Friday night after the kids went to bed I baked a chocolate cake in a pirate ship cake pan I had purchased from Amazon. I also made some ginger cookie dough and sugar cookie dough and put them in the refrigerator to chill. Saturday morning we decorated the gingerbread man and the sugar cookies. The ginger cookie recipe I used resulted in VERY yummy cookies, but it didn't work well for making gingerbread men. I will use that recipe again but not for gingerbread.
Next year when I make the sugar cookie dough, I'm going to cut the recipe in half because #1 I ended up decorating many of the cookies because their attention span wasn't long enough and #2 neither Paul or I like sugar cookies. Saturday morning Paul took Ian and Nadia to do a little shopping for the party including letting Ian pick out three balloons at the dollar store. He picked a yellow smiley face, a red Elmo face, and a truck. Both kids have been having a blast with the balloons.
My parents arrived around 5pm on Saturday, and about 30 minutes later we were off to our church's Christmas dinner. One of these days I'll remember that these events are not fun with little ones. You think I'd know that from how unpleasant most meals are here at home, but I forgot. Actually they served ham the past few years, and Nadia likes ham. Also, Ian wasn't chewing last December. They served turkey this year, and both Nadia and Ian didn't do well even though I brought a banana for Ian, and normally he easily eats a banana.
I think part of the problem was they ate lunch 4 hours later than usual because of the shopping trip with Daddy and the nap they took in the van after returning home. Lesson learned. Nadia eventually ate some of her meal because she really, really wanted an ice cream sundae (the dessert they had at the dinner). I was really surprised that we had major struggles on Sunday at lunch as well because I let Nadia have a hot dog (instead of the chicken and dumplings everyone else was having) and let Ian have an unfrosted strawberry Pop Tart, since it was his birthday party meal.
The whole point of letting them eat a Pop Tart and hot dog was to avoid tears. Go figure. Backing up, Sunday morning we went to Sunday School and church. I have yet to make it there on time since May, but I've only been 5-10 minutes late the past few weeks. Paul's parents, brother, and grandmother met us at the church before the 10:30 service. We brought Nadia and Ian in to the service so they could go up for Oliver's dedication. I prepared a slide show of pictures of Oliver. Paul commented later that many women were in tears. I am so very grateful for Oliver. At the age of 35 I was childless, and now at 40 I am so blessed to have three beautiful children. Thank you, Lord! After the dedication we took Nadia and Ian back to Children's Church, but Ian started crying. He chose to stay with us. He did very well considering he had never sat through a worship service before (and ours last an average of 90 minutes). Nadia's dedication was a few days after she turned 3 months old. Oliver and Ian's were within a few days of when they turned 4 months old.
Oliver wore the same vest, tie, and pants that Ian did for his dedication. He wore a preemie size shirt. The pants were too long. I rolled them at the waist. The suit is size 0-3 month. I'm sure it will fit him properly some time this winter at the rate he's growing, whereas Ian only wore it once because it was time to switch to spring/summer clothing shortly after he wore it in April 2010. Although the boys were almost the same exact weight at 4 months old, I think Ian was longer so it makes Oliver look chubbier even though he has yet to reach the first percentile for his weight. When we came home we switched gears to celebrating Ian's 3rd birthday (Dec 12) and my dad's 69th birthday (Dec 10). I am very grateful that six members of our extended family were here with us to celebrate Ian's birthday and Oliver's dedication. If Ian was in charge of picking the menu we would have had bagels for lunch. I planned the menu based on my dad's preferences instead - chicken and dumplings, creamed corn, applesauce, rolls, and cranberry sauce. I even remembered to get him some Hawaiian Punch to drink.
After the meal, Ian (and my dad) opened their presents. The kids both really enjoyed playing with all the new toys today. He got a Thomas the Train Megabloks toy from my parents, farm animal toys from Great Gram, truck memory game from Aunt Wendy, Jake (pirate) tent from Uncle Al, Captain Hook stuffed animal and clothes from Paul's parents, a shirt from Cheri, and a spyglass, pirate ship, pirate puppet, and little plastic pirate figurines from us. Ironically, my mom had bought him the exact same spyglass! Great minds think alike, right? Many pirates and princesses were walking the plank today! He put Captain Hook and the pirate puppet in his bed to sleep with at naps and at night. After the presents were opened it was time to blow out candles! Ian successfully blew out his three candles one at a time. Millie made a delicious mandarin orange cake (my dad loves mandarin oranges), and I made a vegan chocolate cake for Ian. Paul spent HOURS doing the frosting (he said the color black was the hardest to make). He used white icing, food coloring, a spatula, and a knife. I think he did an amazing job!
We also had homemade pumpkin raisin, lemon, sugar, and ginger cookies. Two of those were vegan, and two of those were dairy free but had eggs in them. We gave three plates of cookies away as gifts at church yesterday morning to the kids' Sunday School and Children's Church teachers. We're planning to give two plates tomorrow (OT and ballet teacher) and two more on Wednesday (gymanstics teacher and Cubbies leader). I was so happy to see Ian eating cake on his birthday for the very first time. Sigh of relief.
Nadia wanted to help unwrap the presents, but we let Ian unwrap his own presents. My dad did let her help him unwrap his presents. One of Ian's gifts was a set of two figurines - Ariel and Eric because those are his favorites of all of Nadia's, and she very rarely is willing to share. Nadia didn't handle Ian receiving this gift well at all. This put her jealousy over the edge. It's a lesson for young children to learn to truly enjoy celebrating someone else's birthday. All in all it was a very special day celebrating Oliver's baby dedication, Ian's birthday, and my dad's birthday! Even though Nadia is four years old, this was the first birthday cake I made for a child. Since Aunt Millie makes cakes for a living (she owns a bakery), we have depended upon her talents for our birthday cakes. I admit I have felt some "Mommy guilt" when looking at pictures of birthday cakes moms have made their kids on Facebook and blogs. Now I can say we've made a cake for a child's birthday, and I think it turned out very well thanks to Paul's perfectionism.
Friday night after the kids went to bed I baked a chocolate cake in a pirate ship cake pan I had purchased from Amazon. I also made some ginger cookie dough and sugar cookie dough and put them in the refrigerator to chill. Saturday morning we decorated the gingerbread man and the sugar cookies. The ginger cookie recipe I used resulted in VERY yummy cookies, but it didn't work well for making gingerbread men. I will use that recipe again but not for gingerbread. 
Next year when I make the sugar cookie dough, I'm going to cut the recipe in half because #1 I ended up decorating many of the cookies because their attention span wasn't long enough and #2 neither Paul or I like sugar cookies. Saturday morning Paul took Ian and Nadia to do a little shopping for the party including letting Ian pick out three balloons at the dollar store. He picked a yellow smiley face, a red Elmo face, and a truck. Both kids have been having a blast with the balloons.
I think part of the problem was they ate lunch 4 hours later than usual because of the shopping trip with Daddy and the nap they took in the van after returning home. Lesson learned. Nadia eventually ate some of her meal because she really, really wanted an ice cream sundae (the dessert they had at the dinner). I was really surprised that we had major struggles on Sunday at lunch as well because I let Nadia have a hot dog (instead of the chicken and dumplings everyone else was having) and let Ian have an unfrosted strawberry Pop Tart, since it was his birthday party meal.
The whole point of letting them eat a Pop Tart and hot dog was to avoid tears. Go figure. Backing up, Sunday morning we went to Sunday School and church. I have yet to make it there on time since May, but I've only been 5-10 minutes late the past few weeks. Paul's parents, brother, and grandmother met us at the church before the 10:30 service. We brought Nadia and Ian in to the service so they could go up for Oliver's dedication. I prepared a slide show of pictures of Oliver. Paul commented later that many women were in tears. I am so very grateful for Oliver. At the age of 35 I was childless, and now at 40 I am so blessed to have three beautiful children. Thank you, Lord! After the dedication we took Nadia and Ian back to Children's Church, but Ian started crying. He chose to stay with us. He did very well considering he had never sat through a worship service before (and ours last an average of 90 minutes). Nadia's dedication was a few days after she turned 3 months old. Oliver and Ian's were within a few days of when they turned 4 months old.
Oliver wore the same vest, tie, and pants that Ian did for his dedication. He wore a preemie size shirt. The pants were too long. I rolled them at the waist. The suit is size 0-3 month. I'm sure it will fit him properly some time this winter at the rate he's growing, whereas Ian only wore it once because it was time to switch to spring/summer clothing shortly after he wore it in April 2010. Although the boys were almost the same exact weight at 4 months old, I think Ian was longer so it makes Oliver look chubbier even though he has yet to reach the first percentile for his weight. When we came home we switched gears to celebrating Ian's 3rd birthday (Dec 12) and my dad's 69th birthday (Dec 10). I am very grateful that six members of our extended family were here with us to celebrate Ian's birthday and Oliver's dedication. If Ian was in charge of picking the menu we would have had bagels for lunch. I planned the menu based on my dad's preferences instead - chicken and dumplings, creamed corn, applesauce, rolls, and cranberry sauce. I even remembered to get him some Hawaiian Punch to drink.
After the meal, Ian (and my dad) opened their presents. The kids both really enjoyed playing with all the new toys today. He got a Thomas the Train Megabloks toy from my parents, farm animal toys from Great Gram, truck memory game from Aunt Wendy, Jake (pirate) tent from Uncle Al, Captain Hook stuffed animal and clothes from Paul's parents, a shirt from Cheri, and a spyglass, pirate ship, pirate puppet, and little plastic pirate figurines from us. Ironically, my mom had bought him the exact same spyglass! Great minds think alike, right? Many pirates and princesses were walking the plank today! He put Captain Hook and the pirate puppet in his bed to sleep with at naps and at night. After the presents were opened it was time to blow out candles! Ian successfully blew out his three candles one at a time. Millie made a delicious mandarin orange cake (my dad loves mandarin oranges), and I made a vegan chocolate cake for Ian. Paul spent HOURS doing the frosting (he said the color black was the hardest to make). He used white icing, food coloring, a spatula, and a knife. I think he did an amazing job! 
We also had homemade pumpkin raisin, lemon, sugar, and ginger cookies. Two of those were vegan, and two of those were dairy free but had eggs in them. We gave three plates of cookies away as gifts at church yesterday morning to the kids' Sunday School and Children's Church teachers. We're planning to give two plates tomorrow (OT and ballet teacher) and two more on Wednesday (gymanstics teacher and Cubbies leader). I was so happy to see Ian eating cake on his birthday for the very first time. Sigh of relief.
Nadia wanted to help unwrap the presents, but we let Ian unwrap his own presents. My dad did let her help him unwrap his presents. One of Ian's gifts was a set of two figurines - Ariel and Eric because those are his favorites of all of Nadia's, and she very rarely is willing to share. Nadia didn't handle Ian receiving this gift well at all. This put her jealousy over the edge. It's a lesson for young children to learn to truly enjoy celebrating someone else's birthday. All in all it was a very special day celebrating Oliver's baby dedication, Ian's birthday, and my dad's birthday! Even though Nadia is four years old, this was the first birthday cake I made for a child. Since Aunt Millie makes cakes for a living (she owns a bakery), we have depended upon her talents for our birthday cakes. I admit I have felt some "Mommy guilt" when looking at pictures of birthday cakes moms have made their kids on Facebook and blogs. Now I can say we've made a cake for a child's birthday, and I think it turned out very well thanks to Paul's perfectionism.
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