Pa turns 70!

On January 17th, Alvie or Pa as we like to call him turned 70! Mims did a nice job of planning a surprise weekend for him....until she spilled the beans a couple days before! The whole family came down for his birthday. It was a great weekend!

 

The biggest surprise Mims planned however was fixing up an old Bronco that Alvie had won in a raffle many years ago. This vehicle has quite a lot of memories for the Burdine boys and all their friends. It was fun seeing Alvie so surprised!

Luke turned 6!

Where does the time go! My little boy turned 6! He is such a sweet little boy! I wish he could stay this age.
Luke picked All Aboard for his birthday dinner...as always. My kids are definitely creatures of habit. They always pick the same places. Ha!
Here he is coming home from school with his Birthday crown on! I think I am going to make them wear a birthday crown every year....no matter how old they are!

 Here is the big birthday boy at dinner that night....why can't he smile at the camera!

This year for his birthday party, we decided to have a joint party with his buddy Landon whose momma just happens to be a very good friend of mine. Landon's birthday is in January also so it worked perfect. We had a party at the skating rink. Lots of fun!
Katie made up these cute invitations.

 

He is getting pretty good on his roller blades! Lyle can't resist an opportunity to skate!

Time for cake! Love this kid!

 The birthday boys!  Landon is the one in the middle.

This year instead of getting gifts the boys ask their guests to bring items for the homeless shelter. The shelter was having a special program where they were asking for shoes and socks for the kids who live at the shelter so that is what we asked the kids to bring. Later that week, we planned a special trip to the shelter where the boys could drop off the items and then we took them out to dinner where ever they wanted to go. We were really proud of the boys for giving up all of those presents....that's not easy to do when you are 6!
Here they are at the shelter. They gathered 6 pairs of shoes, 20 bags of socks, 1 pair of house shoes and $100 worth of gift cards where the kids could go pick out their own shoes. So cool!

My 35th Birthday!

So I turned 35...yikes! That is getting just a little too close to 40!
The kids were really really sweet to me this year. It all started around 6 am when I heard the two of them get up whispering. I heard them close my door quietly and go into the kitchen to make me breakfast in bed.  They came in carrying the breakfast tray and singing Happy Birthday! So sweet!

 Annabeth was very curious!

Breakfast wasn't the only thing they were busy doing that morning. I walked into the living room to see beautiful decorations!

We spent the rest of the morning playing games. So funny!

Later that afternoon, Daddy came home with supplies from the grocery store for dinner. Ella had apparently texted him a menu earlier that day. She did pretty good figuring out what I wouldn't have picked for my birthday dinner. Steaks, veggies and birthday cake! Her list specifically said "A birthday cake with Happy Birthday, Mom on it" Ha!

These three made this birthday pretty great!

Ella's Annual Q&A 2015

Here is Ella's Q&A for this year.
1. What is your favorite food...Mommy's grilled cheese
2. What is your favorite thing to do at school....art and music
3. What is your favorite thing to do at home....playing on my iPad
4. What do you want to be when you grow up....teacher for PreK
5. What is your favorite book....Harry Potter
6. What is your favorite movie...all the Harry Potters
7. If you could go anywhere right now where would you go....Disney World
8. If you could do anything you wanted right now, what would you do...Live in a rich mansion!
9. What was the best thing that happened to you when you were 8....Got to meet Annabeth and Eve
10. What do you think will be great about being 9....have more responsibility

Happy 9th Birthday Ella!

Ella's 9th birthday was kind of low key this year. Did I really say 9th?? Can't believe it! As always, we let the kids pick where they want to eat for their special birthday dinner...Ella picked the Purple Cow as always.
 My two girls!

This year for her party, we took her and her two best friends to dinner and a movie. I promised her that she and her friends could sit by themselves in the movie theater and eat at a separate table. She was very excited about this!  As I was driving them around it was so funny listening to them talk. They try so hard to be cool and grown up at this age:( Stay little Ella!! Don't try to grow up too fast!! Love you big girl!

New Year 2015

We had a wonderful time welcoming in 2015 this year. Since I wasn't able to cook our usual Christmas dinner because of the stomach virus of Christmas 2014...I decided to cook it on New Year's Eve. It turned out perfect because my parents were down as well. My 93 yr old grandfather had open heart surgery here in Little Rock on the Jan. 30th so they spent the week with me while he recovered. He is doing great by the way! Craig, Lauren and little Henry came over for the fun too!
I unfortunately didn't get good pictures but I do have this one of us playing games after dinner. It was a great evening! Lyle was there as well but crashed kind of early on the couch. The poor guy gets very little sleep so we let him go. Hope everyone had a great celebration!!