Ramblings: Better late than never...

This post is a few days late---but in my defense, the twins picked the most inconvenient time of year to be born. (Not to mention the fact that Jeremy was in Houston and missed the doc cutting me open and ripping them from the womb.) Their birthday hits right in the middle of all the end of school chaos, end of season parties and recitals, and just about the time that boulder of dread starts forming in my stomach indicating the beginning of a l-o-n-g summer during which I'll be in charge of entertaining four crabby, quarreling, "bored" kids that unless completely submerged in a swimming pool, cannot play outside without spontaneously combusting due to the Texas heat. Really. It's hot here. My grocery bills go up 39% because of all the extra deodorant I have to buy. I may even start making the kids wear some because I really hate that fresh-from-recess sweaty kid smell. Can you tell how excited I am that school is almost out?

I digressed. Back to what I was talking about before...Saturday was the twins' 3rd birthday. Grandma and Grandpa Apples sent them these BYU t-shirts and as soon as they saw them, Aidan was ecstatic. "B-I-U football shirts!" They've been asking to wear them since they arrived in the mail. Thanks Grandma!
They have also been planning a "Ball party" for awhile now. None of us, including them, really knew what they meant by that--other than that they really love balls, so why not put that in the title of their birthday celebration. Their cousin's (Cate) birthday is the week after theirs, so we usually just have one big family party where all three of them try to figure out what is going on and when they are allowed to 1) rip open the pretty packages that hold all the really cool, and invariably loud, new toys and 2) dig into the cake that the Moms have been telling them for the past day or so to STAY AWAY from or else their fingers will be chopped off posthaste.

We planned a little pool party with a taco buffet for dinner afterward. Avery worked on his "power dunk," where he jumps in and slams the basketball into the goal as hard as he can before he goes underwater. For your own safety, try not to stare directly at Jeremy's white skin. He's in an office all day long so I'll give him a break and only refer to him as an albino once or twice.

The boys FINALLY got to have their basketball cake from Costco and they were not disappointed...even though I was a bit annoyed that the person frosting it didn't center the birthday message. It wasn't even close. Don't they know that I notice every weird little thing like that? I take that back--I actually don't think that centering the writing on a cake is that anal of an expectation. Is it? Would you have noticed? I have always made all the birthday cakes, so maybe I should have just been happy that I didn't have to worry about it.

They were so tickled that people were finally singing the Happy Birthday song to them. Aidan had a silly grin on his face the whole song.
Avery blew out his candle first and then Aidan was supposed to do his. But while trying to lean in to get close enough, his arm brushed against the side of the cake and he was gone. He wouldn't be distracted from sucking on his arm to blow out his candle. Once the icing was all sucked off, he managed to blow it out so that we could cut him a piece to eat. Avery couldn't wait for a fork and dove in headfirst. I love how Maddie's got her tongue out, like she's Avery licking the cake. (And Jessica--there's most of Preggers Dee back there like you requested.)

I'd like to point out there's a reason that I should win James's Favorite Aunt award. I am ALWAYS hooking this kid up with awesome culinary delights. Usually it's on the downlow so I don't get busted feeding him things he shouldn't be eating. But this time I got caught on camera wielding a spatula full of cake.

FYI--Him Likey Frosting.




Cate had a cake montage consisting of a hilarious pig and a monkey wearing tutus. She does NOT like being the center of attention and having all the eyes on her instantly makes her turn to stone. And stone can't and won't blow out 4 balloon candles. So Dee had to convince her that we would all look away while she finally managed a puff of air.

After all the cake eating and washing off the inches of frosting, we hung up the pinata the boys picked out. We had been to a party a couple months ago where they'd had a big "uh-not-uh"--according to Aidan. Avery says "pih-nod-a." After that, it's all I heard about every time we were at the Walmart checkout in view of the huge line of pinatas in the party section.

They decided on Lightning McQueen and then happily bashed the eyeballs right off the front of him. Pardon the pantless Avery--his shorts went missing when it was time to change out of his swimsuit. Tara managed to break the pinata from it's plastic hanging strap. Other than that damage, we eventually gave up on them breaking the cardboard car enough for the stuff to fall out on its own. (We didn't let Alex take the heavy metal bat to it like he wanted--there were too many anxious kids waiting to rush the scene and I really didn't want to drive to the ER during the party to replace anyone's teeth that got knocked out.) We just dumped everything in a line and let them go after it.

After they gathered all their sugar and bubbles and other assorted goodies, we went inside for presents. Mass chaos ensued for about 20 minutes as all three opened their packages at once. The boys got new scooters with Spiderman helmets and some new ball-themed outfits. Aidan got something hilarious--I'll let the picture show you.
Too funny! He LOVES dressing up. The pants are a little big and he sorta looks like a Spiderman genie or something. We got them a couple of Little People toys and the new jammies they were eyeing at the store. I decided to keep a couple of "presents" hidden in my closet until they are REALLY needed during the summer when they will magically appear.

And so we've survived another year--and I'm not messing around here--it was a DOOZEY. Dealing with all the two-babies-at-once stuff was tons easier than all the 2-two-year-olds at once drama. If I really do go insane and I don't make it in a semi-stable mental state to their fourth birthdays, next May I'll just be posting a picture of myself in that Spiderman outfit licking icing off my arm.