Happy Birthday Abby and Nate!!!

Nathan actually turns two on October 27th, but we celebrated his birthday today in a double celebration with Abby! Look at the smile on that face! He loved it when we all sang to him! He is so precious!

This is the birthday princess!! Abby wore a dress-up princess dress over her clothes for the entire duration of her party! Abby turned four on October 11th, but according to her she just turned four today!! Abby's Aunt Kristen made this beautiful crown for her!

Abby, Hannah, Elizabeth B. and Elizabeth S. All the girl cousins dressed up at the party, at least for a short time!
Emma, the astronaut, giving Nana a push on the zip line! Is Nana a good sport or what?!
This birthday party sort of evolved today. It was supposed to take place at a park nearby. We started out at the park and the kids had a great time playing on the playground. One look at this picture should tell you just how windy it was. We had tissue paper, cups, napkins, plates and even our drinks blowing everywhere! The wind made it rather chilly too, so we ended up moving the party to my house. Thank goodness we had 14 people for dinner last night, so I already had extra tables and chairs set up!
Nathan opening his present. There goes the tissue paper!
The girls checking out one of Abby's new presents!

The boys checking out Nathan's new race track!

Once the party moved inside we were able to eat and actually light candles on the cake. Aunt Erin made this adorable Elmo cake and brought it all the way from Virginia.
Okay...this was probably the best part of the day! Nathan's grin was so huge when we started singing happy birthday to him. He loved his sparkler candles and had lots of help blowing them out. Adam and Christian were going to make sure those candles were out!
Yum! The inside of the Elmo cake was pink (just for Abby our pink girl).
This is cousin Joe who came all the way from Massachusetts to celebrate this day with his cousins! Can you believe I had four two year olds in my house at the same time??
This is cousin Elizabeth (Beezy) enjoying her cake too! She and Abby are both four now!

The pinata was quite a "hit." (Dad that pun was just for you.) This is Nathan getting a little boost from Uncle Ryan.

Scavenging for candy!

Some of you might find this hard to believe, but this was actually Christian's first lollipop. Believe it or not, I've been able to avoid the whole candy thing for almost two and a half years. Now that he's had a taste there's no stopping him. He had three lollipops in about one hour.

This moment brought such joy to my heart!! There were nine kids playing in our backyard and Nathan and Christian followed each other around and chose to play with each other for the majority of the time. I love to see these precious gifts from God learning to love each other!

Princess Abby in action!! In the background Elizabeth is pumping a little gas for Beezy (the other Elizabeth). Joe was waiting for his turn at the pump.

Uncle Tim loves Abby so much! He made a special effort to make sure he didn't miss this special day for her! Abby is holding her new FurBerry (I think that's what it's called) from Nana. That was her favorite gift!

A rare picture of the Brinkley kids and Christian all looking in the same direction!

Back row: Christian and Adam

Front Row: Hannah and Elizabeth

Elizabeth and Christian saying goodbye!

Christian was so sad to see everyone leave. He actually ran across the yard in his socks with his arms outstretched to give Elizabeth one last hug!

I didn't get many pictures of the adults. That always seems to happen. I need to be a little more conscious about trying to get the grown-ups in pictures too!

Grandmom and PopPop Brinkley were also at this party they just didn't end up in any of my pictures.
Auntie Christine made the trip all the way from Massachusetts with Beezy and Joey. They woke up at 4am on Friday, so they could get here early to spend the day with Abby, Nate and Emma.

Auntie Erin was here too!! Thanks for making the special cakes. It was so nice that each of the kids had their own cake! I know you put a lot of love into your baking!

Of course, Amy and I were behind the cameras most of the day!