It Began with a BBFT

Birthdays have been a hot topic in our house since about March. Lydia and Grace have talked about their various cake choices on a daily basis, they have focused intently on putting up three little fingers rather than the oh so easy two fingers, and when asked 'what do you want to do today?' they said 'have my birthday!' about three times a week.  So, this three year mile marker was a long time in the making.  I am not put together enough to plan a big party with a theme, animals, bounce houses, favors, etc but I did want to make it fun this year for them since the anticipation was so great. However, the nice thing about 3 year olds is that it takes very little to entertain them and make their year.  So I hit up the dollar store for balloons (I probably could have stopped there and they would have been content) and punch ball/balloons for entertainment. We dragged out our ghetto sandbox ( a rubbermaid storage container with sand in it balanced on two old milk crates), covered the picnic table with paper for coloring, tossed around some crayons, added some mini muffins, cupcakes, and coffee (for the adults of course to tolerate multiple toddlers with punch balls in hand) and Presto! We had a three year old party on our hands.

A friend from work made their cakes (props to Amanda!) and the cupcakes which were a hit. Each twin had her own "letter" cake and after blowing out the candles we gave every child a fork and let them go to town. As far as birthday party entertainment goes, I think that rivals a dusty old horse that walks in a circle and makes all the parents feel sorry for it any day in my book.

Now for a little recap of the last year, for posterity's sake since I did it for their previous birthday blog (I need to remember to do this for Benson or he'll have issues to talk to his therapist about).  They have definitely changed from stubby legged toddlers to long legged little girls. I feel like they have launched into a 'little kid' realm this past year where you can have conversations with them and see what is going on in their little minds.  Now, in an effort to have full disclosure, we did go through a challenging period that some might call 'the terrible twos' but I will not label it as such since my children might at some point in time read this.  This dark time occurred around 2.5 and was characterized by lots of passionate 'Do it Self!!' statements although they were not able to quite 'do it self' which caused further frustration for both parties. So you had to wait and see how long they struggled before finally giving up and asking for help or just going into full out meltdown mode.  It was fun.  Anyways, on to brighter topics. Grace is our bouncy gummy bear social butterfly. She does literally bounce everywhere it seems.  She is quick with a hearty "Hi!" and usually has a running commentary on life in general ("is that your bra mommy? are you going potty mommy? daddy has a beard, I don't have a beard", you get the idea).  She is officially in the 'Why' stage now. Lydia has not yet caught on to that game thankfully. Lydia can be a bit more reserved but when she decides you are worthy of her affection, she doesn't hold back.  She loves to read books, work on puzzles and stack just about anything. The twins have really started to interact more with each other this year. They chase each other around in circles shrieking and giggling all the while.  Pretending is name of the game these days. They have tea parties  (complete with starbucks coffee, pumpkin bread and breakfast sandwiches) and story time, taking turns being the reader.  They take trips on their trikes to costco, northstar, barnes and noble, sand park, grandma's house and starbucks to name a few. We started doing bedtime prayers this year as well which is beyond adorable. Lydia confidently rattles off a long prayer of thanks for multiple objects in the room with other random things thrown in (air conditioning, our minivan, the potty, northstar, big cookie, starbucks, just to name a few) and of course 'mommy, daddy, lydia, grace, benson and Bocce.'  Grace seems shy about it and won't go until everyone else has prayed, then she rushes through a quick 'Dear God thank you for . . .and adds one or two things to it and rushes to the Amen' but then looks up with a smile for approval. We started potty training and got rid of the pacifiers both of which deserve their own blog post when I have the time. So, that is the quick year in review of year two. We are thankful Lydia and Grace and their unique personalities. They bring us joy on a daily basis.

The two's are over for L and G (yes, I did cry--did you expect anything different?) We are ready for the year of the threes!