Hannah and Lizzie turned nine earlier this week. Seriously (and I do mean seriously) I have no idea how that happened. I can't believe they are NINE YEARS OLD. I swear it was just yesterday that I was holed up in a hotel room with them waiting to bring them home from Delaware and wondering just exactly how I was going to parent these two amazing creatures. Nine years later I STILL wonder how I'm going to parent them. One thing I've learned about being a parent (albeit s l o w l y) is that just as soon as you think you've got it figured out, somebody changes the rules.
For instance, I was pretty sure we were done with birthday parties, and yet, somehow there were six girls screaming and running through my house last week. Here they are in a quiet moment (well, sort of). The party's theme was do-it-yourself because I mistakenly thought that would mean less work for me. Instead it was a let MOM do it, party...
We started off making jewelry. Hannah and Liz chose to make something that could be hung from the backpack so I let the girls pick around in my ample bead stash and they each came up with a unique design. Each girl also got to put three charms on her creation, too. This is Lizzie's:
Then each girl made her own pizza. This is Phoebe, one of Hannah's best friends. The girls even got creative with the pizza dough, making hearts and decorating with tiny pieces of pepperoni. Lizzie made hers in the shape of a dog's head:
Then it was make your own sundae. I think the making was much more fun than the eating (although Rob did mention that he had a stomach ache after he finished HIS sundae...):
Then it was time for some pictures and present opening (I didn't take pictures of that chaos, suffice it to say there was lots of squealing and screaming...) This is Lizzie and her best friend Keira:
And here's the rest of the group: Phoebe, Karissa, Maura and Hannah:
Everyone went home with a do-it-yourself goody, too. This was a candy necklace that each girl made and then ate (or just ate):
But WAIT, there's more...
We also celebrated the girls birthday as a family, on their actual birthday. I gave my camera a rest on that day, but we did take the annual picture of Rob holding both his daughters. It's certainly a lot different than when they each weighed less than 9 pounds. Now they are both solidly in the 50-pound range. But Rob's strong...
We did take a short break for Thanksgiving with the Rasmussens of Cape May Court House, but, as you'll see there was ANOTHER birthday party there...
But first, here's the gang getting ready to eat the delicious meal prepared by Grandma Connie:
And here's the turkey (ha ha!) ...
Oh no, wait, HERE'S the turkey... it was every bit as delicious as it looks:
But, of course eventually we had to go back to celebrating and opening gifts. Here's Lizzie making a wish on her birthday cake (Grandma Connie always finds the cutest cakes):
While Hannah gets right to it, and blows out her candles so she can dig in:
Ah HAH, Lizzie finally comes up with a wish and gets to blow out her candles, too.
There were MORE presents to open ... This is a dolphin pillow pet:
And Lizzie with her Liv Doll horse (Hannah's holding the Orbeez spa she got):
Then Lizzie played us some tunes on the baby grand (which I wanted to take home with me because it sounded so good!!)
And Hannah got to play game after game of Slap Jack with Uncle Dude. Here's she's waiting for the next card to be played...
YES, it's a JACK ... Hannah gets to it first:
Hannah LOVES to win:
Eventually, we had to come home. Cash refused to be relegated to the back seat for this ride though, so he took the window seat, much to Lizzie's chagrin. It was a lovely holiday for everyone ... but I happen to know that the birthday celebration is NOT over yet. And then there's Christmas...
Luckily I've spent the last two weeks clearing out the basement for all the loot!
No comments:
Post a Comment