Caleb's Birthday Week!

I wish I could say that I'm all ready for Christmas, but it generally takes me a few days to recover from birthday party central over here. Now I remember why I used to space their parties out, to give me a break, ha! The weekend before last, we had a family party for Caleb and Isabelle. Super low key, but everything looks fun and festive this time of year, right?

The day before Caleb's birthday, he had driver's ed and THEN a two hour drive time, so I picked him up a little something to get through the afternoon. Lest you worry, he ate a full dinner when he returned home at 7:45, ha ha. :)

 

And then on 12/12, we celebrated who I thought would always be my "baby boy's" sixteenth birthday!!! Someone was up too early and knew that we had donuts...

ha ha ha ha ha

I don't have pictures of Caleb to share here because if you don't know teen boys, well, they are generally not wearing much clothing at home. HA But here is his birthday donut!

Letting little bro blow out the match :)

I got him out of school a bit early and surprised him by meeting up with my parents at Dunkin for some treats. That was fun!

It had been a really busy day, but I knew that he wanted a cheesecake more than anything, so I made it happen. Barely. ;)

And then we went on our annual pajama cocoa drive. There are some really decked out houses this year, they look SO good. Doing this tradition for the very first time without Ethan here was hard. I wonder if it's something that you just don't ever get used to. But it was a lot of fun!

This shot is crazy but just look at all the blankets and things Isabelle must bring with her! ha ha! So naturally Levi insisted on bringing a blanket too. Of course. :)

Then the guys went to the movies on Friday night. I guess none of it seems terribly exciting for your 16th birthday, and truthfully, I do wrestle with that. The whole idea of celebrating someone and having it be meaningful but at the same time, choosing to keep from going nuts. I know lots of his friends got cars for their birthdays, and new ones at that. That just isn't our reality, which is fine, BUT I do wonder about it and feel guilty about maybe not doing enough. I think we all feel like that as Moms, don't we? Ugh, it's all so hard sometimes.

And then three days later, party central turned pink and purple and aqua... I'll share details from Isabelle's pretty party soon. I'm down to just two orders and then I need to get my act together!! Are you guys ready yet?