Birthday Alley

We are smack-dab in the middle of Birthday Alley here on the Hilltop. It starts with Gunnar on the 5^th of July. We had him convinced for years that they set off fireworks just for him!

Next is Evelyn on the 16^th of July. And then mine on the 31^st. Bryce is next on Aug 10^th, with my mother in law landing right after him on the 11^th. And finally we have Dave’s on September the 18^th. There is enough of a break between my Mother in Law and Dave that we have time to take a breath. I’m usually ready to throw another party by the time Dave’s birthday rolls around.

That is not all of the extended family birthdays, there are lots of us on both sides of the family that have summer birthdays, but usually I don’t have to think about hosting for those parties.

And because that’s not enough to do in one 6 week period, we usually travel to Colorado for our summer vacation then too. I also offered to have a youth group swim party here on the 7^th of Aug. I really should have given that date a little more thought. That’s a LOT of stuff going on in a short period of time.

We took our Colorado trip a bit earlier this summer so we could see Gunnar on his birthday. He is working at a Dude Ranch up there for the Summer.

Here we are, just about ready to start our LONG drive home after spending the weekend with him at the ranch. We were leaving him the last of the strawberry-rhubarb pie I made for his birthday. Gunnar is now 19 years old.

This is what we did for Evelyn’s birthday. She requested homemade pizza. That is one of our traditions, to let the birthday child choose dinner. I am happy to say we’ve moved on from the days of fish sticks hot dogs and macaroni and cheese!

This was amazing pizza! Ev has not had her birthday party yet. Her cousins were out of town and things were a bit nutty, so hopefully in Aug before school starts back up, we’ll have a cousin sleepover for her birthday. Evelyn is now 16.

Coming up very soon is my birthday. I’m going to be 29 again. Usually we are in Colorado on my birthday. I don’t think I’ve been home on my birthday for 5 or 6 years. You’ll not here me complain. I usually get to spend my birthday in the cool, beautiful mountains! That’s a gift in itself. 

But since we’re home this year, Dave is throwing me a party. My friend is coming to get me on Saturday and Dave and the kids are going to get the house ready and then I’ll come home to a party! How fun!

I’m trying to help get the house ready this week so there won’t be so much for him to do on Saturday. It’s a lot of work getting the house ready for a party. It’s not a big party, just family really, but it’s ALL the family. There are a lot of us when you start inviting both sides and add in the kids, and their girl/boy friends etc.

Once we are done with that it’ll be time to think about what we’re going to do for Bryce and Lori’s birthdays.

It’s a lot of work, hosting all these parties, but I love it. I love birthdays. It’s a wonderful excuse to make someone feel loved and appreciated and spoiled. I love choosing just the right gift that will make someone smile!

I’m not going to lie, birthday alley wears me out every year. By the time it’s over I don’t want to see another birthday cake! But I feel blessed to have a house that can accommodate a group of people to celebrate with us. We spent many years in a tiny place where that was impossible.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FAMILY! May we all survive Birthday Alley!