Happy 8th Birthday Reed!

Life has been nothing short of C-R-A-Z-Y recently, but now that it's starting to slow down a bit I'm finally ready to start catching up on it. March 24th was exactly one month ago today so I guess it's semi-perfect that today is the day I am finally making note of Reed's birthday festivities. Being that is was such a special birthday I had been more focused on the baptism aspect of this landmark and almost forgot to plan a real celebration for his actual birthday. However, the night before his birthday I could tell Reed was hoping/expecting a day of celebration--so in just a couple hours we pulled together some last minute ideas to make sure it was a special day for him.

We started the morning at the donut shop, The Fractured Prune, where you can "design your own donut". Reed chose a peanut butter cup and thin mint donut and seemed happy with his selection. I think he loves donuts almost as much as his mother so he was pretty excited about the outing.


After some morning errand running, I told Reed he could have whatever he wanted for lunch and without a moment of hesitation he requested a Lunchable. I will never understand the allure of the Lunchable, but I did appreciate the lack of work required to accommodate his birthday wish.


Reed wasn't the only one pleased with a Lunchable lunch. They all felt pretty special.


After lunch we headed to College Park to meet the Bywaters for ice skating and a "reverse-surprise party". You know you have good friends when you can surprise them with the fact that you're having an impromptu party for your son at their house and they are the only planned guests. Although we hadn't been planning on it, we decided to pull a party together and gave the Bywaters an hour notice that we would be crashing their evening and house. Thankfully, they were nothing but accommodating.

When we got to the ice skating rink I was surprised to find that they had skates for Ruby. At first she didn't want anything to do with them, but they were too cute to not force on her.
I know it was Reed's birthday, but Ruby and the tiny skates won the cute award.


Once she got on the ice, she couldn't get enough. In fact, I couldn't get her to take them off when we were done and ended up having to tell her that we would buy pink ice skates next time we saw them. Given that most of my shopping with Ruby is at Walmart, I think I'm safe with that promise.




Ruby wasn't the only one who enjoyed the skating. Reed raced around the rink with lots of determination.


Max on the hand was a little more hesitant, but was happy to join Robyn and the other kids after a while.



The whole group.


Whenever we had talked about having a birthday party, Reed always mentioned that he would like to have an owl birthday party. Both of my boys love birds--all birds really--but especially the most outrageous and vicious ones. Apparently, owls are among the most amazing and vicious because both of my boys love them. I'm sure Harry Potter has something to do with it too. Unfortunately, "aggressive carnivorous fowl" is not a common birthday party theme and most everything "owl" I found online was cutesy owl. Despite our short time and few resources we were still able to pull off a suitable owl party and help Reed feel celebrated.

Decorating owl cupcakes.


They totally look like owls, don't they?


Blowing out candles? Check!




Eating Cake? Check!




Games? Check! Pin the Facial Disk on the owl was all Reed.




Presents? Check.




Treat Bags? Check.


For a last minute celebration, I think it came together great, and, more importantly, Reed felt like it was his day. Happy Birthday Reed (only a month late). We love you!