Happy Birthday Xandri & Roman!

Ok, before I hear it from everyone who had to share a birthday party with a sibling who's birthday was like a week apart from their own, please note that this is not a tradition that will continue past the age where it starts sucking. For now.... just imagine a two year old watching a four year old (keep in mind he's almost as big as she is physically. In his mind, they're equals.) open presents, get toys and treats and lots of attention. And then the four year old watching her brother get all that a couple days later. I'm absolutely positive this is how that tradition started in most families-- it was simply more practical and actually easier on both kids to share the birthday celebrations.

It was honestly a rocky week for birthdays though. Xandri had been asking when it was her birthday for about a month and then Derek kept getting home late at night. We hadn't decided to celebrate their birthdays together until a day or two before (or maybe even the day of), so Xandri knew when we were SUPPOSED to celebrate her birthday and wasn't too happy when we postponed. But she had also been running a bit of a fever earlier that week... which Roman caught and it was really bad for him. Wheezing, croupy cough, 104 degree fever at night... I was really worried and very grateful he had a doctor daddy. He could stay at home in his bed and get better rest than he would at the hospital (as would we) and still have a doctor monitoring him. So combined birthday week was a bit unorganized and stressful since I didn't even know if Roman would be up to celebrating!

We intended to celebrate on Thursday, but with the sickness and the schedule, it happened on Saturday instead. We just kept it simple and instead of wrapping presents, did the present treasure hunt. It was a hit. Of course, once Roman found his first present, he was happy and had no need to keep looking. It took quite a lot of convincing to get him to realize there were more. Maybe we shoulda saved em for Christmas....

Xandri, on the other hand, had no problem grasping the concept of multiple presents hidden around the room and immediately fell in love with a few favorites-

a giant Pegasus My Little Pony with gorgeous hair to brush and comb and play with, as well as a Hello Kitty purse Daddy picked out for her (he actually handled the birthday shopping this year and he really nailed it)

Truck number two

Showing off her new "Dolly & Me" dress set

Avril found Roman's dragon

Figuring out how to shoot the thing

Hey, where'd it go?

Thanks Grandpa Jackson!

Xandri loves her stuffed weasel and of course the Teddy Grahams are a hit like always.

A screaming monkey. Great. Just what I need. And of course he loves it.

Just like he loves his Happy Meal toy, The Thing.

Which yells "Iiiiiit's CLOBBERIN TIME!" everytime you hit it against something. Like my face.

This is actually a while after their birthdays, but I had Xandri bring her money (thanks to Grandma Zan and Auntie Camas for a combined whopping $30 spending money!!) to the Swap Meet to pick out some fun things and this is what she chose:

(Please note that she also got a necklace with a cute little slipper on it which she promptly lost. Upon finding it, she realized that now the necklace itself is lost.)

Oh and she couldn't even think about anything else she wanted until she had that Dora the Explorer phone. Nothing else was worth giving that up.