Lots to Celebrate: the Royals, Halloween & two Birthdays

My daughter, the party-planner-extraordinaire, had no less than four celebrations at the end of October. Why not?  It's not every year your team makes it into the World Series to play in your home town just before your son's birthday and right around Halloween. Here's how the parties played out.

Monday, October 20th, was Nate's actual birthday as well as the day before the Giants and the Royals played game one of the 2014 World Series in Kansas City. To commemorate two such momentous events, Rachel planned a simple baseball-themed "real" birthday party. Greatgram made the centerpieces, and Gram brought the baseball cake.

A few days later, the kiddos donned Ninja costumes to trick-or-treat where dad and granddad work. It required a Herculean feat to get four kids into garb in time to get pictures taken before loading the kids into and out of car seats and up an elevator to greet the associates and partners at Polsinelli.

Even the baby, just a few weeks old, got in the act.

On Halloween, the whole family got into costume to trick-or-treat in the neighborhood. Daddy was Splinter, and Mama was April O'Neill. Oldest brother, Will, was Michelangelo; Nate was Leonardo. Vivi dressed as Donatello, and baby James was bad-boy, Raphael. Pretty cute, huh?

The next day, Rachel decked out the house and her sister-in-law, Audra, made the food for the extended-clan party celebrating two birthday kids: Nate, who turned three years old,

and Kaya, who turned two years old.

Birthday girl, Kaya, on the right; her cousin on the left.

Here are some pictures of Rachel's decorations for the big bash.

I never cease to be amazed at this daughter's stamina and creativity. With four little ones five-years-old and younger, how she has time and energy to make so much fun, I will never understand. She must have inherited some of the Ninja powers.