Birthday Week

I realize I'm skipping a few things -- like pics from the rest of our trip to CA -- but I promise I'll get to those, and there are some good ones. In the meantime, we must acknowledge Birthday Week. For those of you who don't know, Casey, Andrew, and I all have birthdays within 5 days of each other, so every year we get to celebrate one big Birthday Week.

Birthday Week always kicks off with Casey's big day (I won't say which number it was, but it's more than 30 and less than 40), and it always starts with birthday pancakes.



Followed by birthday presents. Andrew's official position for the opening of presents is right on Casey's lap.



That has been Andrew's position since 2005, which was his first full Birthday Week.



And in 2006.



And 2007.



And in 2008.



But I digress. While presents are fun, cake is far more exciting.



And if you can believe it, Willa got this whole piece in her mouth at once, after meticulously picking off every bit of frosting.



Then it was on to Andrew's birthday -- 5 this year!! We had a small celebration on the day, of course, but this year he had a "friend party." I'll devote a whole post to the party later; it's not something I want to short change here in the middle of Birthday Week.




I got out of making the 2nd birthday cake in 2 days by taking Andrew to dinner at Friendly's. We've done this in the past, but I'll spare you yet another trip down memory lane to see all the times Andrew ate ice cream on his birthday.




And then there was my birthday (again, no numbers, please). By this point we're usually pretty birthday-ed out, so we don't celebrate a lot, there are fewer pictures, and I never have my own cake. But this year Abbie & family were with us, which was a lot of fun, and Casey took care of dinner for everyone, which was AWESOME.

(After I posted this last night, Casey read it and thought I sounded like I was complaining about my birthday. I just want to set the record straight that I am NOT complaining. My birthday was great this year, and Casey was really good about making it enjoyable in the midst of an extremely busy week at work. And we don't have cake on my birthday because by then no one -- least of all me -- wants to eat more cake, not because I'm being overlooked.)

And now at least once a day Willa talks about her birthday in June.