seven and three (birthday!)

Yes it's true--we now have a seven-year-old and a three-year-old!

I thought about getting balloons like I did two years ago, and then I realized--seven pink balloons and three blue ones--that's ten balloons.  I don't think I could fit that many in the car. So we were balloon-less.  But I did have some fun with Andy's new magnetic letters. 



We had Kate's friend Emma over for cupcake-decorating and pretzel-making. 






Kate put the candles in her own cupcake (rather haphazardly).



I still don't know how to avoid those reflection spots.  Anyone?





We sang Happy Birthday to Kate and then sang to Andy.  He seemed surprised when it was his turn.



Andy gets a little help blowing out his candles.



Messy!






More LEGO...



And a Littlest Pet Shop set from Emma.



Andy got the They Might Be Giants "Here Come the ABCs" CD and DVD set.  (He kept looking at it and saying "ABC!")




And a couple of Mo Willems DVDs.  (Pigeon!  Yay!)



Next... pretzels!




The rolling-out part is kind of hard for kids.  Something about coordinating the rolling and elongating motion.  We don't realize that it's not as easy as it looks.  Kate and Emma each made a couple of pretzels and then Doug and I finished off the rest.



We hadn't made pretzels for about a year and a half, and apparently forgot a very important point.  We baked the pretzels on parchment paper and they stuck something awful.  I wound up having to peel the bottom layer off each pretzel.  So they were a little unsightly, underneath, but still tasted good!  So if you're going to try this, remember: well-greased cookie sheet good, ungreased parchment paper bad. (At least if you do the baking soda bath... I think that was the problem. They were all wet and sticky.) Recipe here!

Happy birthday Kate and Andy!  It's been a great year.  Here's to many more!