Happy Third Birthday!

We celebrated M and N's birthday this morning with a trip to the Mall of America for rides at Nickelodeon Universe, Mac and cheese at Noodles, and ice cream at Coldstone. The boys had a blast and now are giving ME a birthday present by napping. Tonight we will have cupcakes and set up the tee ball set they chose for their gift with Daddy yesterday. They've been talking about it all day! We've celebrated their birthday in MI with family the last two years but decided against traveling with Caleb's birth being just 16 days ago. It seems different, to be sure, but to have our first Family Fun Day with little brother made it very special indeed. Here are a few iPhone pics from today's adventure:

Upstairs, Downstairs

While brushing teeth tonight the boys were being so CUTE that I actually thought, "I should take a picture of that," so I ran (waddled) to get my iphone and snap these quick.  I made them do "upstairs teeth" and "downstairs teeth" again to capture these.  Also, this will satisfy those of you who want to see my baby belly.  I'm HUGE, but not as big as I was when I delivered the twins.  Someone, another twin mom no less!, called me "big mama" last weekend.  I told her I was feeling downright skinny!  (No one calls me "big mama" but ME, got that?) 

Happy birthday to my own skinny mama back home in MI.  Love you!

Pizza Party

I had a brilliant idea to let the boys help make pizzas for dinner because, theoretically, kids will eat food they help prepare.  It started out great!  The boys had a lot of fun

N spreads the sauce on ours

M spreads the sauce on theirs

N's photo of M sprinkling cheese - it's pretty good!

N tests the pepperonis before adding them...ick.

The making of the pizzas was fun!  Even the watching  of the pizzas in the oven was fun.  The actual eating of the pizzas?  No, thanks.  We barely got them to taste one slice! 

Maybe it's because M burned his finger on the stone and insisted on wearing these all night afterward.

And then I turned 34 yesterday.  Here's my birthday snuggles with my little boys last night.  They love this book, "My Little Train," and ask for it every night.  They know all the words.  Here, they are shouting, "To my pocket!  To my pocket!" which is where the little kangaroo wants to be dropped off by the train.  They are so fun (when they're not testing my patience)!

More Birthday Fun (or don't P in the Ool)!

With the boys' and hubs' birthday just 9 days apart, we can stretch the birthday celebrations for over a week!  If I haven't read your Facebook posts or replied to your texts or voicemails, it's because we've been partying and prepping for more partying this weekend.  (Sorry!) 

Last weekend we celebrated with our Michigan families and tonight we celebrated with our Minnesota friends.  It was the first time we had so many people in our new house and it was fun to introduce our friends to each other - we had multiples' families, church friends, old friends, new friends and new neighbors (they fall into the new friends category, too!) gathered to celebrate God's many blessings.  Here are just a few of the hundreds or so pictures snapped tonight.  These were taken the second half of our party by Aunt L - beginning with cake eating, on our Nikon, whose software was FINALLY uploaded to the dino-desktop tonight. Please be patient and I'll work on some more this week.  A very gracious friend will have a boatload of good ones from the beginning!

I love you, bro!  (My favorite shot:)

Clean mud, eh?  I'm sure I can make a mess of it.

Cake! Cake, Bug cake!  More candies?  Pweeze?

Fireman N helps with the hose

I missed you so much!  Welcome!  M greets our friends at the door.

A perfect evening for picnicing in our backyard.  What beautiful weather and wonderful friends.

BUG CAKE

I love cake!

Daddy and M share a hug

TP + Ivory Soap + H20 + a whole bunch of two year old twins = Clean Mud

The making of the mud

First water balloon fight!  Okay, it wasn't much of a fight, but it was funny!

More clean mud making - I had to teach them how to squish it together.

N tiptoes through the shark pool sprinkler

How many two year olds fit into a shark pool?  About 9!

Four tired but very happy people say good-bye, friends!  Come again!

Oh, yeah....and somebody peed in the pool!  I'll leave you guessing if you haven't already heard! :)

Choo! Choo! Now we're TWO!

"Choo-Choo is coming!  WHAAAAHHH!  WHAAAAAH!"
That was how Hubs and I woke up at 5:30 this morning.  Think the boys were excited for their Thomas the Train themed birthday party?  The "WHAAAHHH!" sound is my sons imitating the noise the REAL trains make as they blast the horn going through our new town.  They already know trains don't say "chugga-chugga" or "choo-choo" - they know they are LOUD and startling!

Our two families gathered at a nearby park and shared a picnic together this afternoon.  Despite threatening weather, the rain held off until the chicken, salads, baked beans, and three delicious cakes were eaten and all the presents were opened.

What cracks me up about toddlers is that really, they just need ONE toy for a holiday or birthday.  They simply aren't interested in the clothes (that I'm THRILLED they're receiving)!  Or they just need some dirt and sticks, like they found at the park! 

Thank you to our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who braved the storm clouds to celebrate our sons' lives.  We love you and are grateful that you can be a part of their special day!  Enjoy a few of the lovely photos taken by our amateur photographer auntie:

M is all smiles, welcoming our guests.

3 fantastic cakes!

"I'll help you, brother."

Thanks for the presents!

Make a wish!

Best Friends Forever

Yummy!

Up, up and away!

For You!

Our son, Goldilocks

Happy Birthday, boys!  You are the answer to our prayers.  We love you and are proud to be your parents.  So please sleep in tomorrow.

Happy Second Birthday!

We celebrated two years in style tonight with the best deal in town: Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America!  You can register your kids' birthdays on their website and receive a FREE unlimited ride wristband valid on the birthday!  Thank you to the MVMOMs who told me about this deal - it was a stellar idea!

The boys love being BIG and they tell us every day now that they are, but if you ask me, they're still convincing themselves - I know they're still missing the pacifiers a bit.  Today, though, they showed us they really ARE big by riding lots of rides at the amusement park.  Can you tell they enjoyed it?

M LOVED the "Big Rig" ride - he's not smiling here because it's NOT MOVING!

My favorite shot of the night; N and Daddy on the last ride, Blue's Clues.

They were a little nervous on the first ride, though - the carousel.

Choo-choo!  Our little conductors on the train ride.

It's SO HARD to wait for our favorite, the Big Rig ride.

We broke for dinner at Ruby Tuesday's, where the boys gifted US with a peaceful meal and very good behavior (for two freshly minted two-year-olds, they were great!) and were rewarded with their OWN birthday sundaes afterward, a real treat!

"Ice cream is cold!" M says.

N and his big birthday ice cream.

What a fantastic family night to treasure forever!  The boys are getting to be so much fun and (knock on wood) a bit easier to go out with.  (I know, I know, don't burst my bubble, okay?  They were so good tonight!)  We have more celebrations planned in the coming days and will keep you posted on the smiles.  In the meantime, enjoy being two with our little guys.

Let's roll!

Keep on truckin', baby!

Catch Up 1

Good morning, friends.  I greet each of you in the name of a steaming hot cuppa joe and two sleeping babies.  I'm painfully aware of how my blog has been lacking in recent weeks and my hope is to catch you up to speed on the fellas.

They are, how shall I say this?  BUSY!  Hubs and I wonder if other 19 month olds are this busy, if perhaps everything is exaggerated because there are two of them, or if we have a couple of wild men on our hands?  We are seriously considering starting them in gymnastics to release their pent up energy, but it appears we can't start them until they are two!

Both the guys were down for the count with an ear infection over the holiday "break," (haha, what mom gets a break, right?).  I try to post pics that depict how cute and brilliant I am our sons are, but I have to show you this one, above.  That's me and N (escaping, per usual) and M on Christmas morning.  Poor M is burning up with a fever of 101 and looked that way most of the day.  We dosed him up in Tylenol all day and took him to Urgent Care first thing the next morning.  (Did you notice they're eating Fruit Loops out of their snack traps?  They are decidedly NOT into special holiday foods!) The good news is that N is finished and M has just two more days of amoxicillin and they are both bouncing around like normal now!   

I mentioned we had a double birthday waterpark party, but I have no pics because my sisters and I have NO SWIMSUIT PHOTOGRAPHY agreement!  Taking the kiddos down the slides and splashing with them in kiddieland was a riot!  We did, however, have presents and cupcakes for the birthday girls afterward where everyone was fully dressed.

Happy 3.5!

I think "vacancy" adds a nice touch.

Happy 3 years!

Those are my only two nieces, who turned 3 - my next niece is due April 20, by the way!  They are modeling their gifts, hats made by Marigold Baby.

I hear one little guy "talking" upstairs.  I'm going to get him out while he's in a happy mood.  It makes the day go so much better!  I'll be busy for awhile, so I'm just going to post as is.  Perhaps I can put up a few more at naptime.