Conor's 9th Birthday

Yesterday, Conor celebrated his 9th birthday and proclaimed the day to be a hugely great day. 

One of the fundraisers at the kids' school is purchasing the message on the reader board for a week. Both kids asked for us to buy this so we could publicly wish them a happy birthday (Conor) and happy half birthday (Annika). 

The night before his big day, Conor and I baked chocolate mint cookies for his classroom treat. Conor toiled over which treat to bring as he thumbed through our Duff cookbook, but finally opted on a tried and true option that Conor knew he'd succeed at making and were quite tasty.

Conor awoke at 6:05 and proclaimed that he wasn't quite 9 years old  yet... he had few more minutes to go. Hello, Mr. Precise! True, he was born at 6:13 AM, but Eric and I were perfectly happy to still wish him a happy birthday and call him 9... even if we were 8 minutes early. Ha!

Because it was his birthday, Conor got to wear free dress to school. Bonus!! He also dug up the "Birthday Boy" pin that I bought a few years ago and insisted on wearing it all day. Hey, why not??

For his birthday dinner, Conor requested pasta carbonara and grasshopper pie for dessert. (I threw in some green beans as a side dish during dinner, just to round out things a bit.)  I'm pretty sure this is the third year in a row that he picked carbonara and grasshopper pie as his birthday meal. The boy knows what he likes!

Speaking of things that he likes ... he likes opening presents!! He received some very generous gifts from our extended family members (thanks, all!) and loved every moment of unwrapping them. After the paper finished flying, he and Eric got to work assembling the Lego robot that we gave to him. (I'm not sure who had more fun with it, if I'm being completely honest!) It was really fun to hear their conversations while building the ever-evolving robot, not to mention their reactions to the robot's abilities as its skills developed with each new task/set of instructions provided by the kit. 

To everyone who has had a hand in this little guy's life so far, thank you for your love, support, and energy. He's a silly, busy, inquisitive, and imaginative little guy and we are excited to see where this next year takes him. 

Happy birthday, Conor!

Batman Fluxx card game and Hex bug

Cold hard cash, a Taco Time g/c, and a wallet, baby!!
(one $ for each year... clever!)

Woot woot! Remote control toys are awesome

Future scientist!

Lego Robot kit

Blowing out his candles

Do you think he'll let me take his birthday sign photos even when he's a grown up?
I sure hope so! :)

We have an 8-year-old little girl

My apologies, dear readers and birthday girl, the month of August has apparently gone into turbo mode and we are nearing its end and I have yet to write up a blog post about our sweet girl turning 8 years old.

The night before her birthday, Annika was CONVINCED that she'd be too excited to sleep. Fortunately, she was incorrect and had no problems resting up for her big day. She rested up so much that Eric and I didn't see her until after we got home from work... it was so odd not to see her the morning of her birthday, but it seemed cruel to wake her up early just so we could say happy birthday. 

The evening of her birthday, we had a little "Olson Four" celebration for her, which included Annika's chosen dinner (chicken pot pie) and dessert (grasshopper pie) ... notice a theme?? Our dining portion of the festivities were followed by the much-anticipated give portion of the evening. Conor gave her an over-sized stuffed unicorn that Annika named "Sparkle Horn" and quickly placed in the center of her stuffed animal affections. Eric and I gave her a Dash robot, which is a robot toy that helps kids learn a few programming basics. She is enamored with robots these days, so the gift was a hit. She can program it to follow paths that she sets up, make noises, change colors, etc. 

Because Annika's birthday fell on a Thursday this week, we held off on having a party that included more than the four of us for a couple of days. The Saturday after her birthday, we invited the local extended family over for a BBQ lunch to celebrate Annika's birthday. 

It was a lovely day filled with lots of laughter, wonderful company (Eric's parents, my mom, Uncle Troy, Auntie Staci, Ian, Kat, and Uncle Dave), and more food than we could possibly eat.  Our little girl was showered with love and gifts ... truly a very good day in her eyes. She received safety equipment from Eric's mom/dad, a cook book and apron from my mom, a Pete the Cat book from my brother and his family, and best of all... big cousin Ian gave her all of his old Pokemon cards (130 in all). Without a doubt, the Pokemon cards was the best of the bunch in her eyes; before bed that night, she spent about an hour and a half organizing her new cards in her binder and taking the time to ohh and ahh over each card. 

Our nephew Ian put a spin on the antipasto plate by
adding little protesters... he never fails to amuse!

The top of Annika's requested bunny cake

Side view - Didn't Eric do an amazing job???
(My contribution: The inside is a white cake with pink, purple, and teal polka dots)

Cook book from Nana

Book from the Nelsons

Cousin Ian and goofy Conor

Annika and her hand-me-down Pokemon cards

Blowing out the candles (did I mention they were trick candles??)

Modeling her new apron and safety equipment

Thank you to everyone for making Annika's celebration so special. We are so grateful for the community that has rallied around us from the minute we told them that we were embarking on the roller coaster ride that is parenthood.

Happy 8th birthday, sweet Annika! We love you to the ends of the universe ... and back.