Nessie is 5, Aberdeen is 3!

Our middle girls, Caithness and Aberdeen, are exactly 1 year and 364 days apart in age!

Here's some fun and games from their combined birthday party in Colorado recently, but I'll start off with a bit of reminiscing...

Caithness Maela Anderson (Maela is an Anderson creation from her grandma's MAry and pamELA) was born April 11, 2009 in Missouri. 

Aw, my little black-eyed pea!

Family of four! 

3 things:

a: please excuse my inability to use red-eye correction on my computer coherently 

b: please excuse my puffy body pumped full of IV fluid for 36 hours

c: Wowza, that hottie of a hubby! Woot woot!

Thanks in advance.

My little fat face baby girl!

Then surprise, surprise just shy of two years later we were blessed with another little girl: Aberdeen Daye Anderson (named for my grandmother's DArlene and faYE; this was a creation of my parents for the middle name of my sister, Catlin) was born April 10, 2011 in Missouri.

Did you catch those dates?

4/11/09 and
4/10/11
if you live in the UK they'd read like this:
11/4/09 and
10/4/11

To complicate matters we have Caedmon at

10/4/06
and Airdrie at
10/24/13

That's my children at
4/11/09
4/10/11
10/4/06
10/24/13

This is why I look like a bumbling idiot when people ask for date of birth of my children.

And the fact that I just squeaked by in College Algebra.

"I'm not sure how many problems I have because numbers are one of them..."

I love his squinty and smiling eyes as he holds Aberdeen for the first time!

Our family of 5!

Oh my I love that little face!

Fast forward 3 years:

Aberdeen's birthday comes first, but yet Nessie is older. 

Please try and come up with a way to explain that to my girls...

Happy Birthday Deenie Daye!

Fake nails are a birthday breakfast must.

Even though they're getting a party the next day, we still have to celebrate Aberdeen with cupcakes of her own!

Airdrie snuggled up on her daddy watching Aberdeen open presents.

Our tradition of decorating the table for a birthday!

When I found out there was nary a My Little Pony cake to be found in town I had to make the girls' cake the night before their party. 

We went for girls' favourite ponies and that would be Twilight Sparkle and Rarity.

Please excuse Twilight's wonky eyes. 

I have not yet mastered free-handing highly stylised ponies onto frosting. 

I'm assuming this skill will come when I'm an adult.

Happy Birthday Nessie Mae!

In grandma's kitchen on the morning of Nessie's birthday and the big party!

Trained for paparazzi photography.

Nessie's gets press on nails as well.

Does anyone else remember Lee Press-On Nails? 

Those were a vital part of my childhood.

Gorgeous, darling...

My girls call long nails "sharp nails." 

ALWAYS en vogue in the mind of a little girl.

Later on that day my sisters and their husbands get to town; 

Airdrie was 4 days old the last time Aunt Jilly held her!

Aberdeen is Twilight Sparkle

Thanks Aunt Jilly for dressing the girls in My Little Pony's* costumes for their party.

*Thanks also that these are cute and tasteful. 

I've seen MLP costumes on grown women--no one should wear horse ears in an attempt to be cute.

Sorry if I've offended any horse-ear-wearing ladies.

Nessie is Pinkie Pie. 

She's super happy her cast matches.

She better be, that cast cost an arm and a leg. 

Pun totally intended.

Aw! Their My Little Pony centrepiece table!

We had the party at my parent's church hall.

Any good ideas, or poorly executed ones are most likely products of Pinterest

My hottie of a husband praying for the meal.

YES, you can snap an iPhone picture with your eyes closed during prayer...

But, umm, mine were not.

Grandma (my momma) served up an awesome birthday meal to feed 30 party-ing people.

Rigatoni (Uncle Nick style)

Caesar Salad

Rolls

and my kids' favourite: Jell-O with fruit cocktail!

This one cracks me up. This is Cousin Uncle Ryan (my cousin Elise's husband).

Here he and Airdrie are just chillin' at the party.

I TOTALLY appreciate this, by the way. 

Those people who hold my baby just so I can get junk done are treasures to me!

Yay for girly-ness!

Birthday table!

Here's a fun fact:

It's called the My Little Pony birthday party accessories have been across the Atlantic Ocean--twice.

  

I bought them in Texas, didn't use them in Texas. 

Shipped them to Scotland, didn't use them in Scotland. 

Crammed them in my suitcase and used them in Colorado.

Hi I'm Jordan.

I have unresolved organisational issues.

Precious girls!

Girls table!

Ness and Deen are sitting with their second cousins, Abrielle and McKinley.

Unique names and big bows run in our family.

The boy table!

More cousins (and a friend). 

Ness and McKinley.

Cute boy!

I'm just now noticing what my son ate that night. 

A roll, Jell-O, and pepperocini peppers.

This explains a LOT in why this child "unswallowed" all his food later on in the evening.

Mark and my brother in law, Jason. 

This is titled, "The phenomenon of velcro beard."

Game time!

All but two of the children in this photo are cousins to my children.

My Aunt Beth meeting AirBear.

Tears were shed here. 

Aunt Beth has been such a prayer warrior for this baby girl! 

She wasn't afraid to tell us either;

It seems like in some of the toughest times I would get messages at 10 a.m. from her (3 a.m. her time) letting us know she couldn't sleep and felt led to lift us up in prayer. 

So special to us!

More games!

Airdrie and my cousin, Elise.

Look at this cutie! 

Nehemiah is an Anderson cousin who came from Utah to visit!

It's once again birthday time and what would it be if I didn't make a cake royally wonky?!

I thought it'd be cute to make the inside of the cake fun coloured.

Then I thought (and this is where I started to go askew) I'd just use the handy-dandy pre-coloured cake mixes.

Then I got WAY out of hand and bought a Pink Lemonade flavoured cake mix,

a Lemon Lime cake mix,

and (heaven help us) a BLUE RASPBERRY cake mix.

And I swirled them all together.

In other unrelated news: I think I'll patent my new secret recipe for Fruit Loop cake!

"Hey kids, if you like breakfast, wait'll you taste it covered in buttercream!"

Presents together!

Super happy for My Little Pony stuff and dolls!

This child wears her feelings on her face.

And this is the feeling you see when Aunt Cat wraps batteries as part of a present.

Meanwhile, Wrestlemania erupted from the other side of the room where the boys were.

Heedless of the peril on the other side of the room the girls admire a Barbie.

Then the boys' circus follows the wrestle party.

This is another Utah-Anderson, Isaiah, showing off his acrobatic skills.

Annnnd she doesn't care.

She's got lipstick.

Mark and his brother Matthew and another cute nephew, Noah, chat with cousin-in-law Jessi in the foreground.

You should know Jessi was one of my closest friends in 6th grade, and I'm so glad my cousin choose her so now I get to hang out with her at family functions!

Aunt Cat (or Aunt Chat, as we call her) and Airdrie share a moment!

Another fine example of Jordan Anderson Photography.

Then we moved the whole party outside for a bonfire and s'mores!

Nessie, a flaming marshmallow, and a large stick...what could possibly go wrong?!

Sand volleyball court at church.

What a fun day to celebrate our very special girls!