A birthday and going-away party

I've instituted a new family policy regarding parties: throw a party when there are people you want to attend.  

With all the moving we do, birthday parties don't often make sense.  For example, Tiago's second birthday was 2 weeks after we moved to South Carolina, with Hyrum's just after that.  We didn't know a soul.  My birthday will be a few weeks after moving to Colorado.  

So while 1-year-olds don't 'get' parties, or even understand that everyone is there for them, we decided to throw a small party because we actually knew people that we could invite.  We also used it as a chance to see some of our South Carolina friends one more time before moving.  (The movers came 2 days after the party.)

[I remember Hyrum's big graduation party in Ohio that we threw shortly before moving to Germany.  We loved having all of our friends come to our house one last time.  Sometimes timing makes all the difference!]

Plus, it's an excuse to make two almost identical little cakes for two cute identical babies.

Food was an interesting challenge, because I was trying to use up all my food, instead of buying more.  I kept coming across recipes that called for one or two random ingredients I didn't have that I wasn't willing to go buy, just to turn around and throw away.  (ie: dijon mustard, ketchup, etc.)  We ended up with pulled pork sandwiches, chips/dip, buffalo chicken dip, and some other random stuff I don't remember.

The weather was nice enough for everyone to enjoy the backyard.  Our bubble machine was a hit with the kids.  (There weren't many kids, but a few really close to Tiago's age.)  And considering everyone we invited was from church (we attended a Spanish group) the men naturally all wanted to play soccer.

Tiago was more than happy to show them how to blow out the candles.  Mila was quick to dig into the cake, but Siena waited about five minutes before even trying in.  Tiago was also more than happy to show them how to eat the cake with their hands.  (Mila is on the left; I labeled their high chairs so 20 years from know we can still tell who is who.)

We all got a good laugh out of this: the kids looked completely bored.  They sat on the bean bag reading books for about 5 minutes.  

We built this tree in the dining room at Thanksgiving,and it lasted through Christmas.  We converted it into a birthday tree for the girls.  It was fun to print off pictures from their first year and remember the good and bad memories: their newborn photos, climbing on top of each other, learning how to smile, developing their own personalities, crying and crying, bath time, etc.

In all the excitement, we forgot to open their presents.  (All 2 of them... because we bought them the DNA test for the birthday, ha).  They finally got to open gifts on Sunday, and again, Tiago was happy to do it for them.

My thoughts on them turning 1?  I'm thrilled!  I'm pretty decided that the older my kids get, the better.  There's something sweet about a content, sleepy newborn, but cuddling makes up a small percent new-mother's day.  It's also filled with inexplicable crying, sleep deprivation, washing endless bottles, and other tedious things.  I enjoy the girls much more now.  And in the last weeks I've loved seeing them play more with Tiago.  He's come a long way from a year ago when he wanted to push them out of my arms and onto the floor.