Double Birthday, vol. 3

Saturday was a big day in this house:

DOUBLE BIRTHDAY, 2014-style.

Yes, in case you didn't already know, the girls have the same birthday. Here, let me answer the questions most people ask when they learn this information: Yes, I'm totally serious. No, we didn't plan it. Yes, I'm aware that they are going to hate me when they get a little older.

I was tempted to tweet something cheeky on August 8th to the effect of "Hey, it's August 8th and I'm not in labor. Weird." but thought better of it at the last second. I mean, you just never know, right? No need to tempt fate. Now that August 9th has come and gone, I can officially say that I didn't have a third baby on August 9th. Whew. 

The birthday twins had a smashing day. Just the best.

dancing in her room full of balloons

birthday pancakes have sprinkles and come on a silver platter

Daddy designed and built them a castle playscape and they saw it with walls, swings, and a slide for this first time the morning of their birthday!

Barnes & Noble treats

 

Happy Birthday to my amazing girls! We had so much fun with you, and we hope you look back on this day and think you had a great day, too. We love you more than anything.

Easter, Birthday, Sick, TV, Gardening

Get ready to throw me a pity party -- I've been sick since Easter morning. Luckily, I managed to focus on the children, although we all know that holidays are about cranky adults and not making it magical for children. 

Lots of family events, plus an egg hunt at the library. They had a ball.

It gets worse (for me). The next day was my birthday. sad trombone

I know. My first world problems like looking puffy and gross in my birthday picture are really breaking your heart, right?

Well, it turns out, my husband and kids are so magnificent that they made the day awesome anyway. They are the actual best.

I don't have a lot of deep thoughts about turning 32, so let's see ... what has been new lately?

*****

Jeremy and I finished watching Breaking Bad (slightly behind the times, I know, but it was very satisfying to binge-watch the entire series). Having let the finale sink in for a few days, I feel I can safely say I do NOT agree that it was the best show ever on television. I liked it. Well, I liked it once I got to the fourth season, and then by the last season I started actively hating a certain character and spent entire episodes shaking my head and sighing (between that and me guessing what's about to happen, I am an absolute JOY to watch TV and movies with). And everyone says the finale is fantastic, but I thought it was kind of a snooze compared to other episodes. It makes sense, I guess, since I liked the finale of Dexter even though it seems like everyone else in the world hated it, and I disliked the finale of BB even though everyone says it was the best. I still think it's a show worth watching for the characters alone, but not in my top five.

*****

I'm really itching to plant flowers and veggies, but to be safe I need to wait another month, and it just seems so very far away. Today we went outside and I designated one of the flower beds a "Josie garden." She is going to be in charge of choosing seeds, planting, checking them daily, watering, and weeding. She is GEEKED. While I was saving some Hyacinths that I planted in very poor places last fall and were coming up IN my Trillium instead of being interspersed with them (hey, I tried), Josie dug around in her garden and pulled out all the leaves and aerated the dirt and made sure there were a sufficient number of worms. Genevieve went down the slide a million times then tried to eat some dirt. It was nice to be out of the house, but that hour knocked me right on my butt.

*****

.... Yikes. Not much else is really going on besides me moping and moaning and coughing. I am moving steadily through House on Netflix while I laze about. This show, man. I should hate it, but I love it. You know?

*****

I JUST figured out how to tie this all together! Jeremy and I need a new show to binge-watch! Do you have suggestions? We prefer one that is done (so we can watch it all and not wait for new episodes), and some of our mutual favorites are LOST, The Office, Dexter, Mad Men, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, Twin Peaks, Reno 911!, and Seinfeld. What can we watch next and both like?

Josephine is Three and Genevieve is One!

I'm feeling very overwhelmed at the prospect of writing a one-year post for Genevieve and a three-year post for Josephine. There's so much to say and no time to organize my thoughts. I especially feel guilty about my lack of recording details about Genevieve's life (here and otherwise). I swear I will get on track soon. After I finish the birthday thank you notes. How I get slower and slower about those every year is a mystery. 

Anyway, what I CAN do is offer you a birthday photo dump. If you're new here or someone managed to tune me out whenever I worried about it, the girls share a birthday. That means we had a giant 1st/3rd birthday party a few weeks ago. At the same time, we were trying to squeeze about three years worth of DIY home improvements into a 6-week time frame so everyone could see our house on our one year house-a-versary. It was intense. But it was also great. We got a lot done and then had a great party. The girls had a ball, and we had leftovers for a week. Win, win, win.

So, enough rambling. Here's the birthday and birthday party.

Jeremy decorated their doors so they would see it first thing in the morning. When I opened Josephine's door, she said, "Ohhhhh! I'm THREE!!" (she also calls decorations "graduations," which I LOVE).

Next up was birthday pancakes on a silver platter with candles. It's something I'm making a tradition. We missed last year (ahem) because I was in the hospital and in labor and all, but hopefully we don't have to miss another year for something dramatic like that (fingers crossed).

Here's Josephine two years ago with her first birthday pancake. 

After breakfast, we headed to the park, a favorite for both the girls. For Josie, it's because of the play structures; for GiGi, it's because of the abundance of dirt, sand, and wood chips she can try to eat.

 

Next up, we gave Josephine a few options for lunch, and she chose Big Boy, probably because the other two times we went, she got Jeremy to draw Big Boy over and over until her food came. Today was no exception.

We came here for that? Sheesh.

After nap I attempted a photo shoot ... with varied success.

 

Then, finally, it was present time. 

Then cake time! The night before I had spent FOUR HOURS making this damn dairy-free cake from scratch so poor Genevieve could have some, and ... it wouldn't come out of the pans. Whatever. They still tasted pretty good. Not as fancy as I would have liked, but it worked.

 (Yes, we scooped some out so we could try it.)

Then we headed to Dairy Boy for ... dessert? ... after cake. There wasn't anything there that Genevieve and I could have, but Josephine enjoyed it enough for all of us. 

Genevieve settled for eating a napkin.

Whew. Then the next day was a party at our house.

This is Josephine and my niece watching ... the BOUNCE HOUSE go up! (Apparently my sister owns one. It's good to know the right people)

When my cousin's daughter arrived, Josie ran right to her, then her good friend ran over to join them, and they were immediately all best friends. I love little girls.

Kids love the stoop.

We used the front, side, and back yards so we had room for everyone to spread out.

And, presents.

 

 

These next two gems are when Josie pulled up her skirt in front of everyone and got angry when I tried to pull it down. Classic.

Then we made up.

 

Then cake. 

You should have heard the gasps when I handed Josephine a spoon and told her to dig in (she only ended up taking about three bites).

I tried a whole new dairy-free cake recipe for the party after the failure of the original, and this one was MUCH better.

Then everyone gave Josephine the rings that came on top of the cupcakes and she cleaned them off in her mouth and put them all on at the same time. As you do.

THE END

(biggest. photo dump. ever.)