It's hard to believe an entire year has passed since we welcomed our twins into the world! Everyone told me to enjoy every minute because the first year would be a blur. Well, I thought I WAS enjoying every minute, but alas, the entire last year is a big blur indeed. I remember tidbits here and there, but I feel like the babies went from being 3 months old to ONE, in a very quick period of time. Sad! I was always excited with the prospect of Madison and Nathan turning one. But the babies? Notsomuch. Perhaps because they are my last babies, or perhaps because of the speed in which this last year flew....either way, I want them to stay babies. However, in the days leading up to their birthday, I finally accepted the fact that they were turning one, and that sinking feeling in my stomach that I would get when thinking about their birthday, turned into excitement to celebrate my babies and the fact that I survived the first year of being a twin mom, and came out on the other side still fairly sane. :)
Let's face it, a first birthday party is really about parents celebrating the fact that they made it to a big milestone with their child. The child themself could care less about their first birthday, right? Right. I always felt that way when we celerated Madison and Nathan's first birthday too. But this year was different. This past year was hard and I wanted to celebrate. And hey, how often will I have twins that turn 1? Hopefully only once! ;)
It all started with the invitations. I started by picking out the perfect outfits on Etsy. A handmade, coordinating dress and shirt. I scheduled a photo shoot with a friend, waited for my outfits to arrive and thought it would be as easy as that. Sadly it's taken me a year to accept the fact that my babies (or perhaps just twins in general) are HARD to capture the perfect picture of! My photographer friend was very patient and we tried for about 1 1/2 hours to get both babies to sit still long enough on her beautiful hardwood floors, surrounded by balloons, and just look at the camera without crying. Yea, that didn't happen. We finally gave up and went home, only to continue recreating the photo op about 4 more times (which included getting them in their outfits, gathering all the balloons in one place, moving their cribs out of the way to use the wall in their bedroom for a background, singing and screaming like banchees to get them to look in the same direction and smile. FINALLY, out of all the pictures taken (without a doubt, more than 100), we got ONE picture of them both looking and smiling. Too bad you can't even see that the tie on Landon's shirt matches Kaylyn's dress, but hey, what can you do? And yes, I realize Landon is holding a pink balloon, while Kaylyn is holding a blue one. Landon ONLY wanted the pink ones. Why? Who knows. I do love the finished product though!
The invitation
On the morning of their birthday, we opened our presents with the babies. They could definitely tell something was going on. It's not everyday there are balloons everywhere, people singing to them and actually letting them rip paper?? Cool!
For the party, I decided to do a blue and pink "sweets" theme....in honor of my sweet little babies! For the last month, I've been on a mission to find any type of sweet that comes in pink AND blue. I ended up with hershey kisses and chocolate balls wrapped in pink and blue foil, pink and blue rock candy, pink and blue m&m's, pink and blue jelly beans, pink and blue cotton candy, pink and blue pixie sticks, pink and blue swirled lolipops, pink and blue salt water taffy, pink and blue striped candy sticks, pink and the infamous $38 blue marshmallows (yes, seriously) and then I topped it off with homemade pink and blue cakepops, dipped pretzels, cookies and strawberries! Yum! And when the cake arrived the morning of the party, it couldn't have been a more suited centerpiece for my pink and blue sweets table! And of course the drink choices for the party included pink lemonade and blue koolaid. LOVED how it all turned out!
The birthday girl in the tutu that I lovingly made by hand! :)
What is this thing on your head, sissy? Here, let me get it for you.
Time for cake! Honestly, this cake couldn't have been more beautiful or more perfect! I told the cake lady that I wanted pink and blue polka dots, and voila!
The babies were getting fussy in their high chairs as we prepared to sing to them and as soon as everyone started singing, they both got silent and just sat and watched everyone. SO cute. I had to hold back tears as we sang Happy Birthday to my one-year-olds. No more 1st birthday's in this house. Boo!
Kaylyn was very delicate with her cake. Especially in the beginning when she didn't know what to do, she was kind of grossed out when she touched the icing. But as soon as Scott put a little bit of icing in her mouth, it was like a light bulb went off and she immediately dug right in! Her cake afterwards had simple finger swipes off the sides, with a majority of the cake still intact. No worries, though, she got plenty of icing in her little body!
Landon, on the other hand...once he got a taste of the icing, he couldn't keep his hands off the cake and couldn't get his hands in his mouth fast enough! It was hilarious to watch him stuff his face with the cake and dive back in for more. At one point, I thought he was going to bury his whole face in the cake. Love doesn't describe how he felt for the cake!
Happy Birthday to my BIG One Year Olds! :)
And to think, they started out like this....
