Dueling Birthdays

For those of you that don't know, our girls' birthdays are exactly two years and two days apart.  I knew last year that birthday celebrations were going to be an undertaking from here on out, but I had no idea how much of an undertaking we were truly in for.  For starters, we kicked off Friday by taking Taylor to Wonderland.  Since this is the first year that she was old enough to truly understand the significance of a birthday, we wanted to make it special, and have some one on one time just the three of us.  

For starters, don't take your kids to an amusement park at 5:00 pm in early July.  Terrible idea number one.  Terrible idea number two was that I didn't slather us all up in sunscreen before making an outing in ninety-five degree weather during afternoon sun.  Fortunately, Taylor had a blast on the water rides, and despite our extreme caucasian-ness, we all escaped relatively unscathed.  

I was afraid this would scare the pants off of her, but after a go-round on the Scrambler, this was a breeze!

Taylor and her hero on the Ferris Wheel.  She enjoyed this one waaaay more than I did.

Hallelujah for water rides.  Who cares if you look like a drowned rat, or what nastiness is contained in that lovely blue water.

These damn boats were the bain of my existence.

Saturday was the apex of birthday weekend, as we had our first annual Robinson Dual-Birthday Extravaganza.  Because I'm a responsible parent (and a cheap one too), we decided to forego any place that was air conditioned, and utilize our local park for this year's festivities.  I thought I had planned ahead enough by doing the party at 10:00 that morning, but the weather decided not to cooperate.  Instead of a tolerable morning, we reached the heat of the day as soon as we were getting set up.  Oh yeah, and there was no breeze whatsoever.  After about ten minutes of roasting in the sun, Jody and Dan saved the day by retrieving our patio set from home so that we could relocate to the park's gazebo.  I'll echo everyone else's thoughts again and ask, who in the hell puts a gazebo in a park with no tables under it?  

Sisters! Oh, and uncle Jered too.  I'm not going to tell you the trauma that was trying to find them matching outfits.  Luckily I've had some therapy and am mostly over it now.

The cake, courtesy of the hospital bakery.  No, I'm not even making that up, and it was delicious!

Stupid candles wouldn't stay lit, so we faked the critical moment.

Checking out the new loot.

It's always the smallest gifts that make the biggest impression.

Birthday weekend wrapped up with Ava's birthday today.  Since everyone (myself included) was still super tired and crabby from the heat and festivities of yesterday, we kept it low key, and indoors.  Last year, due to lack of inspiration on our parts, Jody and I let Taylor wander around Toys R Us and pick out her own birthday gift.  Since it worked out so well, we decided to do it again this year.  After an hour of shopping, this is what my daughter came up with:

A "purse," a broken wind up turtle, some floaty frogs, and a stuffed alligator.  I was a little disheartened that she didn't pick out anything particularly big or awesome, but nonetheless it has been a huge hit.  She's lugged that "purse" around all afternoon, fully stocked with her newfound treasures.

I'd also been debating on getting the girls' ears pierced for their birthday.  Taylor has been obsessing over earrings for about a month now, and my sister-in-law mentioned that would be a good birthday present.  And hell, since I'm cleaning one set of ears three times a day, why not clean two?  So, we got all fancied up (because I knew it would be a Kodak moment afterward) and headed off to the mall.  Upon arrival, Ava had already ripped her bow and ponytail out, and was in full-on Bill Murray impression.  Great.  My kid looks majorly homeless in a public place.  Both kids did well, and only cried for about a minute afterward.  God bless the mall ladies for stocking suckers.

The spoils of having a mini staple gun shoot jewelry through your head.

The promise of Happy Meals afterward certainly didn't hurt either.

She thinks she is SO fancy now.  

So, anyhoo, we survived.  And once again, I'm going to promise myself that next year, I'll suck it up and rent out some money-trap that at least has air conditioning.  Or a place that at least serves alcohol, lol!