Birthday month on Yellowstone Street

I have realized something about the Strader calendar. We decorate for Valentine's Day in February, Easter in March, From May to July we are red, white and blue, October starts our "let's pretend it is really Fall" decor which leads right into Christmas. However, we here on Yellowstone Street also decorate for September...we have Birthday month. Yes the WHOLE month! It started with mine on the 3rd...I turned 33 on the 3rd this year and it fell on a Thursday ( a day of work). Aaron stays with the girls on Thursdays and Ben came home a little early to "prep" but Aaron had stole the show! She had prepared a craft to do with the girls that day and they had painted a frame for me, and glued gems all over then Aaron printed a picture she took of them and had the fireplace all set up with a birthday banner and streamers and balloons...they even made a big sign for me. It was very surprising!I chose to go out to Ritchie's Diner for my birthday dinner because the girls love it so much. Well not THIS night! Ally screamed the whole time, I ate outside on the bench out of a To Go container while Ally cried and squirmed in my lap. Ben ate inside with Natalie because she was actually an angel. We left frustrated and certainly not feeling like we had just celebrated anything but being fools to take two kids under 4 to a restaurant for dinner. Note to self: next year a babysitter and a candlelight dinner with Ben is a MUCH better idea!

We make phone calls to Ben's Dad, who celebrates the 2nd and my cousin, also the 2nd, also my birthday twin Lindsay...we have just enough time to prep

are for Ben's birthday the 18th!

This year Ben was supposed to be out of town so I didn't even remember to plan anything until the week of. I threw an impromptu night out together and was lucky enough to get 14 people to race go-karts and eat at a local brewery. We had a great time and Ben came in second (he got the Silver medal. Our friend Todd, won gold, and our neighbor Chris

took the bronze. It was a great night with great friends!

Natalie's birthday always seems to take the cake, she is the big kahuna when it comes to a birthday bash! My plan was to escape the party and settle up with Disne

yland (see prior post). Unfortunately she realized that meant NO PARTY, and she is a mama's girl when it comes to planning a party. She was obsessed with plates. She wanted to buy plates for her birthday. As if one can not age with out first selecting the most perfect plates of the year. Plates that represent your age, your favorite _______ of the year. It needs to be an image that sums up the whole 365 days! She really considered all the options. Yo Gabba Gabba a new insane TV Show, perhaps a repeat of last year, pink princess party, she thought about Hannah Montana but realized she doesn't really know who or what she does exactly. I tried for less marketing, maybe red or non-desrcript monkey...maybe a cupcake pattern or hearts...

We ended up with something princess of course...but these had a mix of all the princesses. And so it was...now for the cake what will it be? A Cinderella carriage...quite a

cute one if you ask me!

We threw together a quick gymnastics party at My Gym, a party for 3-5 year olds, that went quite smoothly.

So now that September decorations are coming down, it is time to pull out the pumpkins and scarecrows..because we have to start pretending it is Fall.