Sure, I still need to blog about the 2025 Holidays, but to print the blog each year, I simply need to make it through the girls’ birthday posts, which this year (as last) will be combined in one post. Talk about coming in under the wire… but I’ve got this!

Before we start, one note on school. Ella just started 5th Grade this year, Zoe 10th, and I took these comparison shots to show how far they’ve come from their first day(s) of school:

Now that we’re calibrated on the passage of time (FAST, FAST, FAST), let’s dig into the super fun birthday celebrations we pulled off in 2025 for these two cuties.

ZOE TURNED 15?!

Not only do we have a 15-year-old, we almost have a driver… She’s in fact quite excited to drive and is already taking the online courses to prepare for her license. This year for her birthday, she wanted a retro tea party theme (with cake to match), a pool party, and Shrinky Dink making at home.

First, the theme (original artwork by her sister, Ella):

Next, the cake! As has happened for the past 14 years, Cake Master Bart was presented with a random online image of a desired cake, and as he’s done every single year, he delivered:

We don’t have a pool, BUT we know how to get one! There’s a cool app that works like Airbnb, but for pools, where people rent out their pool and backyard by the hour for people like us who don’t want to own and maintain one: Swimply. We even tested one out a month before the party (just like Airbnb, the reality doesn’t always match the pictures), which turned out to be much smaller than expected and charged hidden fees… But the one we found was AWESOME!

I’ll spare you pictures of seven teenagers in bikinis (you’re welcome, Zoe), but this pool had an incredibly well-thought-out backyard with a shady pergola-covered table, a pool house with billiards and lots of inflatables, two more tables near the pool, and gorgeous garden areas all around. To save space, I’ll share this picture for reference (you’re welcome, everyone else):

We carted over finger sandwiches, drinks, snacks and tunes (here’s their custom Spotify playlist, in case you’re curious about what music they’re listening to these days) to enjoy during pool time, then we headed back home for Shrinky Dinks and that fabulous cake! Here are some of their freehand creations from the art session:

HOT TIP: If you haven’t made a Shrinky Dink in a long time, they shrink A LOT. So if you’re making a keychain, you gotta make a bigger hole than you think… In addition to her party, we took our annual trip to Miceli’s , the iconic Italian restaurant with the singing waiters (photo up top was from that evening), and I took her to the Rose Bowl Flea Market for some hardcore thrifting with over 2,500 vendors:

I think her 15th birthday will be memorable. As I’m sure I write every year, I remember being so excited when our kids were born just over 2 weeks (and 4 years) apart, imagining how easy it would be to split the difference and host shared parties–which only happened TWICE before their interests and friend groups were too varied to share… Instead, we get to run a marathon twice in two weeks, so 15 days after Zoe’s, we hosted a party for Ella.

ELLA TURNS 11 (officially a tween)

Before I forget to mention it, two things:

ONE. Ella drew that OC (“Original Character”) above on the sketch pad and named her REI (like “ray”), and her clever mom had the idea to print it on a hoodie, since she lives in those, for her birthday! #score

TWO. Wondering about those metallic number balloons? They were inspired by some even larger ones that my husband received from his sweet boss for his (gulp) 35th (nope, that’s not a typo) work anniversary in August:

But back to Ella. This kid is INCREDIBLY creative, and this year, she wanted a Dandy’s World theme, where her friends would come over and play the game both ONLINE and IRL (that’s “In Real Life”). It’s a Roblox game they all play, while FaceTiming and yelling at one another, since it’s a cooperative game. But the IRL part required quite a bit of setup.

There’s a rainbow color scheme and named characters in the game itself, so our first adventure was creating t-shirts for the kids to wear as they played, with stenciled character names on each.

We set up boxes, tables and chairs in the backyard to simulate a “level” where basically two kids play “Twisteds” (bad guys) who chase the others around. The chased players have two roles: Distractor (to distract the bad guys) or Extractor (to go to four stations and fill vessels with water)–all without getting tagged. They can also collect “tapes”, for which we used vintage VHS tapes hidden around the yard.

Honestly, it was pretty fun to watch, and big sister Zoe had the job of kicking off each round, hiding the tapes between plays, and ensuring good behavior. She did great–and it was not an easy job. For snacks, we had rainbow options, including fruit, rainbow pretzel mix with Froot Loops and rainbow Goldfish.

Zoe drew her sister a rainbow themed birthday sign on the easel, and the kids decorated cookies (though that turned into a “how much sugar can I fit on a cookie” exercise), then set up in the back room filled with balloons above and played Dandy’s World online.

And finally, the cake. There’s a character with a “Swiss Roll” head in Dandy’s World named Cosmo, so Ella found a Swiss Roll Cake recipe online, and TA DA, Bart brought it to life:

In case that cake looks easy, it’s not, it’s literally ROLLED! But the girls had fun helping with the fondant items that really made Cosmo recognizable. Before you ask, my “role” will never be the cake… I’m the instigator who creates the Google Sheet, makes the girls map out a party flow, and encourages them come up with creative ideas that make memorable experiences for their friends. In other words, I create work for everyone, and I’m always amazed at what fabulous ideas they come up with!

One last note on Ella before we wrap up this year. Just four days after her birthday, Ella tested for–and achieved!–her purple belt in karate. What can’t that kid do?

And so, another busy year has passed, filled with so many memories and achievements. We couldn’t be prouder of the wonderful young women our daughters are becoming, and while these birthday parties are a lot of work, they are worth every ounce of effort.

I still intend to catch up on our Holidays this year–though not before the ball drops! Thanks for indulging my crammed into the last second blogging, and we’ll see how I do next year. Given that these girls’ lives are simply getting busier by the moment, I’m not holding my breath.