My Girls are 3!!

The morning after the party was the girls' actual birthday.  Their main presents from Russell and I were the Disneyland trip and the party, but we did have one small thing for them to open that we got back in December when we got them their play kitchen for Christmas.

It's a play stand mixer & cookie making set!  I got a KitchenAid stand mixer for my birthday/Mother's Day/every other special occasion of 2010, so the girls have seen me use it lots of times and knew what to do!

Time to take the cookies out of the oven!

Madylin and her first batch of cookies.

Morgan was savvy enough to use the hot pads to take the cookies out.

The 1st sunday of every month we get together with my mother-in-law's extended family to have dinner and celebrate the month's birthdays.  The girls' birthday just happened to fall on that day, so they got to have the whole family sing to them and blow out more candles.  Here is Morgan sitting on Grandpa's lap.  This picture cracks me up because of Aunt Paula on the left.  She is making this face because Morgan was spitting on the cake a bit as she blew out her candles.

Madylin started out singing happy birthday to herself with everyone, but when she realized she wasn't supposed to she just made shy-eyes at everyone while they sang- so cute!

Can't believe that 3 years ago they were in the hospital and we were not sure if they were both going to thrive or even survive.

We are so blessed to have them! Happy 3rd Birthday Madylin and Morgan!

M&M's 3rd Birthday Party!

The day before the twins' 3rd birthday we had a little birthday party with some of their cousins and friends that are their age.  It was a lot of fun.  We had mini pizzas and mini pigs-in-a-blanket with pasta salad, grape salad and carrots with dip. Outside we had bubbles and my cousin Jessica was nice enough to bring over Riley's mini bounce house for the kids to play in, too.

(Madylin, Riley, Morgan, Scarlett, and Luke in the bounce house)

Inside the kids played with toys and homemade play-dough.  I LOVE this stuff.  It is so easy to make and it has a great texture.  You dye it with kool-aid so it smells fruity.

(Christy, Bayer, and Riley)

We did a Cinderella pinata (indoors because by this time it had gotten cold outside).  I have lots of not-so-great photos of all the kids taking a wack at Cinderella with my rolling pin, but this one is the funniest.  This is Russell's nephew, Isaac.  He took at the pinata tomahawk-style and almost knocked into some kids behind him with his back swing, so you can see someone had to grab the pin behind him to stop him from hitting anyone.  The pinata was fun, but of course the kids needed a LOT of help to break it open.  I was worried my girls would be traumatized by all the people beating up Cinderella, but they didn't care one bit.  When it broke open the kids didn't quite know what to do.  They all just looked at the candy and some of them picked up a piece or two.  It wasn't until the parents started yelling "hurry get as much as you can"  and making requests for which candy they wanted their kids to load up on (Uncle Aaron was telling his boys to grab all the airheads haha) that the kids started to get excited and pick it all up.

The girls got to open presents from their generous friends and family.  They got bathing suits and clothes, princess jammies, a small curling iron for their hair, crowns and dress up shoes, necklaces and princess figures.  Thank you everyone!

My mom was here the day before the party and helped me make the birthday cakes.  I decided to do 2 butterfly cakes with different colors for each one.  Here is Madylin with her cake.

Morgan with her cake.

It was such a fun little party and I think all of Morgan and Madylin's little friends had a good time, too.

I was a little anxious about the whole day so I was so relieved it went over smoothly.

Our Trip to the Happiest Place on Earth

On April 29th we decided to take the family to Disneyland!  I hadn't been in over 6 years, which means I'd never been with Russell.  We wanted to take the girls before they turned 3 so that we didn't have to pay for them because we are cheap smart like that.  Their birthday was 3 days later so we really waited to the very last minute and made it a birthday trip. We had fun- but it wasn't what I expected.  I remember feeling the same way about our trips to Sea World last year- we had fun, but I expected my kids to be over-the-moon excited about everything and just run around with smiles on their faces.  I'm learning that my kids just aren't that way.  They are pretty subdued when there are lots of people around (don't have any idea where they got that from ; )  and they just don't have the huge overblown reactions that Russell and I would love to see when we do something really exciting. Combine that with the fact that they are HORRIBLE about taking pictures (although Morgan is getting MUCH better) and I was just slightly disappointed when I got home and looked through our pictures. I just wanted to have a bunch of pictures of the happiest children on the planet just crazy with excitement.  Oh well . . .

We started on the carousel and then the Dumbo ride and the girls liked those just fine.  

We stopped in the Mad Hatter to try on some hats.  We were hoping to get them each one with their names on them to wear around, but of course they would NOT wear them for more than a few seconds (Madylin wouldn't even look at the camera or smile) so we had to scratch that idea.

(By the way in all the pictures Morgan is in the green shirt and Madylin in the blue)

Then we went and waited 45 minutes in the "meet the princesses" line which I didn't think was going to be worth it because I figured the girls wouldn't even talk to or take pictures with the princesses.  I was wrong, Russell was right (yes I said it).  The girls loved it and talked to the princesses and even sorta smiled for pictures!

We then took Nathan on his first ride- It's a Small World.  We have no pictures of it because it was the perfect opportunity for me to nurse him!  The ride is nice and long and dark so I just enjoyed it with Nathan nursing under a cover!

We headed over to Toon Town and Russell and I took the girls on a really fun roller coaster.  It was kinda fast and loud and we were nervous they would scream and cry, but they just grimaced the whole time and then told us afterwards that they didn't want to do it again.  I'll take that over wailing!

Here we are in front of the roller coaster. (can't remember what it's called)

In Toon Town we also got to meet Mickey Mouse!

Before leaving we decided to go on the carousel again with Nathan and my mom, too.

Nathan almost fell asleep on this ride.

We also decided to go on the teacups one last time.  I'm SOO glad we did because it made the trip worth it.  The first time we didn't spin it at all, but the second time Russell decided he could handle the spinning and he helped the girls spin the teacups really fast and they LOVED it.  They were laughing and screaming- all the things I wanted them to be doing all day!

All in all a great day and I'm so glad my mom could come with us and help with Nathan while we took the girls on some rides. (and help take the girls on some rides while I fed Nathan as well!)

Here's our little family trying to take a good picture.

Here's one with the girls actually looking at the camera

I wonder where they get the fake smiles from- I mean Russell and I look totally natural!

(and yes those are braces on my husband's teeth- he got them on the day before we went)

April Randoms

Haven't had much to blog about lately, but before I start on the twins' 3rd birthday, here is some randomness from the last few weeks. . .

We had the Fishers over one night and the 3 girls were playing upstairs in the bedroom quietly. After a while Russell and Jessica went up to check on them and this is what they found.

I guess I never thought to tell the girls that climbing on top of the kitchen was NOT allowed!

Another day while the girls were playing with Riley, the 3 girls decided to dress up like princesses and actually wanted me to take their picture. That never happens! Don't they look so beautiful?

LOVE this blue-eyed boy.

I attempted to get a cute picture before church one sunday, but this is as good as I got! I just thought Nathan looked so handsome!

Disneyland and birthday stuff to come later this week!