Party Time!

Almost a month later, I am finally getting around to sharing some pictures from the girls' first birthday.  Ah, well, better late than never, right? 

To start, let me say that hiring someone to photograph the party was one of my best decisions ever.  I got some great pictures, and Ashley captured much more than I would have ever been able to...plus, I just let myself enjoy the party without worrying if someone was getting a picture of every cute little moment.  Unless otherwise noted, all pictures in this post were taken by Ashley at Life's Mirror Images.

You might notice there are no pictures of the girls opening presents in these pictures.  Since we have lots of toys, books, and clothes already, we decided to ask our guests to do something a little different.  Instead of bringing a gift, we asked our friends to join us in making a donation to the NICU at the hospital where the girls were born.  We made it in Addison and Mackenzie's honor, and in memory of monoamniotic twins Joshua and Jake, who were born still in October 2008 (I wrote about them here).  Thanks to the help of our friends and family, we were able to donate about $400.00 to help the regional NICU!

I spent a lot of time mingling with our guests, so looking back, I realized there aren't many pictures of me with the girls.  They had a great time though, and it was a pretty fun and stress-free party for all of us!  I'll just let the pictures do most of the talking...

This is a banner made out of all the monthly pictures I've been taking of the girls.  Each picture is mounted on patterned cardstock and strung together with ribbon.  Even though some of the early pictures are not very good (I've progressively become a slightly better photographer, thank goodness), I am extremely proud I was able to put it together like I had envisioned.  I'm so proud of it, in fact, that it's still hanging right there between our living room and kitchen.  I plan to take it down this weekend to re-glue everything, then it's going to hang above the closet in Addison & Mackenzie's room.

Another banner!  This one was SO easy, thanks to my co-worker who tied all those tiny little bows between each star.  It's made out of those foam craft stars, with chipboard letters from the scrapbooking section glued on each one.  Then, we just punched holes and tied a ribbon between each one.  This one is tucked away in the closet for future use.

Some of the food...we grilled hot dogs and just had finger foods to go along with them.  The glass hurricanes have puffs and M&Ms for the little ones.  All of the bright serving pieces came from the Target dollar aisle.

We had cupcakes rather than a single large cake.  I ordered them fresh from a local store, then added the toppers myself.  The decoration is another scrapbooking cutout (are you surprised?) attached to a toothpick.  I knew I wanted to make my own little cupcake flags, and I just happened to run across the little daisies and realized they would work perfectly.

Enough decorations, now for all the little cuties at the party!  Addison & Mackenzie's dresses came from Smitten & Company.  I LOVED them, especially paired with $3.00 leggings from Target!  Check out the Etsy shop, she can design just about anything you want.  I will definitely be ordering more of this oh-so-cute personalized stuff in the future. 

(L to R:  Grace-16 months; Mackenzie; Addison; Ella Kate-6 months)

This picture is a special one for me.  During college and grad school, I shared an apartment with two of my sorority sisters.  We shared a lot during those years, and the three of us still meet for dinner as often as we can.  We've spent the last couple of years sharing stories about pregnancy, babies, and learning to be moms to the precious little girls you see here.  I think it's funny that between the three of us, we now have FOUR girls!  I hope they might one day be good friends like their mamas are!

All the girls, plus Jackson (1 year) and Wyatt (10 months).  Can you tell all my friends and I started having babies around the same time??

My girly-girls practicing their synchronized gymnastics. 

Evan & Jasmine

These two cuties became fast friends.  Can you tell she had a little crush on Evan?  : )  Jasmine's mom told her there was a little boy there who was her age, and she replied, "I know; he's CUTE!" 

Can you believe Ella Kate is only six months old?  She's almost as big as A & M!

A &M with their great-grandparents (Jeremy's grandparents).

Addison sharing her lunch with Lindsey.

The girls with my dad and stepmom.

Proof that I WAS at the party...

I just love these pictures of two great daddies with their girls:

Addison with Jeremy.

Ella Kate and her daddy.

Since this post is quickly approaching epic length, I think I will just make a separate one with the girls' cupcake-smashing fun.