Party Time!

Well despite my best efforts, I have failed. These girls are growing up & getting older no matter how many times I've told them to KNOCK IT OFF!!!!!! They turned four yesterday. FOUR. I have THREE four year olds! Seeing it in print is just bizarre. Just for a little perspective, here's what I started with....


and here's where we are now! It takes two laps to hold our babies these days : )We've come a LONG way baby! They can't all fit in my lap at the same time any more BUT they're still pretty cuddly (so far anyway!)
What a day we had yesterday! I think I may have planned a little too much for one day but I'll know better for next year. Since their birthday fell on Wednesday, I took them to playgroup as usual. Why I felt the need to do this, I have NO idea!

Murray had taken a vacation day to be able to spend their birthday with them & was going to join us for playgroup but then we realized we'd be leaving the cake unprotected with Murphy! The towers & turrets were a little tippy & I didn't dare try to move it too far. Murray decided to stay home & while he waited for us to come back, he cleaned and tidied things up that I hadn't had a chance to get to. (he comes through in a pinch!)


Murray also stayed up with me the night before til 1:30am as I put the finishing touches on all the cakes. He filled loot bags, blew up balloons, hung signs and wrapped all the presents. He was so helpful with everything & never complained. These aren't tasks he'd normally be doing, he comes from the "plastic shopping bags are suitable wrapping" school of gift giving. BUT he knows those girls like to actually open presents the old fashioned way, lots of ripping and tearing and he wanted them to have that fun. He'll do anything for his little bunnies!

At playgroup, Aunt Cathy gave me their present from GG. Fancy little dreses made out of the same material that she made MY flowergirl dress out of when I was about 6 or 7 years old. (talk about long term storage!) I couldn't believe she still had the material and that she had enough for THREE dresses. They're soooooo cute & lightweight, great for summer. They wanted to put them on as soon as they saw them but I convinced them to wait til we got back to our house. As soon as we were in the door, they asked to get them on!

When we got home at lunchtime, everything was looking great! The table was set, fresh fruit was cut up & ready to snack on while we waited for the guests to arrive. Everyone got there shortly after 1pm and they ate their lunch and everyone was ready for cake! I made them each their own little cake (a lot of adult twins I've talked to are still bitter that they never had a birthday cake of their own the whole time they were growing up) as well as the piece de resistance: The Wilton Romantic Castle Cake for the guests & grownups. (this also prevents contamination from the girls blowing out their candles and otherwise getting grubby hands on the cake!) : ) I was pretty happy with how they all turned out, even if it did mean baking 5 separate cakes and staying up til the wee hours to finish. They liked their princesses and the castle too.When we pulled into our driveway, we had a surprise visitor waiting for us! Old Nanny came to see them even though she had a big dinner party planned that night for her family. She brought them their own potten plants, named Blendy, Rosie & Coral (or as Lovey has decided "Coyal-ah". She came in for a few minutes to give them the rest of their things which they were thrilled with of course. Old Nanny semi-adopted us when the girls were a few months old and made many many visits to our house, loaded down with meals and baking and would stay for hours to help with the babies. We no longer need that level of assistance (thank heavens!) but we still enjoy visiting her & having lunch dates at her house. They had 4 friends come to their party & I think that was a good number to start with, especially considering that when you add in the birthday girls that almost doubles the attendees!
They didn't take long to eat, they were too excited to get to their cakes and once they'd gotten their fill of icing, they were raring to go to town on the presents from their friends! There were many nifty outfits, games and toys. We only had one social blunder at the kids' party. Sweetie opened a beautiful dress (Children's Place too, not cheap stuff!) that was black with white daisies all over it. She looked at it and announced loudly "I don't like BLACK." Niiiiiiiiiiiiice. I'm hoping that as a mom of a couple 4 year olds herself, Yvonne is used to such bluntness....

Once the opening was done, the kids all ran off to play & we did some quick damage control in the kitchen & went downstairs to watch them with their friends. I didn't plan any games, I'm too new at this & had naively hoped that the weather would be decent and they could run around outside. I'd even considered telling everyone to bring a swimsuit but the rain nixed that. They had fun anyway and after I sat for a few minutes, the exhaustion started to hit me. I wanted to put my head on Teena's shoulder and pass out!!!
No rest for the weary though! Just as the kid party was breaking up, it was time for the family party to start! Honey had just asked how much longer til supper when Grammie was coming. I suggested we call her & see where she was. Grammie answered her phone just as she was coming in the door. Hooray!

Opening their first ever BARBIES!!!!!!!! They were thrilled with "Genna-meen" (Princess Genevive actually) and love to make the skirt twirl. Also the girl sized matching dress was a big bonus!

Not long after M&D got there, Aunt Cathy arrived! It was like a baby helpers' reunion at our place! These 3 were also instrumental in the survival of that first year!The girls had a wonderful day & loved everything! (well except for that black dress *sigh*....) We had supper when Uncle Dale got finished his shift and then they got to open his presents too. Sweetie opened hers and found a tote bag with a beach towel, straw mat & matching water bottle and tossed it aside and said "this isn't fun enough!" I reminded her of the talk we'd had earlier about just saying thank you when something wasn't our favourite and she kept her head down & just peered upwards with a slight scowl and said "thank you" in a none too appreciative tone so obviously THAT needs a little more work! Once she realized what was in the bag it was much more appealing though & was soon put to use.

They eventually went to bed & slept quite soundly & thanks to an overcast morning, they woke up later than usual!

Thank you to everyone who made their birthday so much fun!!!