Birthday and Halloween Extravaganza

Here is a little PSA for all of you who were married for a few years before having kids.  Remember how you had to combine your family traditions for Christmas and other holidays?  Remember how the first time you celebrated those holidays together was kind of emotionally charged and not quite what you expected?  Well that's how your child's first birthday is going to be - times like 20!

Brandon and I have been married for almost 4 1/2 years.  In the first few years we worked out all the kinks for how to celebrate Christmas (Christmas Eve at his parents, Christmas Day on our own), Thanksgiving (alternating every other year), 4th of July (go to whatever firework show is available), Valentine's Day (spoil each other rotten), and so one.  Everything was all worked out and we hadn't had a "well in MY family we do it this way" discussion for a long time.  And then the girls turned one.

Birthdays weren't really a huge deal in my family.  We'd have cake in the morning with breakfast, open our presents, and then go to school.  One the weekend we would get a small party if it was a year we turned an odd age.  So as the girls' birthday got closer I thought we would just have a low key event on our own.  At first I thought Brandon agreed with me, but then I started second guessing that thought.  My irrational pregnant mind was picking up hints that he thought we should have a bigger party with extended family.  Finally when I was convinced that Brandon thought I was the worst mom ever he said those magic words, "I agree with you."  And then everything was better.

Anyway, here is what we ended up doing.  Brandon's parents dropped off their presents a few days before the birthday.  

 The girls didn't really understand what they were supposed to do.  But once they saw that they got "bohs" they knew what to do.

 The night before their birthday we carved a pumpkin and roasted the seeds.

 We carved a pirate pumpkin to go with the rest of our theme.

 Here are the girls and me (and Baby C) on their birthday.

 We made them personal cakes.  The cakes were homemade so they were really heavy.  The girls didn't know what they were supposed to do with these either.

 Lydia eventually found out that frosting tastes good.

 And Charlotte completely crumbled her cake.

 Brandon made a light for the pumpkin so we didn't have to use a candle.

 He even installed a switch in the back so we could flip it on and off.  He used wires from the girls heart and other monitors from the hospital.  (Yeah he's saved them a year)

 After the girls destroyed their cakes we gave them a bath and put them down for a nap.  Then it was time to get into Halloween costumes.  Here is my pirate costume.

 And Brandon's.

 We went over to our branch's trunk-or-treat.  This was the first one I ever went to.  I liked that we could give out candy and get candy at the same time.

Here's our decorated trunk.

 And our pirate parrot and monkey.  People would ask me what kind of candy the girls could eat and I would say, "Um, we are blatantly trick or treating for ourselves here.  Don't worry about what the girls can eat."  The girls did get to eat some candy though.

 Here is Lydia at home.  Isn't she the cutest monkey?

 And Charlotte.  I love how her tail turned out.  And it didn't get crushed like I thought it would.  We came home and took these pictures and then we realized that we didn't want to just sit at home. So we went out trick or treating in the neighborhood.  We stopped in to see the Sr missionaries who were our home teachers when the girls were born.  They invited us in and we hung out there for an hour.

 Then we came home.  The girls played in their favorite present.  This huge box that another Sr missionary gave them.  Didn't you always want a box this big when you were a kid.

At bedtime we realized that we hadn't opened the cards from the Grandmas.  So we opened those and let the girls play with them.

 The girls loved their cards so much that they cried when we took them away. So they slept with them.  In the morning we could only find 2 of the 4 cards so we decided they ate the other 2 (or hid them so they could always sleep with them)

Then Brandon and I sat on the couch and at tons of Halloween candy.  What a great birthday!