Connor's 3rd Birthday

There are so many little things I want to record, but first I want to remember Connor's 3rd birthday and a sweet surprise that Spencer pulled off....

We did the usual and it was very nice...balloons at his spot was first.

Then Sarah (Spencer's one and only fabulous sister), entertained our kids while Spencer and I had some alone time that day.  We have found that our kids have moved on and don't want to spend a lot of time "remembering," but I do.  So our time alone each birthday has been a good thing...though I find that I don't want to "remember" too much or then I'll hurt more than I want to.

We went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, as it has a fun, happy, lively atmosphere that we were wanting.  We had gone there on Connor's 1st birthday and that has become their favorite place to eat ever since...and it did not dissapoint us this time either!

Then the surprise...Have you ever seen the lanterns floating up at the end of the movie Tangled?  When Spencer saw that months ago he figured there had to be real ones and as a surprise to the rest of us, he had ordered some for us to let off in celebration of Eli Connor's 3rd birthday.

So we arrived home after dinner, saw the weather conditions were right and quickly called some friends to join in (sorry if we missed you...we tried calling several of you but no one was home).  I must admit I was NERVOUS!  I thought these sky lanterns looked so cool, but I did not want to start anything on fire either.  But with the cold weather, no wind and snow on the ground it it was a G.O.  We had hoped to let all of them off at the same time, but we found that we did not have enough people or lighters and had to let them off in smaller groups.  Yet it was still so beautiful!

It was beautiful to see these sky lanterns slowly rise above us and float away.  It looked neat enough that many cars came and stopped on our street to watch them float up and away and I can only I image how it would look with lots of them.  Hopefully we'll have enough people and lighters to make this happen next year...and maybe I will know how to make a video properly.

Thank you to many who have "remembered" with us...the phone calls, emails and for making our dinner possible.

Enjoy this video...and as you listen to this video, realize we were talking to some people who had stopped to ask what these lanterns are called.  We were busy trying to light the lantern and video them, so we were a little distracted and could not give them a straight answer.

They are called Sky Lanterns...and Elle was thrilled to find out a few days later that they are featured in the January 2012 of the New Era, a magazine published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for young men and young women.