Birthday Celebrations

Spencer turned 33 on October 9th. As is the tradition, I made him a Pumpkin Cheesecake that was absolutely delicious. I'll post the recipe here. Callie watched the boys while Spence and I went to a movie but his birthday was pretty low-key, the way he likes it.

Owen turned 3 on October 20th. We pretty much celebrated for 4 days straight. On Saturday we went to the Farnsworth Farms Fall Festival in Sandy. We got there a little later than we should have but we were still able to ride the hay ride, taste fresh apple cider, walk through the vendors, and buy some homemade kettle corn. Owen wasn't sure about riding on the hay ride. Here he is before it started:

He eventually relaxed and loved it. So did Cameron and Gavin:



Sunday we had a Styer Family dinner to celebrate Spencer, Owen, and Tisa's birthdays. Tisa's birthday is on October 19th. Chopper and girlfriend, Niki, came. We had ham, funeral potatoes, green beans, frog-eye salad, rolls, and a Robot Birthday cake. Owen was mostly interested in opening presents. He kept going to them and asking if it was time yet. He received such nice gifts...new (much-needed) clothes and lots of fun (& noisy) gifts. He is so spoiled and loved by his grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Thanks for making him feel special.





Monday we went to dinner at IKEA. I knew that the restaurant existed but we'd never been there. However, to celebrate Tisa's birthday I took her to have the IKEA experience. We checked the kids into the play land and spent the entire hour browsing. Then we decided to have lunch there because they were letting kids eat free. It doesn't get any better. It was so yummy that I wanted Spencer to eat there too. So we went there for dinner :). If you haven't tried it, you should. Very reasonably priced and quite tasty. Plus, on Monday nights they have family-friendly entertainment. It just so happened that the entertainment that evening was face painting. The woman doing it was amazing. She painted Cameron's face into Spiderman, Gavin's into a pirate, but Owen didn't want his face painted so she quickly drew a snake on his arm. And she did it all in about 5 minutes! And it was FREE!!!!





For Owen's actual birthday (Tuesday) we went to Chuck E. Cheese. Another first for our little family. I can't say any of us liked the pizza but the boys loved playing the arcade games, earning tickets, and picking their prizes. I'm a little worried that Gavin and Cam may think we need to celebrate their birthdays for 4 days!