February Birthdays

There are lots of advantages to having a large family, one of which is there is always a birthday or 2 or 3 to celebrate.  Christmas is no sooner over than it is time to think about birthday presents.  There happen to be a lot of birthdays in January, February and March.  So let's get together and party!

Asher's is January 31st so Andy and I went up to their house on Tuesday, the 29th.  We had a good time visiting and spending time together before dinner.  Christy makes the best pizza!  And instead of birthday cake, she had made an out-of-this-world delicious chocolate banana cream pie!  Asher was excited to blow out his 5 candles!

And he loved the nerf gun we gave him.  We didn't see him the rest of the evening because he was so busy shooting it.

There are 3 birthdays in February:  Dawn's, Christy's and mine.  So we planned a party at our house on Saturday, Feb. 9th.  The forecast was calling for snow on Friday night, but we weren't sure how much we were going to get.  New England got a lot of snow, but we were on the edge and when we woke up on Saturday morning, we had only gotten about 4 inches.  I was concerned that someone might not want to risk the trip.  But the sun was shining and even though it was still cold, the roads were clear by the time everyone needed to be on the road.

I made 2 kinds of soup, chicken noodle and tomato based barley.  Amy brought a delicious sandwich casserole dish (that I must get the recipe for), Christy brought a salad, and Dawn brought the carrot cake and dessert.  Wow!  So much food and everything was outstanding.

 It was a house full of people and kids (and 2 dogs, too!).  The kids were so excited to be together and Andy and Tommy helped in that excitement.  They were chasing each other through the house and screaming until someone got the brilliant idea to let them watch a movie.

 

It's so nice that they enjoy being together.

So here is my haul.  Amy made these beautiful placemats for me - perfect for the Valentine's theme this month.  Christy gave me 2 books that I hadn't read yet and Dawn gave me a gift card to Chipotle.

We had our meal at lunch time and Andy's mom and dad joined us for that.  And after our meal, we started planning our next party.  Grace's birthday is in March, Aiden's in April, Andy's in May, and Naomi, Chase & Joanna are in June.  Birthdays are a wonderful way to remember how grateful we are for each person represented and how God has blessed our family.