two turn 1.

In a shocking development, Quinn and John turned 1 yesterday.

If I hadn't felt every. single. minute. of it, I wouldn't believe it.

What a funny thing time is . . . how it crawls painfully slow and flies painfully fast all at once.

This year has been long and hard.

But it has been short and sweet.

That is what having kids will do to you.

We started off our celebrations on birthday eve/Oscars night. We invited a few friends over for a "Look, We're All Still Alive!" dinner. I did the dinner to the theme "We Go Together". I asked my super talented friend to make a print that I could use at the dinner and later put in their room. She did awesome; I love it. We had food and treats, let the kids wear each other out, and caught a few glimpses of Oscar fashions. After everyone headed home and the kids were in bed, I wrapped half of the presents and brought out the birthday clown. Turns out having two birthdays on the same day and lots of loving family means A LOT of presents, so I just wrapped the ones that seemed like they'd be fun to open. And we didn't quite get their birthday clown "presents" done in time, so I had to improvise with some construction paper. But considering he had gone missing and it took forever to find him, we were all just thrilled he was there (especially Chris).

[the big one-year-olds on the morning of their birthday. its tradition.]

Chris managed to sneak away from school early on the big day, and we headed to a fun local pet store. It has a little stream with giant fish and a bridge, lots of aquariums, snakes, birds, hamsters; everything a tiny person could want. But not dogs or kitties. Thank goodness. Carly was convinced we were going to the pet store to get a puppy.

Carly loved looking at the animals, though the snakes and spiders were declared "creepy". I, personally, have parrot phobia and the giant red parrots gave me the heebie-jeebies. John stared wide-eyed, and tried to grab the fish and feed the parrots his chubby little fingers. And Quinn. Poor Quinn grasped Chris's shoulder and constantly darted her eyes around, totally unsure. She was just happy when we all made it out alive. It made me very excited for some warm sunshine and the zoo.

We headed home for dinner and on to presents! As it turns out, 1-year-olds don't particularly grasp the concept of presents. John just really wanted to play with my iPhone, and Quinn enjoyed perching on top of the large boxes. Carly swooped in and saved the day, teaching them the fine art of present opening. They were entirely too spoiled, and we now have a lifetime supply of toys.

Last but not least, the highlight of any 1st birthday celebration: cake. We sang and blew out candles to each baby individually. And Carly once again came to their aid, blowing out candles that they were both just trying to grab.

No surprise here: the cake was a hit. I remember Carly not wanting to get particularly messy on her 1st birthday. Such was not the case this time around. Quinn, in particular, is the queen of messy eating and did not disappoint. And I think it was the first time in ever that she out-ate John. They were both deliciously cute and thrilled. And while so much about twindom is hard, having two cake-covered babies at once just about made up for it.

We made it.

Year one is in the books.

We love these kids so much it hurts.

It was a beautiful mess of a year.

We are just really good at beautiful messes.

Happy Birthday, Q & J.

We're glad you joined us.