Celebrating February Columbus Style!

As I mentioned before, February has been a party-filled month for the last few years. This year we took the celebration to Columbus to celebrate the usual February birthdays (Elyse, Kenny and our nephew Robbie), but had to add in Valentines Day, baptisms and Izzy's first birthday...whew! Now THAT is a party (or 2 or 3!).

We had a really great weekend in Columbus. We did most of our partying on Saturday and saved the baptism celebration and Izzy's party until Sunday. Mine as well spread it out a little, right?! :) One of the highlights of Saturday was that my sister-in-law Val made mini heart cakes for each of the kids to decorate themselves. They had a blast and they turned out as sticky, sugary masterpieces! The kids had a great time playing together - Robbie taught the girls a few hockey pointers on his new "rink" that takes up half of the kitchen and Lysie unearthed and dusted off ALL the baby accessories in the house! It's always really fun to see them playing together, we just wish it could happen more often. It is so important to all of us that the kids are not just cousins, but also friends, so we make a huge effort throughout the year to get them together (just wait for the upcoming summer posts about Camp Miller and Camp Cook!!!).

It has taken Val and Paul a while to decide where they wanted to get the kids baptized, but recently found a United Methodist church that they felt really was a good fit for their family. We were all excited to be able to celebrate their baptisms with them. It was especially meaningful for me and Kenny who were asked to be both of their Godparents - what a special blessing! Both Izzy and Robbie were great for the ceremony, with a few funny stories to tell. One of the best parts was when the priest asked Robbie if he could pick him up to actually do the baptism and right into his microphone Robbie emphatically said "NO!". We also got a good chuckle when the priest was talking and all of a sudden Robbie says "I want Lexi to come up here with me!". Perhaps the best was when we all sat back down and Robbie looked at his new lamb someone in the congregation had made for him and said, "why did they give me a new dog?" Priceless!

After church we FINALLY got to celebrate Izzy Bear's first birthday. She was a riot with her cake - it was incredible how sweetly and gently she shredded the cake to pieces! I'm pretty sure she liked it :)

All in all it was a great weekend. Lots of family, lots of fun, and LOTS of cake (except for poor gallstone Sarah!). And we survived the month of parties in one piece and probably only a few pounds heavier!!!