Celebrating Alli and Ian's combined birthday - 2021/10/10

It's time to celebrate! Alli and Ian have birthdays within a month of each other, so while they each get a small celebration on their actual birthday, we have a big combined celebration with the both of them. 

And since we're in Michigan, we get to have a big celebration with family! Aubrey always does a great job of putting together a lot of things for them for a big celebration!

Though sometimes it can get a little crazy!

The day before, Ian asked if I would make him Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast. For a birthday celebration, I can certainly do that. 

I've made cinnamon rolls before, but this time I made a change for the filling. I still mixed brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter together, but I've never liked how the sugar crystals stay crunchy. This needs to be a smooth filling. Doing a little research I learned that fat (in the butter) doesn't dissolve sugar crystals. Water does though! I mixed a little water into the sugar mixture and that did it! The sugar crystals were dissolved and it turned this into a much more spreadable paste for the insides of the cinnamon rolls. 

I set them in the fridge to rise slowly overnight and the next morning, they were fluffy and ready to bake!

Ian was super happy. 

Alli wants that one right there. 

Looks delicious Alli. And let me tell you, they were amazing. 

Theresa said these were the best cinnamon rolls I've ever made. They're not quite Cinnabon, but then you can't get fresh Cinnabon at 9am (because the mall is closed), so these are fantastic being homemade for breakfast. 

Aubrey and the kids went out and bought supplies from the craft store to make this a "Minecraft" birthday. I don't play Minecraft, but the kids totally love it. They're making a giant Ghast, whatever that is. 

And with Aubrey and Uncle Ty's help, they set up a Nether-Portal. Aubrey hand-painted the letters. 

Good job!

I'm assuming that looks like a Nether Portal. 

In the living room Aubrey hung the Ghast from the 2nd floor. I guess they float. 

Alli made us save all the paper towel and toilet paper rolls for the last week so they could use them for decorations. 

Aubrey even bought over 150 balloons to make it a party. Everyone helped blow them up. Pop Pop was a fan of making them as big as possible. So big that they would randomly pop all by themselves! It scared people every time it happened. More-so when it did it in the middle of the night!

They got to work with black markers to draw faces on the balloons. Creepers, Enders, and Pigs, oh my. 

Cousin Abby is here! Visiting for the weekend from college!

For cakes, they certainly are spoiled. Ian loves the Jewish Coffee Cake so Aunt Rita made him that. Alli likes Red Velvet so Theresa made her one of those. 

And if that's not enough, the neighbor down the street dropped off a giant pan of apple crisp. 

Happy Birthday kids!

Ooh, my plate tonight looks so good! The cakes were great and the apple crisp was delicious!

It's time for presents! 

They have a list (remember making lists of presents?) of things they would like for their birthday. 

Ian was so excited that Aunt Amy and Uncle Don found Welch's Fruit Snacks. They are his favorite!

Thank you!

Aunt Megan and Uncle Patrick knew how much they liked their interactive Lego Mario. Now they can have a 2nd player, because now they have a Lego Luigi!

The kids have loved playing Minecraft online with Aubrey's boyfriend for the last week. He got them a Lego Minecraft set and Minecraft die-cast characters that they can play pretend with. 

Thank you Jared! You're making a good impression!

The kids have loved visiting the National Parks and earning Junior Ranger badges. Grammy and Grandpa got them each Junior Ranger vests for them to display their badges on. And it even comes in pink!

Thank you! 

The kids love to make campfires at the different places we go. Ian was talking about the different colors of the flames, mostly orange, and said it would be cool if we could change the color of the fire. I knew from watching YouTube videos from "The King of Random" that you can get flames to burn by mixing different chemicals, like Borax to get green flames. Looking online, Amazon sells a product called Magical Flames where you just toss a packet into the fire and it starts to change colors. 

Thank you Aunt Rita and Uncle Ty!

From Aunt Jess and Uncle Jon, they know how much the kids like to do taste tests. Ian got a giant sampling of 20 unique chocolate candy bars, and Alli got 17 different fruity candy bars. That's going to make a great taste test!

Lego Mario and now Lego Luigi need to have a foe to fight, and what bigger foe is there than Bowser himself. And in Bowser's Castle no less. 

Thank you Gram and Pop Pop!

For the rest of the night, the kids had fun hanging out with their cousins and playing their new video game Just Dance. 

What a fun birthday celebration day!