Happiness is Having Twins: January 2015

January 3, 2015 Happy Birthday, Violet & Lily!!

We had a very fun second birthday for the girls! For a few days we’ve been singing Happy Birthday to get them excited and getting them to say, “Two!” when we ask how old they are. Their birthday was on a Saturday and we invited family and a few friends to come celebrate with us. On Friday I took the girls to get birthday balloons and a few party supplies. Violet picked the Sesame Street balloon with Elmo, Cookie, and Big Bird, and Lily picked the Thomas balloon. I got 10 more colored balloons, so a dozen all together! The only place they fit was in the back seat with the girls and they LOVED it! They were laughing and kicking and hitting the balloons and pulling the strings. That night, Ryan made chili and I made the carrot cake cupcakes! Yum, yum! I finished up making the punching game too!

In the morning, Ryan and I were rushing to get everything ready. Before we knew it, it was 11 o’clock and our guests were arriving. After everyone got here, we had the kids play the punching game. It was so fun to watch! Little Violet made a good fist and punched right through the tissue paper! They all ended up with a smiley face bracelet and a little toy. Time for lunch! Grown-ups had chili and kiddies had sandwiches and finger foods. I found some fun sandwich cookie cutters online so they had penguin and elephant sandwiches! Everyone loved Ryan’s chili and the kids ate quite a bit of food too. I had to cut up more apples and bananas! I wasn’t sure if we should do cupcakes or presents first, and someone said presents so that’s what we did. The girls got a lot of GREAT presents! With their birthday only a little more than a week after Christmas it’s kind of hard to know what to get, but they received wonderful, thoughtful gifts! Books, pajamas, bowling set, hair accessories, keyboard and guitar, owl piggy banks, a few clothes, shoes, puzzles, backpacks, Percy trains, Andrea sewed an amazing fishing game for them to learn colors and numbers (it’s truly amazing!), but their absolute favorite gifts were their baby dollies and strollers! My mom gave them the dolls and we gave them the strollers. I knew to give them the strollers last because once they had them, they were off! We still had to sing and eat cupcakes! We got Violet back to the table ok, but Lily only wanted to play with her dolly and stroller! She had a tantrum and Ryan held her near the table while we sang Happy Birthday. She didn’t want to sit at the table or eat a cupcake! Violet blew out her candles and loved her cupcake. She gobbled it up!

Soon our guests started leaving, and everyone was gone at five to 1! We were so happy everyone came! It was a great group! In addition to my family, Liz, Rusty, and Jack came, Sarah, Maddie, and Charlotte came, and Kim and Amelia came. It was great to see everyone!

The girls had a nice long nap, and then played with their new toys some more before we went to dinner. We went to The Dodo, the same place we went on their birthday last year! Afterwards, we stopped for gelato for one more birthday treat!

It’s amazing how much Violet and Lily have grown over the past year! They are talking so much and are so smart! Every day they learn something new, make us laugh, and remind us of how lucky we are to be their parents. We love you little ladies!! Muah!

Merry Christmas Eve!

After nap, we headed over to Yia-Yia’s house for our Christmas Eve party. There were a lot of people and it was a lot of fun! My mom throws great parties and cooks delicious food! Our favorites are her Italian sausage and meatballs. They’re baked in her homemade pasta sauce and delicious on a roll. There were quite a few kids because Ted’s grandkids came too. His daughter’s boyfriend’s daughter was so sweet with the girls! She said, “Violet is just like Cindy Lou Who!” which is so funny because we say that all the time. The girls even point and say, “Violet!” when we watch the cartoon Grinch. The girls loved looking at all of the beautiful presents under my mom’s little tree. Before we knew it, it was time to go! The girls were excited about Santa coming tonight!

Shiny presents! Which ones are ours??

Andrea made a delicious chocolate cake!

Merry Christmas!

Santa came! And it snowed!! The girls must have been good this year! Santa brought new coats, mittens, shoes, coloring books and crayons in a train box, and the big gift was train tracks with circus trains and two Thomas trains! They got a bunch of smaller stuff on their stockings like Thomas socks, maracas and whistles for their music set, “canny” m&m’s in a candy cane, and a few other things. Santa found these cute owl and bird bags and put a Burts Bees chapstick inside. They always want mama’s so I’m glad they have their own now! Lily says, “Lip, Mama, lip,” when she wants some. We gave the girls Magformers, a peg puzzle block train, a multi-sided puzzle, and a little fishing game! Violet loves the fishing game! We knew she would. They opened the presents from Mary and Val, too. They gave Violet the mouse from If you Give a Mouse a Cookie with the book attached and Lily got the bear from Brown Bear, Brown Bear with the book attached. The books are soft, made of fabric. They are so cute! They’ll love snuggling with those! Mary knows them well!

By 8:30 we were on our way to my dad’s house! We decided to make it a jammy day and not get the girls dressed. We just didn’t have time! We are happy we have four-wheel drive. When we got to my dad’s street, Grandpa and Neil were stuck in the snow. Matt was trying to help and my dad came out too. My dad started driving his car and almost ran over Ryan! He fell and bruised his hip pretty badly. Eventually we all made it inside! The girls and Addy helped pass out all the presents. We opened a few presents and then went in to eat breakfast. Mindy set the table beautifully! We have our traditional Christmas morning breakfast of frittata and Mindy bought pastries from Gourmandise. We had mimosas made with hand squeezed orange juice! Mindy is amazing!! After that we went back to the living room to finish opening presents. The girls made a haul, of course! They got a mini-trampoline and sit and spin thing. I gave everyone their blankets! I had everyone open them at the same time and they loved them! Yay! Mindy liked her scarf I made too.

Back at home, my mom came over and they got to open more presents!! They got little leapfrog ABC laptop things and velvet track suits. My mom loved her blanket! She wasn’t feeling well, so they didn’t stay too long.

After lunch they were READY for a nap!!! We needed one too! What a morning! It’s been so fun and the girls have loved every minute of it.

Last year, we didn’t really plan a nice dinner for Christmas day. We didn’t make that mistake again! We brined a turkey the day before and put it in the oven in the afternoon. We had asparagus, bread, and gravy with our turkey. It was delicious! We hope to do the same every year. I love new traditions!

One last Christmas gift for the girls, we put their toddler rails on their cribs! We were really nervous, but it went very smoothly! They don’t nap in cribs at Mary’s anymore, so they were used to it! When we went back in to check on them, they were sleeping so peacefully, but in awkward positions! Violet laid sideways with her head against Elmo, right on the edge of the toddler rail. Her feet were sticking out the rails on the other side! Lily was laying on top of all of her blankets. First night was a success! We hope naptimes go just as well!