The party!

As promised, I am finally posting some pictures. Unfortunately, I think you never get quite as many photos as you hope to. We didn't get many pictures of the details of the day. We also didn't get the most important shot... a picture of the girls together in the onesies and tutus I made them. We'll be taking some portraits at the beach next week and that will be one of the pictures we take.

A lot of twin mom's have been asking about the party and details, so I'll try to go through the day for you!

We invited friends and our siblings. No Aunts, Uncles, cousins, etc. the list would have just been way to long. Our initial list was at about 42 adults and 15 kids. In the end, we had about 32 adults and 13 kids at the party. I would highly suggest not going over the 45 mark. It was a wonderful party and so much fun, but anymore people would have just been too overwhelming.

We decided on a Rubber Ducky Theme for the girls because they LOVE bath time with their duckies. This is the invitation we sent out a month before the party...

I, of course, made them myself. The color scheme of the party revolved around these, so the main colors were Bubble Gum Pink, Orange, Yellow and Blue.

The party was scheduled from 1-3pm. We wanted to keep it short and sweet to let the parents of the children be able to scoot out without feeling guilty! In retrospect, 3 hours would have been a much better time window because we did feel really rushed.

We had the food ready for 1:30. We let people eat as they wanted, keeping the food warm. We did the cake smashing around 2:15 and went straight into opening gifts. Before we knew it, it was over! For food, we had macaroni and cheese (a favorite of the girls), applesauce and hamburgers and hot dogs. Simple, but enough for a good lunch. We also had rice krispie treats, mom's cake and cookies.

The cake...
If you don't know... my parents own a bakery and work as a team on fondant cakes like these. They not only look incredible, but are super moist! (www.creativecakespgh.com)

And of course the smash cakes had to be just as cute. Notice Emma checking out Mady to see what she's doing with the cake.


Some other details from the party... we had a little duck pond with dollar store gifts for the kids.

We also had bubble favors with little rubber duckies on top. We had a bubble machine making bubbles over the swimming pool. No photos of this :(

What they are really fighting over in this picture is not a toy, it's a water bottle!


The girls had a great time and I don't think either one of them fussed at all until after the party when they were beyond exhausted. My sleepy lil' Madelyn passed out on Uncle Fritz ...

They got a nice mix of clothes and toys and we had nothing to return! With some of the gift cards they received, we got them some stacking blocks and a bongo!

This week they will officially be one and we are having a low-key family pizza night at our place. They girls still have 2 gifts to open from us and of course they want to try Grammie's cake again.

Friday, Mady has an appt with the eye doctor. The eye with the hemangioma seems to be a tiny bit lazy, so we just want to make sure it's okay. Then they have an afternoon appt at the Pedi for their 1 year visit and shots. We took them for 1 year bloodwork on Saturday. They did so great. Poor Mady had to get stuck twice because they couldn't find a good vein.

Saturday we leave for the beach!

1st Birthday!

The girls had a great first birthday party yesterday. The weather even held out for us. We got a few raindrops a half hour or so after most of our guests left. The loved the cake! They got a ton of really cool toys and clothes that I am trying to figure out where to put :) I need a MoM (mother of multiples) to have a blog about organizing a house with multiples!

Big thanks to my parents for not only creating an awesome cake, but also for having the party at their house.

I will post pictures as soon as I can gather them from mine and my fathers camera.

We'll either celebrate their actual birthday (Sept 2) with dinner out with our families or maybe some pizza at our place.

Prayers needed.

Another virtual friend of ours is going through an incredibly difficult time. Please visit her blog and read about this family and what they are going through right now. They need everyones thoughts and prayers. Just another reminder yet again of how truly lucky we are. We thought we went through so much in the NICU. It doesn't even come close to what other families have had to and are dealing with.

http://threecheersforbabies.blogspot.com/

Please support the March of Dimes. In these tough financial times, they are having an even harder time raising money. Walk with us next May in support of our family and families like the triplets. Donate whatever you can. Even if it's $1.

https://www.marchofdimes.com/howtohelp/donate_online.asp

Or donate to our friends charity, "Grady's Decision", which helps families with support as they go through premature births and the NICU.

http://gradysdecision.com/

Kiss and hug your lil' ones!!!

More teeth!

Mady now has 5 teeth and Ms. Emma has 2! They have started chewing on their cribs! Yikes!

They seem to understand almost everything we say, but they still don't have any first words besides dada and an occassional mama. They are starting to cruise a little more and can climb up an entire staircase! I went out at lunch today and bought a flat screen tv lock to bolt the tv to the wall.

Just a few more days until their birthday party. We've kept it just to friends and our siblings/parents. I think the count is at about 35 right now and about 11 kids/babies. The weather is looking good so far!

Here's an adorable picture of the girls with Eli, their cousin at Grandma/Grandpa daycare.

July's pictures

http://emmaandmadelyn.shutterfly.com/

Nothing much new. Planning the girls birthday party and planning our trip to Myrtle.

Emma's first tooth is up and out! The girls are doing great. They seem to have a new black and blue mark every day from trying to pull up to stand on everything and anything they can. Right now they are obsessed with the tv/stereo equipment. I wonder how long we'll have before that ends? Madelyn will climb mountains to get to it. The last two days, Mady has crawled after us crying when we leave her at daycare. I really hope it's a short phase. It's heartbreaking!

This weekend the girls and I are going to a wedding shower. Should be interesting... especially since it falls during a mealtime. I'm a little nervous because the girls are no longer happy sitting. They want to be on the move ALL THE TIME!

Pics!

Our big girls standing up watching Wall-e.

A mini play date with Delaney, a NICU friend.

The carousel at the Erie Zoo.