A Celebration Bundle

Gearing up for an eventful weekend, Crewe got warmed up by enjoying some chocolate éclair. Somehow, it's the first time I've made it for the kids, and they absolutely loved it.

Bristol also pre-gamed for her blessing photos by being as adorable as ever. Plus, we needed a picture of her to put on the wall in the meantime.

Uncle Dwight and Meemaw drove up on Friday and arrived just in time to get in a few jumps with the girls on the trampoline. They kept taking his hat and throwing it over the fence. They also told him he had girl hair. So, they definitely did a good job of making him feel welcome.

The kids and I went and got donuts on Saturday morning. They really love the chocolate bars. 

Crewe enjoyed a maple Bismarck.

Since we were celebrating both Hadley and Harlow's birthdays, Emily made two cakes. Harlow, as always, took care of licking off the beaters.

Cambri also helped clean the bowl.

For her birthday, Hadley really wanted to go to the arcade in Monroe. Since her birthday is on Sunday this year, we went on Saturday instead. Gma and Gpa came over with Rock, and met us there. Meemaw left to go pickup Aunt Shannon at the airport, and would meet up with us at dinner.

When I say arcade, it's mostly a bunch of claw machines that are play until you win. There are a few arcade games, though.

Crewe found the skee-balls and spent a good while rolling those up the ramp and letting them come back to him. At one point he also climbed up the ramp to place the balls in the holes.

Rock joined in and shot some hoops. I don't know that I've ever seen anyone put so much side-spin on a shot. The hoops were obviously rigged, so that made it nearly impossible to begin with.

Uncle Dwight and Harlow taking down the targets.

Gma gladly watched Bristol while we helped the girls win their prizes.

Hadley and Cambri scored a lot of stuff.

Crewe moved on to whatever golf game this is. He looks good with a club in his hand.

After the arcade, the plan was originally to go to McDonald's, but Hadley changed her mind last minute and wanted to go to Alfy's instead, because they have the old school video games.

Lindsea's crew also met up with us in time for dinner.

Streetfighter is one of their favorites. Probably looking for punch combos to use at home.

We got a few pizzas, breadsticks, and boneless wings (chicken nuggets), and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Rock got busted for accidentally putting pop in his water cup, which made for an interesting interaction with the guy working there, who acted as though Rock was robbing the place for all its worth.

I promise he knows to pick up the pizza and eat it like a normal person.

After dinner, Gma, Gpa, and Lindsea headed the Everett to their hotel, and Emily, Meemaw, and Shannon headed back to our house to put the finishing touches on the cakes. 

Dwight and I had a 6pm tee time at the Snohomish Golf Course that we needed to bolt to. They told us when we checked in that we wouldn't get 18 holes in, and we took that as a challenge.

We busted through the first six holes in under an hour, so were definitely on pace to have the cart and the clubs Dwight rented back by their 9pm deadline, but then got stuck behind a couple groups. We finished hole 16 just before 9pm. So we returned everything and they said we could take a push cart and go finish if we wanted. So, we ran back to the 17th hole and finished in the dark. Surprisingly, we didn't lose a single ball in the dark. We could hardly see when we finished, but we got in our 18.

Sunday morning was Bristol's blessing. She looked beautiful in her blessing dress, which is the same one Emily and our other girls wore. 

When we got to the chapel, everyone was standing outside and the inside was dark. They changed the locks recently and only handed out ten keys or something. Church was supposed to start in less than ten minutes, too. Finally, someone with a key showed up and unlocked the building, but no members of the bishopric were there yet, and we needed one there for the blessing. Finally, the two counselors walked it. Then, as the meeting was starting, there was nobody to bless or pass the sacrament. One of the guys in the ward asked Aaron if he'd help (probably thinking he was me) and Aaron enlisted Rock and Ryker to join him. Seeing this, Lindsea told Hudson to go help, too. It was a little chaotic to start, but everything worked out okay.

The blessing went well. Emily mentioned it seemed longer than the other kids' blessings, but things just kept coming to my mind. We were inspired to have Bristol, so I guess it isn't surprising that her blessing would feel inspired, too.

Afterwards, we gathered outside for some pictures. 

We then headed back to our house for some lunch and cake. I had made some white queso, which had burned in the crockpot by the time we got back. Instead of being white, it had turned more yellow/orange. Everyone said they enjoyed it, but I couldn't tell if they meant it or just being nice. Either way, sorry about the burning the queso.

After enjoying some nachos, we moved onto the birthday celebration. This is Harlow's Moana cake. Emily had made a wave by melting some sugar and letting it harden, but it fell and broke right after she put it on top of the cake. She instead had to improvise with smaller waves behind Moana. It still turned out awesome, but just imagine a huge wave coming up over top of Moana.

Hadley asked for a cake in the form of Hello Kitty's bow. She didn't really give Emily much to go off, and when Emily showed it to her, Hadley said something about it not being what she expected. I think it turned out great, especially the whipped Nutella inside.

For some reason, this is Harlow's go-to pose for pictures. I don't know where it's from, but it's pretty adorable.

Hadley might not look it, but she was pretty stoked, too.

Harlow does a little excited wiggle here, it was cute.

Lot of cake to go around. The Moana funfetti cake was probably everyone's favorite, if I were to guess. Emily was glad there weren't any leftovers.

Bristol got passed around quite a bit. Gma enjoyed her chance, and Bristol napped with her arms straight out.

It was a good time visiting with everyone.

Javier didn't mind chilling outside while the kids ran around.

After cake, we moved right into opening presents.

They both scored some pretty awesome stuff. Harlow got the own camera, so doesn't have to share anymore, and Hadley got a lot of Hello Kitty stuff.

And here's Crewe just hanging out, playing with Harlow's bag.

It was nice to play host and have everyone over. It also means a lot that everyone would come so far to spend their Sunday/weekend with us and support our kids. It also worked out nicely that we were able to choose a weekend that allowed us to conveniently celebrate three of our kids. Family is a great blessing I've always been able to have in my life, and I'm so glad my kids will get that, too. So, thank you to all of you who came to visit and celebrate with us. I can't express enough how much it means to us.