All Aboard the Two-Two Train!!! Big Birthday Party!!!

As you can see from the last post, March is all about birthdays for us. It is cool that we've been able to get to an actual birthday party or two recently, before the boys' big day so they understood it better.  They are able to say "happy" very well, and Raleigh was able to wish Poppy a "happy birthday" in full via voicemail, but they really just enjoy saying "happy" more than anything.  Every time they see a cake, they say "happy" in a precious sing-song way. 

Well, today was their big party.  It was great fun, and was so awesome to see so many of our friends come in and join in the celebration. We are talking 29 kids!!!! We missed Nanny, Poppy, and Grandpa Pickles though:( Of course we missed the aunties and uncles as well, even those special aunties and uncles, meaning Kristy and Heath.  The boys were happiest when everyone sang them happy birthday; individually of course, and Raleigh went first this year after Augustus had his song and cake first last year.  Then, at the very end of the party, Gus and Rals went crazy in the water fountain, or as we say in Wisconsin, "bubbler."  Their very best twinkie friends, E and C were there to join in on the antics, with their Daddy egging them on too, but only Conner was really into it with the boys.  I think that was my favorite part of the day!  The giggles out of those three boys were enough to melt anyone's heart.

The day could not have been better; well, I guess if the boys had napped better, it would have been easier on the crankies this afternoon. Not to mention it took some serious work to get Raleigh asleep by 8pm tonight!  Oy!  Good thing birthdays only come once a year, except of course, their real birthday is next week!  Here are a few pictures of the day.  I really tried to relax and kick back instead of taking 1,000 pictures.  We are looking forward to other pictures our friends who were all over taking pictures, especially Miss S.  She was kind enough to come and take pictures even with her three babies at home.  Lastly, the day was so crazy, the boys still did not open their presents.  I just could not dream of tearing the kids away from the beautiful day and play time, so we took everything home wrapped.  Then it was so beautiful this afternoon that we let the boys play outside all afternoon with Conner.  Good times!  I am crossing my fingers that they sleep well despite being overtired!

Thanks again to all our wonderful friends who made today really special.  I know they will not remember the day, but hopefully we have some good stories to pass on to them.  We also collected toiletries for The Ronald McDonald House again this year. Once again, our friends are so generous to help support a non-profit near and dear to our hearts!

We also had the boys' pictures taken last week by a new photographer since our usual photographer extraordinaire was running a race on the boys birthday party day.   The photographer's business is called Little Lane Photography.  She did a great job and came up with some interesting places to get some train-esque shots.  We only got a few sneak peek pictures in time for their party, but we love what we see so far. Unfortunately, the wind and weather were not as cooperative as today, so they boys look a bit miserable and not their shiny-happy selves in the pictures thus far.  Nonetheless, these two are pretty magical if you ask me!  Enjoy!