The Rings of Grand Rapids: birthday

Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Happy Birthday Aunt Anna!!!

Posted by Kevin at 9:37 AM

My little sister Anna turns six today! Whoa! We can't wait to see her and the rest of the family next weekend at the annual Ring Family reunion. We'll have to be sure and sing Happy Birthday to Anna while we're there.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA!!!!!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Happy Birthday Uncle Ryno!!!!

Posted by Kevin at 12:47 PM

Our extended family has grown a lot in the past few months. Since November, Lyla and Will have gotten a new cousin, a new aunt, and a new uncle... all of whom they're very excited about.

Today is Uncle Ryno's (Julie's husband) birthday so we wanted to wish him a happy birthday and take a moment to say how glad we are that he is part of our family!!!

So here we go:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE RYNO!!! WE'RE VERY GLAD THAT YOU ARE PART OF OUR FAMILY!!!!

Seriously, though, Ryno's a great guy: kind, funny and all sorts of awesome. I mean, he's good enough to marry my sister and that's not something I say lightly. (I've actually threatened a boy who was dating my sister because I thought he was being disrespectful... I take my job as a big brother very seriously. I am very happy that Ryno is part of our family.)

Here are some pictures from Ryno and Julie's wedding last year:

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Happy Birthday Lyla!!!! or Holy Moley, I Can't Believe My Daughter is TWO!!!

Posted by Kevin at 5:14 PM

Seriously? When did Lyla grow up? It seems like just 730 days ago that Katherine was telling me it was time to go to the hospital. Yet somehow my Little Button became my Little Baby and my Little Baby become my Little Girl. All those country songs suddenly make a lot of sense...

Friday, December 4 was destined to be a special day even before it began. For us the magic began the night before when the first snow fall of this winter began to fall. We were forecast to get 3 or 4 inches over night and boy did we. We awoke Friday morning to a blanket of soft, white, beautiful snow covering everything.

Typically I have mixed feelings about the snow. I love the serenity and the beauty of freshly fallen snow, but I dread the cold and the exertion of shoveling our walks. But this was different because this was going to be the first snow that Lyla got to play in and that she would remember. And it happened on her birthday, what a neat gift.

I think that Katherine and I were slightly more excited about Lyla's actual birthday than the Birthday Girl was. Granted she had been talking about her birthday non-stop for at least two weeks and had made us sing "Happy Birthday" to every single person that we know, at least once. But I awoke that day more excited than I'd been in awhile.

We started the day with a special breakfast: blueberry pancakes. Special because we seldom make pancakes. They were good. Then we got dressed and all went to Target, whoopie!! Look, just because it was Lyla's birthday doesn't mean we can avoid the day to day tasks of running our lives. We all went together so that was fun.

After Target, we came home and Lyla got ready to go outside. We got her snowsuit on plus her hat and these great winter boots she got from her friend Sadie. Out Lyla and I went and shoveled the path. I had bought a small snow-shovel for Lyla a couple weeks ago and she was more than happy to help me clear off the snow. After shoveling, she and I built our very first snowman. Nothing too special, we used a carrot for the nose and leaves for everything else. Lyla really enjoyed packing the snow down. I think he turned out rather nice and he sort of looks like Grover from Sesame Street.

After playing in the snow we came in and were treated to a nice lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. It was the perfect meal to warm us up from the cold. After we finished, the kids went down for naps and Katherine and I started to get ready for Lyla's party.

For her party we wrestled for a long time as to what to do. Last year we invited a few friends and their kids over, four families in total. In the subsequent 365 days, 3 of the 4 families had another child and all the other kids aged a year. As a result, having the same families over would have been pure chaos.

So instead, we invited two families for dinner. I made pork street tacos and they turned out pretty good. After dinner we did presents and then cupcakes. After dinner, the chaos slowly ratcheted up until the kids ended up hitting a wall. The following pictures will give you some idea of how chaotic just two additional families can be:

Playing with friends...

More friends, more playing...

Adults trying to converse as the kids play...

More playing...

Pretty soon Will had had enough...

So we opened presents...

And then we played with the presents...

Pretty soon Will and Kevin had had enough...

So it was time for the cake...

Lyla likes cake.

So does Ian...

So does Sadie...

And then it was over.

The next day, we woke up and played with our new toys.

Lyla drying her hair with Mommy..

Later that morning, we went over to Sadie's house for her 2-year-old birthday party. I decided that Will and I should dress a like... I'm glad I did.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LYLA!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Monday, August 31, 2009

Happy Birthday Emily!!!

Posted by Kevin at 11:22 AM

Wow! I can't believe my little Emily is FOUR YEARS OLD!!!

She went from this:

To this:

For those of you who don't know (how can you not know?), Emily is our niece. The first born daughter of Katherine's brother Dave and his (awesome) wife Faith. We've been so blessed to have Emily as our niece and to have been able to see her as much as we have since we live so far way from her (boo). Emily for sure holds a special place in our hearts. She and her sister, Ally, are right up there at the same level as our own kids (Lyla and Will... remember?).

One good thing about Emily getting older is that pretty soon she'll be old enough to come up and visit us on her own... not that we don't want David and Faith to visit, we're just looking forward to some niece/cousin time with Emily and Ally.

Anyway...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMILY GRACE!!!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Happy Birthday Ally!!

Posted by Kevin at 8:35 AM

So one of the only things I love as much as being a Husband and a Father is being an Uncle. And I'm super lucky to have the two best nieces in the world. Today (well technically yesterday because I'm posting htis Friday morning) is one of my niece's birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALLY MAY!!!!

Ally turns 2 today, which is kind of unbelievable especially since she's just over three months older than Lyla (wait, Lyla turns two in three months? AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!)

This (and the one above it) are pictures from when we saw Ally and her family in Missouri last July:

Here's one of my favorites from last Christmas:

And of course, who could forget this?

WE LOVE YOU ALLY!!!!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Happy Birthday, Uncle Matthew!!!!

Posted by Kevin at 1:06 PM

I can't believe that my little brother turns 7 today!!! It seems like just one year ago that he was turning 6...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, UNCLE MATTHEW!!!!!

Matthew, the aspiring photographer, with his second-cousin-once-removed Jake.

Grandpa Ring, Will, Uncle Matthew, and Aunt Anna!

We got to see Matthew a few weeks ago at the annual Ring Family Reunion which took place in St. Louis, MO over 4th of July weekend. We really enjoyed spending time with him. Lyla and Will especially loved spending time with Uncle Matthew and Matthew was very helpful playing with Lyla and Will.

We love you, Matthew and hope you're having a great birthday!!

Love,
Kevin, Katherine, Lyla and Will