(Prepare yourself for picture overload)
Because watching the airplanes land at LAX and a free quesadilla at Cafe Rio isn't truly a birthday celebration, we made sure to celebrate hard this weekend, starting with a trip to Disneyland on Friday.
I had high hopes for our family day at Disneyland. It's only the second week of December, so I was sure there wouldn't be much of a crowd since most schools don't start their breaks until the third week of December. HA! I was SO wrong. Apparently, kids now get all of December off because everyone was at Disneyland. I've truly never seen the park as crowded as it was on Friday. What a bummer. We did manage to get on a few of Westin's favorite rides and then had a really fun birthday celebration with our friends.
Dumbo was first on the list, of course.
The the Tea Cups (with Nicholas and Ryker)
Followed by Small World
A break by the water fountain (which is just as entertaining to Westin as any of the rides)
After a few rides, it was already time to meet our friends for lunch and some birthday treats (chocolate covered Mickey Mouse rice krispie treats and some other goodies)
Westin's buddies Nate and Camden
Juliann and Paige
Jazmine & Jade and Taryn & Macy
During our lunch break, the boys found this little play spot. Pretty sure they could have played with the leaves in here all afternoon. In fact, maybe we should have just done that rather than wait in all the lines.
Jamie and Emily
After lunch we hit up the Tiki Room and the train...
and that was about all we could handle for the day... I had really hoped we could stay into the evening to see the fireworks and snow on Main Street, but it just wasn't in the cards :(
We still had lots of fun at Disneyland. How could you not? It's Disneyland, afterall. Definitely the best part of the day was getting together with our friends during lunch. Westin had a blast running around with his buddies.
Saturday morning started off with another birthday celebration, but this one wasn't for Westin. It was for his buddy, Nicholas, who had a breakfast birthday party. All the kids (and adults) were invited to wear their PJs, so I was happy to stroll over at 9 a.m. with no makeup and sweats still on.
W licking the "ice cream" (whipped cream) off the waffle
All the kiddos in their cute pajamas
After the party, a trip to the gym and the grocery store, and a few loads of laundry, our friends the Kavanaghs came over to begin yet another birthday celebration for W. This one included another trip to Cafe Rio (yes, I'm obsessed and could eat it every week... rather, I do eat it every week).
Westin and Nate sharing some rice
BreAnne, Trevor, Adam, Ryan, me, Westin and Nate
After dinner we went back to our apartment where Ryan's parents, Trevor and Shalice, Mandy, and Nate and Abby joined us for presents and cake.
Mandy gave W this great garbage truck and he immediately started loading it up with the trash from the wrapping paper. I have a feeling I'm bound to find remnants of the real trash in the back of this truck sooner or later.
Westin eagerly showing grandma some new bath toys
By the end of the night, Mandy and Nate had become best friends
Seriously, how grown up does this boy look? And how cute is this smile?
Opening the "big present" from grandma and grandpa
After opening some wonderful gifts, it was time to sing "Happy Birthday." Though Westin's real birthday had come and gone, and we had a party at Disneyland, we actually had yet to sing "Happy Birthday" to W. He was rather excited for it to take place too. After Nicholas' party, (where we sang to Nicholas and then he got to blow out his candles) Westin came home, found one of my decorative candles, sang "Happy Birthday" to himself, clapped and then said, "time to blow out da candles," and then proceeded to pretend to blow out the candle. Clearly, we couldn't go without singing and letting him blow out his candles.
I had spent Friday night and some of Saturday working on a new cake recipe I found in Bon Appetite. It's a Chocolate Malt Cake, made up of three layers of chocolate cake, soaked with a little chocolate malt milk, and then layered with a malt fudge sauce, chocolate malt crumbs and toasted marshmallows. Uh, yeah. Insane, right? I saw the recipe a couple months ago and have been holding on to it waiting for an occasion to whip it up. You can get the full recipe here. It's a little time consuming, but well worth it. The cake turned out scrumptious. Very rich, but I personally never had a problem with too much richness.
Trevor and Shalice
Was our party that lame, Adam? You're looking a little bored.
Abby, Shalice, BreAnne, Mandy and me
The Rich Family
Trev, grandpa, Adam and W
At one point in the evening, Uncle Trevor came up with the idea of putting Westin in the hoop. W thought this was the best thing ever, however, I think Trevor may have quickly regretted the idea once Westin wanted to do it again and again and again.
Another great day of birthday fun, ending with a very tired little boy.
We had such a fun weekend. Thanks to everyone who joined us in our birthday celebrations. We love you and are so grateful to have you in our life.
It's now 12:30 a.m., my floors and kitchen are clean and back to normal and now I can start thinking about everything I have to do to get ready for our flight to Utah tomorrow night.
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