. Instead we built my decade old Lego set together, the girls made a gazillion crafts out of all the cardboard and paper we own, we did how-to-draw YouTube videos (which are a new hit in this house and turn out really cute!), and watched a few new movies in between hours of playtime.

For some reason everyone just discovered the recycle bin, that lives in the hall closet and is emptied consistently the past seven years. Now all the contents are utter treasures; treasures that litter my house and can NOT be thrown away, no matter how creative. For example, Emerie created a phone between her bunk and Reagan’s, citing it’s too hard to talk to each other (as if!), and it made it a week taped up there. Many fairy play houses, mini forts, and other paper creations are now bonded together with miles of tape and everywhere; and when returned to the recycle bin? Out they appear again, with three disgruntled girls who demand to create more projects.

Not too much more to update. Harper and Reagan tested out their gymnastics teacher one night with a full switch, and got away with it! They dressed as each other and claimed to be each other, and when tried for a second time during dance later that week, those more seasoned teachers didn’t fall for it. Pretty funny to see this, and at some point we have to get more glasses so everyone can be Emerie, who didn’t want to participate on this round.

I wrap up this lovely life post with a funny story, and the second time, the school notified me that one of my tiny humans licked a frozen pole at recess. If you guess Emerie (both times), then you would be correct. When asked how it happened, she legitimately told me she tripped and caught her tongue on the frozen pole, and she stuck to that story. So funny. A few days later Harper took a cousin toy to the face and was sporting a nice goose egg….needless to say it’s been exciting!

As we ease into the 100+ Christmas activities planned for the next two weeks, I will leave you with these amazing Christmas card photos, soon to be mailed out to everyone to enjoy.

❤