Everything is special when it's your birthday

Well another Birth-o-ween has ended.  And it was another success.  Each year I try to see how little money it takes to make the girls happy.  We have some really great thrift stores around here so it's not hard to find great bargains.  I think we spent around $50 total on the girls - and that's counting the stuff to decorate the cake.

The girls are at the age where pretty much anything makes them happy.  Add the fact that it was their birthday AND Halloween and suddenly EVERYTHING was the best thing ever.  I heard little exclamations of happiness all day long.  

So here is a rundown of all the "special" things we did today.

Both girls migrated into my room during the night last night.  I think it's cute that they want to be near me.    

We all slept in until 8:00.  When we finally got up the girls were so excited to see balloons in the living room.  They kept running around saying, "it's my birthday!"

They piled all the balloons on the couch.  Later they started sorting them by color and making balloon families.

They don't remember last year's birthday, but they have seen pictures.  So they know that they got their pretend sink along with a lot of balloons last year.  They asked me to bring it out into the living room so they could play with it.

I made German Pancakes for breakfast while they were occupied with the balloons.  The girls love "Journal Pancays" and they always pretend to make them.

Then we hurried and got ready for story time at the library.  The kids all wore their costumes.  And they got candy at the end of story time.  One of the girls said, "this is like Trick or Treating."

After storytime we went to Walmart so we could pick up the present that my parents had ordered online and had sent to the store.  (It's a smart way to avoid paying postage.)

And of course we had to go see the fishies.  I was nice and let the kids out of the cart for the first time EVER at a grocery store.

At home we opened the present from Grandma and Grandpa.  Both girls were really excited and yelled, "Cinderella!"  About 30 seconds passed and then realization hit.  "This is OURS?" Charlotte yelled.  She was so happy when I said yes.  And then we all sat down and watched the movie together.

After the movie the stars aligned so that all the kids were awake and happy enough to go to the park.  It was a beautiful day.  We all went barefoot.  Texas in the Fall time is AMAZING!

Derrick swung in the baby swing for a long time.  

I was busy watching the girls play.  Then I noticed that I'd swung Derrick to sleep.  He woke up again once the swing stopped.

Charlotte and Lydia played around on the slides.

Brandon came home from work as we were walking to the mailbox to check the mail.  He hurried and pulled the girls' presents out of their hiding place and put them in the living room. When we walked into the house the girls noticed this little kitchen and ran right to it.  They didn't notice the present bags at all.

They were so funny about their presents.  One bag had a whole bunch of books in it, and all Lydia cared about were her ratty old Phase 10 cards that were somehow also in the bag.

We also gave the girls "new" shoes.  The first thing they did with them was put them in the kitchen's oven.

But they did know how to play properly with somethings.

We also gave them each a Barbie doll.  And Brandon's parents sent a package with a little Princess Sofia doll for each of them.  The Barbies immediately became the Mommies and the Sofia's were the Babies.  The girls even had the Barbies nurse their babies once they discovered they had boobs.

Brandon and I made pizza while the kids played.  It was a good pizza.

Then it was time for cake.  Everyone wore birthday hats - even Vin wore one.

Here are the girls blowing out their candles.  Lydia still hasn't learned how to blow air down so Charlotte had to help her blow out her candles.  

Then we dismantled the castle cake.  The spires were my favorite thing to eat.  Lydia collected a lot of pieces from her cake and built a second cake around her plate.  Charlotte sang Happy Birthday to Lydia and then Lydia pretended to blow out her candles again.  I love how they interact and go along with each other's imaginations.

Then it was time to get ready to go Trick-or-Treating.  Derrick's lack of nap caught up to him.  So I put him in his crib and he fell asleep with his foot sticking out between the bars.

Charlotte and Lydia decided to switch dresses so in this picture it's Charlotte in the green one and Lydia in the purple one instead of the other way around.  I had fun doing the girls' hair.  We put glitter hairspray in it.  And I even let the girls wear some of my make up.  They thought that was so cool.  

Brandon took the girls trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.  He said they got lots of complements on their dresses.

I stayed home and handed out candy.  This was the first year in our 6 years of marriage that we've actually had trick-or-treaters!  Yay for being out of apartments!  I sat out on the porch with Veronica and enjoyed the perfect evening while handing out candy.  Giving out candy reminded me of this funny story about treats that my dad's family gave out at Halloween. It's in three parts but it's definitely worth reading.

Brandon and the girls came home after being out for about an hour.  They started eating the candy right away.  Derrick woke up and joined in on the fun.

The rest of the evening was spent eating candy and playing with toys.  We opened up the girls' birthday cards. Charlotte saw the money that my Grandma had sent her.  She held it out to me and asked, "is this 'portant (important)?"

The kitchen turned into a doll house of sorts.  The girls were so funny with it.  The separate compartments were the rooms.

Here is a video of the girls playing together with their dolls.    

Eventually tiredness won out over sugar induced energy.  The kids all started falling apart.  We put them in their room and they were asleep within minutes.

Yes it was a very good day.  Too bad we have to wait a year for a chance to do it again.