A Very Happy 1st Birthday....

The theme for the twins 1st birthday party was from the the book written by Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The girls love the book and the toys and I liked the idea of making the decorations. The premise of the book (as if you don't know) is that a little and very hungry caterpillar is born, eats a lot and eventually transforms into a beautiful butterfly which I thought was a good metaphor for the girls over the past year.

The party was a lot of fun. I made a vegetarian chili and did a build your own baked potato bar. We had cupcakes for our guests and the girls had little tiny white cakes which they actually ate a portion of. We wanted to keep the party on the small side so we decided not to invite friends but just have family so the girls didn't get too overwhelmed. Our attendees included: Grandpa Greg and Gramma Carol, Auntie Chrissy, Uncle Sean, Cousin Shaylah, Uncle Chad and Cousin Haley, Uncle Josh, Auntie Suzanne and Cousin Olivia, Cousin Amy and Chris, Cousin Gary, Cousin Bridgette. Royce's Mom (Grandma Sue) was in Florida and Grandma and Grandpa Steenerson live in South Carolina but they were with us in spirit.

The girls really enjoyed all of the attention and busyness. Adia loves her older cousins even though Olivia and Shaylah want NOTHING to do with babies (they are 2 and 4). She loves her cousin Haley (7) who is wonderful with the twins and gives them a lot of attention. Neither Rasa or Adia really got into the cake all that much. They obviously didn't get the I LOVE CAKE gene that I'm blessed with. Both of them did eat some of it but we really had to coax them into getting into it. Rasa loved kneeding it between her fingers and then throwing it on the floor and Adia took little pieces off slowly and licked all of the frosting and then rubbed it all over her face.

Presents were a big hit! After all of our Christmas celebrations the girls both have a good understanding of wrapped gifts. Just last week I bought some creative shelving and toy storage for all of the Christmas toys and organized everything neatly and perfectly. Now I'm back at square one! They received twice as many toys for their birthday and we now have them in every corner of every room! My house now looks like the stock warehouse at Toys R Us. I surrender!

Both Rasa and Adia fell asleep in Daddy's arms just before the end of their party. When they woke up they were still on a party high and had fun playing with all of their new toys. We were all up late Saturday night just making the day last and enjoying playing together. We spent Sunday morning setting up more toys and writing Thank You cards.

A huge thank you to our family for helping us acknowledge how special Rasa and Adia are and helping us celebrate their big day! Special thanks to my Mom (Gramma Carol) for the handmade tutu's and for taking pictures!