The Big Birthday Recap

Last week my babies became toddlers. Their second birthday came much too quickly for this Mommy and with it came lots of fun and lots of memories.

Their actual birthday was pretty quiet. They did get their favorite meal for dinner, gnocchi!

And for dessert, they got cupcakes!!!!!

 

They did get to open presents from Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles. This included lots of clothes (which Ben had no interest in and Mari was very excited about. Such a girl), a play kitchen, a keyboard, and a basketball hoop. At least  it was supposed to be a basketball hoop. The packing list from Amazon said basketball hoop. The box looked about the right size for a basketball hoop. Then  we opened the box. It wasn't a basketball hoop. It was a set of sawhorses. Yes, you heard me right- sawhorses. Good thing Ben is too young to know to be disappointed. Luckily the people at Amazon were very nice and sent out the correct item very quick. Hey Amazon- I still haven't received that return label. Does that mean I get to keep the sawhorses because I have some furniture I need to build. You know. In all my free time.

Here are some present opening shots.

The actual party was on Saturday. I decided to have it be a luau theme which of course meant I needed to have authentic luau food. My Aunt Dianne sent over some great recipes and I decided on kahlua pig with gon lo mein noodles, cabbage salad, white rice, and tropical fruit. Sadly, I forgot the fruit in the fridge so guess what we have been consuming vast amounts of during the past few days? Lots of pineapple, mango, and papaya. Not a bad thing to have to eat.  Here are some lovely pork prep shots:

We had the party at Lagoon Valley Park in Vacaville. The lagoon was more like a puddle this time of year and sadly, we were completely swarmed by yellow jackets. I felt so bad. When I went and checked out the place a month ago there wasn't a bug to be seen. The park service had put up yellow jacket traps but I think our food was more enticing. Sadly, one of the little boys at the party got bit on the hand. It is actually amazing we only had one injury considering how many of us and how many of them there were. The kids had fun playing with each other on the playground. The food was a success. I saw smiles on people's faces. I consider that a victory. We brought out last year's "unbreakable" piñata, restuffed it with candy, and taped it up with painters tape. Then we hung it from a tree with an extension cord cuz we are classy like that.  We thought it would be unbroken yet again until Sierra stepped up and whacked the monkey right in half. It has been decided that we are going to duct tape the monkey back together and reuse it again and again because we are kooks and we think its funny.  In addition to having it be a regular old birthday party, we made it a Will Play For Food Event and collected food for the hungry. I was very impressed with everyone's generosity. You can learn more about Will Play For Food here.  It is such a great concept and I hope some of you will be inspired to do the same thing.  Here is a little collage of the party (can you tell I just downloaded Picasa 3 or what?).

You can see alot more great pictures by clicking here and checking out the web album I created.  To those who were able to make it to the birthday party- thank you so much for your generosity with the food donations and the gifts for Mari and Ben. It meant so much to have you all there. Sometimes life gets so busy and we don't get to spend as much time with our friends and family as we would like. Thank you for taking the time to be part of the twin's special day.  You are all so special to us.