Since both Spear and Britt celebrate their birthdays in December I thought it’d be easiest to do a combo post covering both Spear’s 5th bday as well as Britt’s 11th bday from Dec 2022!
Let’s start with Spear!
I tucked in my last baby on his last night being 4 and re-shared his birth story with him and then he woke up bigger and stronger as a 5 year old!
Spear was in a huge Toy Story phase which I was not about to pass up the opportunity for! I always loved when Kye was in this stage and I wanted it to last as long as possible for Spear too.
Naturally, for his birthday Spear wanted to wear his favorite – his John Deere hoodie.
I surprised him at school for lunch and to deliver the bday treat for his class that he’d requested (gummies!). I was nervous to eat lunch with him at school because I thought he might have a hard time when I left. He did get a little upset but having the birthday celebration helped!
Spear chose the birthday dinner and asked for steak and salad 🙂
Tess was so excited to help set up all the birthday presents!
I adore how much all of my babies love each other and it was so nice just having the focus be all on Spear. He loved the attention from everyone!
Zach had grand plans of the kitchen we got for Spear to be a bonding moment of putting it together with him but Spear was more focused on all the toys…at least they were in the same room 😉
Spear requested a cookie cake and then had plenty of time to enjoy his new toys – and ended up helping Daddy a bit too 😉
As part of Spear’s birthday tradition I write a letter to Mama E and include some of my favorite photos of Spear from the year!
Happy 5th Birthday Spear 
I’ve loved you long before I knew you 
I’m so thankful that God blessed me with the gift of this sweet, silly, smart, sticky, spunky boy.
With Britt and Spear having birthdays so close together we did a combo family celebration at our house – including a FULL cousin sleep over (in the past we’ve had Spear sleep over at Cam’s house but now that Spear is 5 we went for it!).
So thankful for the blessing of family and that my babies get to grow up alongside their cousins! I didn’t live near my cousins for most of my childhood but we were all very close and I’m so thankful my kids get to experience these bonds too!
Britt went to sleep as her last night as an 11 year old and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a child SO excited for a birthday.
As a Harry Potter fan 11 is a BIG birthday as it’s when students receive their letter to Hogwarts. Naturally, we had to make that happen 🙂
SO thrilled with her letter!
Britt’s birthday fell on a Tuesday so we did a little twist on our normal birthday celebrations. She opened several of her gifts at breakfast time before school.
Why? Because I had a pretty epic surprise for her! Both Britt and Tess were skipping school and heading to Atlanta for a mini-girl’s trip to visit the Harry Potter Exhibit (how COOL that it just so happened to be taking place ON her 11th birthday).
Not only would we be going to the exhibit but G-Mama was also coming with us AND we had tickets to The Fox theatre that night to see Anastasia (Tess’s first show!)
When I learned about the exhibition I knew I had to take Britt but I felt bad because I’m just not a Harry Potter person. Hence why Tessie got to tagalong – I knew Britt would enjoy it more if she had someone to be excited with!
I was blown away and impressed by the entire exhibition. I had low expectations and it far surpassed them all.
We had a reservation at 1:30 on a Tuesday and there was NO ONE there which I think also helped us really enjoy the experience.
SO cool to get to see the first edition of The Sorcerer’s Stone!
It was extremely well laid out and had tons of interactive elements. There were lots of props used in the films as well as info and “fun facts” about the making of the movies as well as the books themselves.
I was a tad nervous about how Britt would feel about the exhibition – she loved it but she did NOT want to read any of the info about the movies. She preferred to think of it all as REAL items that her favorite characters actually use!
We have visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal many times. and this was a totally different experience. At the theme park you are more IN the world – with this we were more learning ABOUT the world.
I literally took over 1,000 photos from our 90 min visit. But the girls wanted pictures of EVERYTHING. They had so much fun looking at it all!
The room under the stairs was SO neat. They really put such thought into every single detail!
Britt’s favorite part was getting to see the real horcroxes! We took our time and got to see it ALL!
We also loved the gift shop and both girls got a little something to remember the day by – Britt has been wanting a watch and it was a perfect opportunity for a bonus birthday gift for her!
For her birthday dinner we had to hit up The Varsity! We sang to her birthday milkshake and a sweet lady sitting nearby gave her $5 as a birthday gift!
We headed to the hotel to get checked in and changed for our girls night out on the town at The Fox!
This was Tess’s first time ever seeing a show and it was perfect to get to have the experience at The Fox as well as during the holiday season. It was so pretty walking under all the lights.
Both girls LOVED the show. It was wonderful and kept them engaged the entire time (Tess did nod off for a few minutes but that’s only because she was so tired – she kept trying to stay awake bc she didn’t want to miss anything!).
We had two beds in our hotel room and I let the birthday girl choose who she wanted to sleep with – she slept with Tess every night at home but still chose her to sleep with on her bday celebration!
We were able to stop by and grab some CFA on the drive home to get the girls checked back into school before they’d be considered absent.
Then that night we celebrated Britt as a family – I did feel bad that we had to do the exhibition and show on her actual birthday…I know she’d prefer to celebrate as a family on her actual day but it all worked out and she still felt special!
Her request was Zach’s homemade burgers, corn on the cob and rice a roni along with my homemade ice cream cake.
The Atl trip was her big gift but I still had a few more things for her to open!
Britt is 11!
Every year with you in my life just gets better and better! You bring a magical touch to every memory and make every experience more FUN. You make me so proud and inspire me with your strong sense of self and how you constantly strive to be the best version of you! 
My sweet sunshine girl 
