Birthday Madness!

I know, I know...the twins' birthday party was almost a month ago.  It is amazing how quickly time flies.  Since they were turning 5 years old, I felt it was only appropriate for them to each have their own party this year.  Am I crazy?  Absolutely.  So, at first I was going to do one party one weekend and then the other the next weekend.  After thinking about that for a while it seemed to drawn out and complicated because we would have virtually all of the same people coming to a party for my kids two weekends in a row.  We ended up going with an all family party on Saturday afternoon/evening and two separate kid parties on Sunday.  In theory that was the perfect solution.  Oy vey!

The Family party was a Mexican fiesta(because that is easy)complete with all the fixings and the most important things for the adults: Margarita's and Corona's!  I did chicken and beef taco filling and made 24 hard shells(there were 32 people)and I believe only two hard shells got eaten :(  Damn Paleo/Primal followers! J/K...I love that my peeps are on board with this healthy lifestyle, not to mention the chicken I made won rave reviews from EVERYONE at the party which made me not care so much about the stinking hard shells.  I just won't have to make them for Breezy for a while(she loves them thank God).

My Corona picture is my attempt at blurring the background using a low aperture setting.  It worked...the lighting is off though and I feel like something is really messed up with my camera. Boo.

The kids got some really incredible gifts from everyone.  We devoured the Costco cake and a wonderful time was had by all.  We did forget to do the pinata(duh)so the twins were a bit miffed as the last of our guests were heading out the door.  I told them we will do it another time.  Little candy hounds!

On Sunday, our first party of the day was Bria's at Brunswick Zone in Eden Prairie for Bowling.  We decided that we would invite all of the girls to Bria's party and all of the boys to Bennett's party.  Bria chose Hannah Montana as her theme and all of the little girls just loved it.  The party was from 11:45-1:30.  We had pizza, soda and bowling along with cake and dancing.  It was a really fun party!  I had Chadd and Sara there to help out with the 10 kids and it worked perfectly.  A big thanks to Auntie Sara who helped with all three of the kids' parties.  We love you!

My friend Carrie and her girls stayed to bowl a game after the party so we hung out with them for a bit.  Carrie teaches a hip hoop(weighted hula hoop)class and one of her daughter Anna's gifts to Breezy was a giant hula hoop.  The girls loved it!  They were hooping in the bowling alley!



We packed everything up and headed to Edinborough Park in Edina for Bennett's party at 3pm.  On the way there, both of the twins fell asleep.  Ruh Roh!  Waking them up is never very fun.  Both of them were quite crabby and I feel like Bennett could not have cared less that we were there for his party.  Thankfully, his buddies showed up soon and he started to thaw out a little bit.  We let the boys climb for an hour and then rallied them all back to the table for cake and presents.  Bennett loves Star Wars, so that was his theme and it was a hit.  Bennett's little buddy Ty helped him blow out his candles and that did not go over well.  So, we re lit them and had him blow them out again(tears and all).  He got some great gifts from his friends.  I love this age because the gifts are always practical and sustainable.  I loved all of the Lego sets(Star Wars)that he got. He got the game Fast track, which I had never heard of and  it is awesome.  My boy finally has some toys that are interesting(unlike the bazillion other toys that lurk around the house without a real purpose)and fun to play with.

After hopping them all up on sugar, we hit the open gym to ride bikes and trikes, bounce in the bouncy house and play basketball.  It was a lot of fun.  Auntie Sara had a blast playing monkey in the middle with Avery and some random kid who was there that day.  We also let the kids loose for another 45 minutes or so up in the climbing structure.  I was able to go up with them and my camera to take a few shots of the boys going down the structures best slides.  The boys went down over and over while I snapped photos of them.  It was a ton of fun! 

Next year, I think that I will try to hold the parties on separate days.  As terrible as that sounds, it will probably work out better all things considered.  I am delighted to have two 5 year old kiddos and I cannot wait for what is yet to come for my sweet babies.  Thank you to all who came to celebrate their special day!