Birthday Celebrations for The Deej

 As mentioned in the previous post, DJ is now one. Holy moly! I can't... I just can't... what?! Anyway, I promised myself (and you, in the previous post) that I'd write about his birthday celebrations, so here we go.

7/11 is a great day to have a birthday. You get a free Slurpee and a sweet awesome Slurpee tattoo. We went with my good friend, Tina, and her cute kids. Deej got lots of fun stuff for his birthday, including a Little People farm, a puzzle, some clothes (a shirt from one grandma and an overall outfit from the other), a crawling tunnel, some huge Legos, three balls, and a lovely picture of Jesus. He got pancakes and eggs for breakfast and got to go out to Chili's for dinner, where he got his own kids meal with apple juice, a quesadilla, and corn. We also got a lava cake because, come on, it's his birthday! Deg started the day by putting the two boys in their matching Deg shirts that Grandma Valentine sent for Deg's birthday. Deej spent the day playing and getting phone calls from lots of his aunts and uncles, his grandparents, and even his great grandma and grandpa Bowen. He got to play with his friends and he got to eat lots of yummy food.

The next day, we had a pool party for his birthday. We had two families from our ward over plus a girl I went to high school with and her two kids. That meant 7 adults and 10 kids - it was a crazy, fun time! Deg rigged up a speaker so we could jam to the Beach Boys while we swam, shot each other with water guns, ate watermelon and cantaloupe and Swedish fish and goldfish crackers, drank Sprite and Dr. Pepper with coconut syrup in it, and generally just have a good time. I didn't want a total crazy party because I know me and I would have gone all out and made myself miserable in the process, so it was fun to just chill in the pool for a few hours. Everyone had a lot of fun. The adult men even got into a cannon ball contest, so it was a blast. We swam until Deej absolutely had to have a nap.

If you find blue frosting with fishy sprinkles and you're having a pool party, that makes your cupcakes themed, right? Plus if you stick a drink umbrella in them, it's way too much fun. Blue frosting is a mess, though, but it was worth it! DJ got some really fun presents from his friends. The Belnaps gave him his very own swim towel (seriously a necessity at our house). The Frehners gave him some touch and feel books (which are his favorite and are quite handy at church) and a Superman shirt. The Covingtons gave him a bat themed gift, based on the bat story in the cabin post. Oh dear! Bat glasses, a bat toy, a rubber bat, and a Batman outfit - aww yeah!

Now, I know what you're thinking - I said I didn't go all out, but here are all the kids and most of the adults in cardboard cutouts. Yes, I made them. But hang on. We all know that I can get crafty and that I like to do all sorts of art projects. Well, doing those kinds of project is almost therapeutic for me, so making the cardboard cutouts actually made me feel better about the party. Yes, I know I'm nuts. But I had fun, so that's what's important. At first, the boys only wanted to do pirate pictures and the girls only wanted to do mermaid pictures, but before long, the boys were doing their best goofy mermaid face and the girls were busting out their fiercest pirate faces. And then the adults got into it, so we had a blast with them! Definitely worth it!