Celebrate

Even with this winterish weather hanging around and trying to drag down our spirits, we have had quite a bit of cheer around here lately, mainly because we've been very busy celebrating both my birthday and Colton's birthday.  We are exactly one week apart (plus 29 years!).  To most people, that wouldn't exactly constitute "sharing" a birthday, but I'm big on birthdays and believe on dragging out the celebration as long as humanly possible which means Colton and I now overlap!  I never thought I'd be ok with that, but I must admit, he's a pretty special birthday partner!
So here's how it's all gone down.  Birthday celebrations kicked off around here Saturday, March 17th.  That evening Josh and I dropped the boys off at the Kids' Night Out (a crazy bargain of babysitting at Colton's school...$20 for both of them for four hours...6-10) and caught a dinner out just the two of us.  Josh had actually contacted my sister about planning a night out with our friends for the night, but when I caught wind of it, I told him I'd much rather just spend the night as the two of us...it's amazing how something that used to be so common (date night) is now such a treat!  We had a great dinner at a new place (Tapped if you're local) and then headed back to get the boys.
On my actual birthday (March 19th), Josh (and the rest of the world) were working so the boys and I met my mom for lunch out. Once Josh got home, he gave me my gift: some stackable birth stone rings (one with his, one with mine/Colton's, and one with Levi's).

We headed out to catch a quick dinner, and when we got back we had some family member over for ice cream cake and wine (a couple of my favorite things).  It was a pretty low-key celebration, but pretty perfect at the same time.

On Friday, it was Colton's last day at school before his (2 week long!) spring break, so we brought in some cookies for his classmates.  His teacher sent me some pictures from his big celebration.  I personally love the challah, wine glass, and Shabbat candles on the table!
                                           

That Saturday night, we had dinner out at a Virginia Beach favorite (Aldo's...again if you're local) with my whole family.  My family has a long tradition of doing a special dinner out to celebrate birthdays, and with this one falling right in between Colton's day and mine, this is where our "sharing" kicked in.  We even jointly blew out the candle on our brownie sundae dessert...very grown up of me, huh?!?  I have no pictures from the actual dinner (too busy eating/drinking/keeping Levi entertained/attempting to see my new niece!), but we did take a nice little family pic before going out.

And then on Tuesday (March 26th), the celebration transitioned to Colton's big day.  The celebration started as soon as he woke up.  We had put three balloons in his room while he was sleeping, and his eyes got about as big as possible when he spied those things.

you can barely see him in the background, but trust me his eyes are big...probably because mom's also pointing a camera at him first thing in the morning!

Of course, we had a special breakfast as well...a chocolate covered sprinkle doughnut.  As a side note, I have made cake batter pancakes for the last couple birthday celebrations, and I must say the doughnut was much easier and equally as appreciated.  Work smarter, not harder people!

We spent the day at Colton's favorite place: the bounce house.  I invited some of his friends to join us, and they were sweet enough to surprise him with a cupcake (please don't keep track of how horribly my son ate that day!).

That afternoon, I made Colton pose for his obligatory 3rd birthday portrait.  He's holding up three fingers if you can't tell.

And at night, much like we did for my birthday, we had both sides of the family over for dinner (hot dogs per Colton's request), cake, and presents.  Colton was sooo excited about the presents.  He wanted to play with each thing immediately after opening it.  A few days removed, he's still pretty excited about all his new stuff!

And with all that celebrating in the books, we amazingly still aren't done!  I have a Girls' Night Out with some very sweet friends planned for next week along with Colton's big birthday party scheduled for next weekend (cross your fingers for nice weather...we have one of those bounce houses booked!).  

Some (including some of my family members) would probably say it's too much, but I say you only get one birthday a year.  May as well make the most of it!  Who's with me?!?