I love our tradition of only having a friend birthday party every other year. Otherwise, I'd probably lose my mind with all the prep work that's involved in putting together a birthday party-ha! It's so wonderful to celebrate as a family and really enjoy our time together. This year, Dane asked a few days before his birthday, "Mom, what's the theme for my birthday this year?" Of course, I had no theme whatsoever since we weren't really having a big birthday party!!! But he asked if we could do a hot wheels theme and I assured him yes indeed we could. I mean, how much longer is my little guy going to want a birthday theme anyhow? Evelyn outgrew that idea years ago! We had chocolate donuts to resemble wheels and a fun poster hanging up. Napkins, and paper plates and that was a simple yet effective representation, if I do say so myself. I invited a few of Dane's closest friends over on his birthday to race hot wheels cars and play soccer. We call it the "birthday playdate". We had cupcakes and sang happy birthday. Later that day we headed out of town to Lancaster, CA for Dane's soccer tournament. One of his gifts was a Tom and Jerry dvd, (he LOVES Tom and Jerry) and he was allowed to pick all movies, including this one for the drive up. All the kids were thrilled to stay in the hotel and eat junk food till late at night. Hotels are just plain fun now that Anna is no longer in a crib. We don't need much for a family vacation! Heck, we live in San Diego and I don't think it gets much better than that. So we are able to save a lot of money by just doing small vacations-- 2 hour trips to anywhere and everywhere, with the perk of a hotel stay and breakfast!
Unfortunately, Dane's team didn't do so well at the tournament... but it was a fun vacation nonetheless and we enjoyed swimming, shopping, eating out with the team and watching HGTV and cooking shows late into the evening. My kids are huge fans of anything reality. They get that from me. They will sit through hour long home improvement shows thinking its the most exciting show on earth! So fun that we have that similar interest. And of course, Evelyn vlogged the entire thing which was both annoying and funny at the same time. We sure had a blast celebrating our Dane. He loved the motorcycle he received, along with his speed championship lego cars from Grammy and Papa, and Disneyland trip from Grandma and Grandpa. It was a blast!
