Birthday Bonanza!

On March 8th my babies turned one!  I felt such a mix of emotions at this anniversary, but was very excited to celebrate the fact that we had all made it through the first year, and that my babies are healthy and happy and here with us.  On Thursday they had special waffles in the morning, opened presents all day (I spread it out so it wouldn't be so overwhelming), went to cracker barrel for dinner, tried ice cream for the first time (Charlotte liked it, Emma did not), and had bubbles in their bath.  It was a fun and low key way to spend the day.

Here are Charlotte and Emma on their birthday opening presents.  They had fun birthday outfits and really enjoyed ripping the paper and getting into the gift bags.  That was probably their favorite part.

Saturday we had a party for their birthday.  I had hemmed and hawed over wheither to have a party or not, but decided that I really wanted to celebrate this and have people over that supported us through the pregnancy and first year.  I chose to use rainbows as my theme.  It is fun and easy, and also represents that Emma and Charlotte are like rainbows that came to us after a very difficult "storm."  I found so many good ideas online through pintrest and other site.  Here are some photos from the party.  I am really thankful that so many family and friends came to help us celebrate this really important event.

This was the food table.  I made the birthday banner using scrapbook paper and printing the letters from my computer.  It was so easy I am wanting to make a banner for every holiday now.  On either side of the banner were pictures of the girls throughout the year.  It was amazing to see how much they had changed from when they were first born.

Smash cakes!

This was the spread.  It turned out festive and tasty.  We had chicken wings, spinach and artichoke dip, cupcakes, cream puffs, fruit, veggies and dip, and rainbow goldfish.

I loved these rainbow cupcakes.  They turned out great, but were very tedious to make.  It involved layering each color in each cupcake liner.

Who knew what a huge hit balloons would be?  They kept the kids busy for an hour.  I am remembering this for later.  Emma and Charlotte really enjoyed having some friends there.

A good shot of the decorations.  I made tissue paper puffs to go over the table and then sewed together little strips of paper to make the garlands that hung in the kitchen.  It was very festive.

A close up of the tissue paper puffs.  They were so easy!

Again, the balloons were probably the hit of the party.

Here we were singing happy birthday to them.  I debated about whether to sing one time or two.  This time we sang once, which was good because it really scared Charlotte, but I think all birthdays from now on we will sing to each child.

Emma's first nibbles of frosting.  She was a little unsure at first but it didn't take her long to figure out what to do.

Charlotte, on the other hand, was scared by the singing and didn't want anything to do with her cake or sitting in her seat.

Here is the result of Emma and her cake.  She smashed it to bits and had a good time doing it.  Cake was everywhere.



Charlotte tried the cake like a little bird, just putting her face down for little nibbles. 

A big thank you to my friend Susan Floyd who took all of these photos as I did not pick up my camera during the entire party.