1st Birthday Party!

We had the twins' first birthday party yesterday!  It was so much fun and really went well.  The babies did great (how much longer can I call them babies?).  We had a Pooh themed party with a Pooh cake that I made, two teeny Pooh smash cakes, and lots of Pooh decorations.  I had fun planning it, it was simple yet fun.  We had a pinata because I love them!  :-)  I think the kids liked that part and it was one of those pull-string ones (less violent than beating the pinata till it breaks I guess) and it actually worked.  I was impressed.  Carson & Emmy got lots of neat gifts.  As we were opening gifts I really just enjoyed seeing everyone's reactions to the babies' reactions.  You could tell everyone there really just loves them and sees joy in them.  I felt the same love at their dedication when we had all of our family together in the babies' honor.  I love those moments.  I guess it's easy for me to forget sometimes that while God blessed US with Carson & Emilynn to raise and love, they are loved by so many others and bring everyone such joy.  It's neat to see the world through a child's eye.  One of Emmy's favorite things was an Elmo card from Rawhide, Betty, and family.  She got so excited when we opened it.  Carson surprised us too, he got a whale teeter-totter from my grandparents.  He was possessive over that thing-he loves it!  He had the biggest smile on his face when he was on it.  I was actually glad to see him taking up for himself-he's usually so agreeable and lets Emmy get by with a lot!  ;)  Emilynn loved her smash cake-she ate almost all of it.  Carson hardly ate half and didn't get much on him at all.  I had predicted all of that.  It's so them.  All in all, we loved the party and had a blast.  It was so much fun and so neat to celebrate Carson & Emilynn.    They did get a little bit of a nap after the party but I think Em was on a sugar high, she didn't sleep long.  My friend Nicole and I opened all the toys while they were napping and put batteries in them and had them all arranged when they woke up.  Emilynn's mouth literally dropped in surprise when I brought her in the living room.  It was cute.  They played with everything and we had such a nice evening-Dustin, Carson, Emilynn and I just played and had a relaxed time.  None of us were hungry so we just played and snacked on leftovers whenever we wanted and kind of threw our schedule out the window for the night.  I can't think of a better day.  I've had the best year of my life being a mom.  To have a first birthday party for our twins is amazing to me when I reflect back on days when we didn't know if we'd ever get the chance to be parents.  We are so blessed it's overwhelming.  God is good.  He had dreams for us that we couldn't even imagine.