Birthday in 2010

We DID have birthdays in 2010 - I just didn't blog about them. Time to play some catchup though!

Each child lived another year. YAY! One of our more important goals each year is to keep them alive to see the next.

Parker turned 4 in May. He chose an orange cake and to go eat at Chili's. It was his favorite food place in Doha...not for the food, but for the giant playground upstairs.

Angelina turned 9 in Rotterdam. She chose an ice cream cake and to have me make her honey-pecan chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner. The big "hartelijk gefeliciteerd" means happy birthday in dutch. See why I hate this language so much???? On a side note...I put two of those vienna ice cream cakes together for her birthday cake, they were super cheap and actually really tasty! She wins the award for least effort on her celebratory dessert.

Madelyn turned 8 in Rotterdam as well. She wanted cupcakes and to go eat at Garcia's. That restaurant is one of the few good ones here. You go to a meat buffet, put it on skewers and grill it at your table. It is fun and yum. Rare here. She did burn herself that night...but we made it through. You can see the pathetic cupcakes in this picture...it is a dutch mix. They are called fairy cakes and do NOT count as cupcakes in my opinion.

It has been a big year for these 3 munchkins. We didn't celebrate with friends this year because Parker had his little playgroup in Doha and the girls were brand new in school and everyone else seemed to be having their parties at the same time. We might do a non-birthday party for them later. Besides, last year I went all out. See Lanning Family: retro birthday. I needed a break, the kids needed a break and it was really nice to just celebrate with our little family. I look back to last year and see how very much they have grown and changed...sometimes being a parent isn't fair! I'm glad they are all still cute though! There just isn't as much cheek to pinch and smooch on anymore.