Birthday Pictures

The girls birthdays were two weeks ago, but better late than never! Abigail's birthday is February 7th and Alathea's birthday is February 10th- just three days apart. So we thought it would be fun to have a big combined birthday party for them. It turned out quite fun. Above is my first attempt at making my kids their requested birthday cake. I am horrible at baking and even worse at cake decorating (or I should say I have never decorated a cake in my life!). But Alathea LOVED it, so it was all worth it. It was a "pink cinderella castle cake"- her specific request, in case you couldn't tell. I have to admit my sister and Liz Shea were over that night and helped me with it too. 

Here are a bunch of pictures from the party (and I do mean a bunch!)...

This is as good of a smile as I could get from the birthday girl :)

And below the kids were SO enjoying their cake they couldn't even take a break for a picture!

Another cake picture...it was very important to Alathea that Cinderella was on the top. My favorite part of the party was Alathea screaming in delight when we carried her cake outside :)

Abi had her own (free Harris Teeter) 1st Birthday Cake. Lets just say she almost ate the entire thing! I got distracted cutting the big cake I forgot to watch her and then someone said, "Uh, Jeanie, you may want to stop Abi...she's almost eaten then entire cake!" She was quite happy...but did through up the next day (poor thing). Lesson learned for me :)

The best I had of the birthday girls together.

As if Abi hadn't had enough cake, Alathea started feeding Abi hers too!!!

Alathea was so excited about her pinata. So was Joe...he was secretly hoping the kids wouldn't break it themselves and that he'd have to "help" them....his wish came true  :)

Kristie (or Dee-dee as the girls call her) made them these adorable Tu-tu's. They LOVE them, and Joe encouraged them to wear them on their heads.

Alathea was blessed with lots of princess stuff. 

The Big Kids. 

I love pictures of the kids because a few years from now

 it'll be fun to see how little they looked!

Two very special guests...Kenni & My Sister!!

The babies. 

Grammy & Abi-girl.

God was so kind and blessed us with a 75 degree, gorgeous February day!! What a great surprise. We did most of the party in the back yard! We ate a chicken nugget lunch, the toddlers made necklaces, hit the pinata and enjoyed hanging in the beautiful, sunny backyard.

Growing up my Mom made birthdays into a huge event. It was our "special day". No chores. We didn't have to go to school. We had two parties- one with extended family and one with friends. An all day birthday date with our parents. Our favorite dinner. And the best part- our "camp-in". We got to sleep in the living room- kinda camp inside. We'd choose 3 movies and whatever candy & snacks we wanted and could stay up as late as we want. Such FUN, special memories. Joe & I haven't done all that yet, but I do enjoy making a big deal out of their birthdays. 

 The girls are such gifts to us!