Birthday Celebration Part One

With the girls' birthdays being so close together, we still have trouble knowing how to celebrate each one separately.  For now they seem glad to share their special days.  And Annie is so young that she doesn't really know when her birthday is exactly - which gives us a little breathing room.

We had our little family party on Saturday.  First we took the family to a huge straw maze, then we got pizza, opened presents via Skype with Grammy and Grampy, had cupcakes, and played with the new toys.  The kids were all smiles and excitement all afternoon long.  And the first thing they did Sunday morning (and all the rest of Sunday after church) was play with their gifts from Grammy and Grampy.

 This is my favorite picture from the maze.  They had so much fun charging the way and deciding when to turn right or left.  We got ourselves pretty lost, but it was a lot of fun.  And we made it out before dinnertime....and most especially before they start haunting the maze for grown ups.

 Our beautiful almost five-year-old!

 This pipe led to a maze within the maze.  It was full of tunnels and small places to crawl through.  The girls could run through it but Mommy and Daddy had to bend over and sometimes crawl to keep up.  I think the tunnels were everyone's favorite part of the maze.

 Once we made it out, the kids didn't want to leave.  Lily bravely jumped into a big haystack multiple times.  Annie and Tommy were more interested in playing with the straw.

 By dinnertime we were all so hungry!  Annie was a little worried about the stretchy cheese on her pizza.  She didn't know what to do with it and just sat here like this until we noticed her.  We eventually got it cut into a more manageable size.

 Skyping with the Halls was fun.  The girls love their LEGO Cinderella castle set.  I'm talking.....LOVE IT!  They only stop playing with it to eat and sleep.

 So excited for their cupcakes.  Lily wanted lemon cake and Annie wanted strawberry.  They love my strawberry buttercream so that's the frosting we had.  We let them use two of their pirate candles for their pirate party cake.  Lily's was a ship and Annie's was a sword.  There were so many cupcakes left over after making two mixes, that Mommy was able to bring treats to choir practice Sunday afternoon.

Yumm-o!  Happy birthday to our girls.  We love you so much!  Thank you for giving us a reason to celebrate.  You are each a special blessing to our family.