Happy March, everyone! I’m late (how is it already March 11?) and I took an unexpected break from the blog because “Birthday Season” swept in, knocked me over and I can’t lie, it beat me up a little. What’s birthday season? It’s the 35 day span where we have ALL of our birthdays. All. All five of us. Y’all want to know the truth? I’m tired!
Lily’s birthday kicked off the season and her little party was just fabulous. I did not want her to have any kind of third-child-second-string-birthday party. So, she had a full-out, house-decorated, real-helium-in-the-balloons-fiesta. Everything was pink and princess. As I did for the twins, I made her a healthy smash cake just for her chubby little fingers to dig into and her day turned out to be lovely. In addition, we had her grandparents and even great grandma come all the way in from Texas! Our whole family celebrated with lots of singing and tons of cake. I asked everyone in the family to wear pink for her princess party and the pictures are all matchy-matchy- if I do say so myself, we hit this one out of the park! Miss Lily started walking one week after her birthday.
That was January 27th and I started with SO much enthusiasm for all the birthdays!
Luckily, my mom stayed with us for two weeks after and I was able to accomplish a few things. Exciting, fun mom stuff like sorting through all the clothes- why does this take so much time? It seriously takes a week to do it. Still, I was excited for all the birthdays to come.
On February 25, the twins had a Sesame Street Second Birthday Pizza Party. They are obsessed with Elmo. They love his voice and his songs. They definitely like him more than they like us. The only obvious choice was an Elmo party. Natalia is now convinced that she should wear a fancy dress everyday of her life, so she had a new party dress and we were ready to go! The day of the party came and we decorated the house as a Sesame Street wonderland. After searching high and low for a “cute” Elmo cake- an oxymoron for sure- his face is scary in icing- we opted for a delicious cake from Martha’s Country Bakery in Queens (so, so, so delicious!). A non-Elmo cake, but we are allowed to have something for the grown ups, right?
We had the whole family in attendance and grandpa from Texas for this momentous occasion. All was going well until I was lighting the candles on the cake… and for the first time in his life Charlie began explosive vomiting. Poor baby! He has not been sick in months, and right there at the party vomit everywhere. Even on my Elmo colored shirt. He pulled it together just long enough to play pin the nose on Elmo, but then he was just sick. No worries! Miss Natalia pulled it together and was able to charm the crowd all on her own, if you can imagine that, lol. And with that, the twins are now 2.
Two days later Charlie was fine, but then it was time for my non-birthday. I’m a Leap Year Baby! Growing up, my mom would always celebrate the entire week- doing something a little special everyday since I didn’t have one day. But, by the time the 28th rolled around this year I had picked up a little of Charlie’s sickness, so in true mom-style, my best birthday gift was extra hours in bed and a whole shower. And washing my hair. Yes, I said a whole shower because sometimes I only get half a shower. Moms, you know it’s true. With three babies, this is not being funny, I’m serious. Bonus: A few days later when I felt better my dad cooked a delicious birthday dinner- cold boiled Gulf Coast shrimp that he smuggled in his suitcase! I am 37 and feeling like this is going to be a great year- 37 has a nice ring to it!
Finally, three days later was my husband’s birthday. We pulled it together for one final night of celebration. He said he didn’t want a cake, but of course I secretly got one anyway;). We celebrated with a family dinner and then a few days later they gave us the precious gift of keeping the kids overnight so that we could go out by ourselves- just adults! Of course, we hardly know how to behave when we get out alone and we say things like… “Is this really happening? Dinner? How do we behave at a bar? Do you think people will say, you have too many kids, we hear you talking about them, please leave?” Don’t worry, we managed to figure it out.
Thank you ALL for the generous birthday gifts for us and the kiddos, and most importantly, thank you for the time we have all spent together over the last few weeks. We are tired, but happy and so very blessed to have such wonderful people around us. Birthday Season is officially closed and will not be discussed until January 2018!
During the writing of this post Charlie found a green marker and a blank wall… and that’s just one of the reasons this blog has been a bit quiet lately.
Soooooo cute! Poor Charlie for getting sick on his birthday but glad he was able to rally for the Elmo game. I love it that y’all have a “birthday season”! Keep up the good work Mom and Dad.