Two things first:
1)  I’m speaking at another online summit coming up in a couple weeks.  I’m so excited, first of all because FREE, and second of all because it’s an organization summit and that is something I always want new tips on, especially at the beginning of the school year!  During my session I will be talking about organizing your dreams and it was fun to put my little schpeal together, with guest appearances from my girls and even Dave 🙂  I’ll write more details soon, but for now here’s the logo:
I’m always up for “organizing and streamlining!”  Click HERE for more info. and to sign up.
2)  Starting late this evening this blog will be down for 24-48 hours while we situate all the information over on WordPress.  So don’t freak out if you come here and there’s nothing.  Or maybe some weird error message.  I have no idea how it will look, but just know we’ll be up and running with the NEW FORMAT ON MONDAY!  WooHoo!  I’m excited to unveil it all…crossing my fingers it works!
Ok, there we go.  On to summer birthdays:
All three of my first babies were all born D.C.
This was my try at getting a picture of them by the capital to commemorate that fact before we moved across the country when Grace was six months old:

  Here’s a better shot of my “posers”:

(AW I miss them!!)
Not only were they all born over on the other side of the continent, but they were all born in the summer.  None of them could drive (or date) until their junior years.  It will be weird this year to have Claire make that milestone in January…(HALLELUJAH!  I cannot wait to have another driver again!)
Anyway, let’s document those summer birthdays since I haven’t done that yet. 
First is Max on June 3rd.  He was in China on the big day and I spilled out my love for that 22-year-old on the big day back HERE.  But this is what happened on his birthday over in China:

 JUST what he wanted.  He’s a sucker for LOTS of attention.

Ha HA!  That is totally not true.  But how sweet is that that his China office got him all celebrated.  They are the best.  And Abby took such great care of him as well.

We decided since we’d be seeing him a couple days later (en route to Africa) that we’d celebrate his birthday as a family when we were together.  We decided one of our days in Kenya (where we went on a safari that I still need to write all about here) would be the day to celebrate.  We did our “things we love about him” tradition around that candle-lit table in our little camp:

Oh I miss that place!

All the staff came out and sang him the sweetest happy birthday song in Swahili:

And somehow whipped up a cake for him (they took good care of us there I have to say!)

 The girls made a banner for him:

And it didn’t hurt that we had been out galavanting around Kenya that day…love this pic of these two we took at our “sun-downer” spot earlier that evening:

 Also didn’t hurt to get to see these puppies on your “fake” birthday:

 …and this guy:

 …and these guys:

Yep, that 22 was well celebrated.

On to the next now-adult of the family: Grace.  Her birthday is on June 26th and I wrote my eighteen things I love about her back HERE.  But here’s what we did on the big day…wait, let’s talk about the day before the big day for a second first.

Because we got home from Africa one day, and the next Grace got her wisdom teeth pulled and Lu got her braces off (I posted a little video of all that excitement back HERE).  Here are her sisters taking good care of that pre-birthday girl:

And then the next day was Grace’s birthday.

So she was still in pain and swollen up for the big eighteen.  Which she was mortified about, but that sure made that day memorable!

Here’s Claire fancying up the breakfast table:

Ocean pancakes for breakfast:

 (recipe for those back HERE)

Lu did her traditional candy bar birthday poster:

 (See how Grace is strategically holding that poster…oh that girl was a good sport!)

 Breakfast and gifts…

I gave her this special globe and a journal to document all the places she’ll go.  Oh her future is so bright!

Her friends came over laden with the sweetest gifts:

 Had our traditional bday cake:

And that’s about all I saw her since these best friends whisked her away and had the best day ever.

Then came Elle on August 12th.  I wrote my ode to her back HERE.

Dave happened to be in Utah where she is finishing up her internship the weekend before her birthday.

So he gathered all the cousins (and also his sister and Max and Abby and Lar) who are in Utah (a LOT of them!), and took them all to dinner to celebrate:

On the very day my Mom took Elle out to lunch:

…and went back to her office to check it out (wish I had a picture of my mom and Elle together).

On the way to work that morning I had been talking to Elle and asked if people at her work knew it was her birthday.  She proclaimed that she HOPED not!  (Another one who doesn’t want attention.)  So I think she was pretty surprised when they set this up after lunch:

All in honor of the fact that her birthday tradition is to float her cake (Dave had let them in on that little tidbit and they were the SWEETEST to make this happen!)

Of course she loved it though and was so grateful for the great office manager who made it happen in the back of this picture:

Love that my mom was there to capture that.  Aw, people are the sweetest. And for a mom, when your kids are far away, it means so much when people take such good care of them.

Speaking of good care, Elle’s boyfriend took pretty great care of her too with a little trip to Lagoon and a pazooki gathering that night:

And there we have it: a wrap of all those summer birthdays.

Lucy’s next.  And believe me, she doesn’t let us forget that! 🙂

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