First Birthday Party

This past weekend was the boys' first birthday and we had a great party for them.  It was a lot of work and we had quite the house full but I am glad we did it.  We wanted it to be a celebration of God's faithfulness to us in our first year as parents.  It was a huge milestone.  Not only did the boys turn a year old but it was an anniversary for Eric and me.  We survived the year as first time parents to twins!  So many of the people at the party had been an encouragement to us at the time whether it was dropping off a meal, praying with us or checking in to make sure that we were actually surviving. We wanted to celebrate those people that had walked that journey with us and show them our thankfulness. We were also blessed to have my dad, stepmom and my Grandma Ida come from So Cal for the event. A&W were surrounded by their family, friends and neighbors and it was wonderful to see how loved our boys truly are.  It really was a great day.

When Abraham and Winston were born last year and we named them, we realized that their initials would be A&W and decided we would have to incorporate that into their first birthday party.  The only issue was that if I chose all orange and brown for the decorations then it would potentially look like Halloween or the colors of the local high school.  So instead I went with an all-American theme for my all-American boys.  What could be more all-American than a barbecue?

The decorations consisted of checked table cloths, fresh cut flowers in glass jars, foil cut stars, multi-colored tissue paper poofs, a pennant banner and a picture montage of the boys' first year. We barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs.  There were traditional sides like potato salad, baked beans and potato chips. Healthy items like a vegetable tray and salad were also available.

And of course there were plenty of desserts.  We had A&W root beer floats, root beer float cupcakes and an awesome cake decorated with the theme in mind.

I was thrilled with how well the cake turned out.  I did not make this.  I left it to the professionals.  I did make the root beer float cupcakes however.  The recipe is here if you are interested.  Yes, they really did taste like a float with the scoops of butter cream frosting.  I made the kid friendly version with root beer extract (instead of root beer Schnapp's for the glaze) and they were a hit. 

The weather turned out to be great. It was cool and overcast in the morning but some sunshine peeked through just in time for the party.

They were sweet and happy for the majority of the day.  They ate a good lunch before their first sugary treats--cupcakes!

Mr. Winston

Mr. Abraham

I did a video of the actual cup cake destroying but did get this shot.  I know there were other people taking photos so I will get a better one down the road.

There were lots of hugs and love for the birthday boys.

Auntie Alicia and Winston

Grandma Anne and Grandpa Sid came up from So Cal.

 Our happy little family.

 

Grammy and Abraham

 

Eric and I ordered our A&W root beer shirts from the original A&W in Lodi, CA using their ebay store.  The boys' shirts were made and ordered on Customized Girl.

The whole day was a blur but I am thankful that I got quite a few pictures.  We are now the parents of two toddlers...crazy!  It is hard to imagine that a year has actually gone by that quickly yet so much has changed that it feels like a lifetime.  In all of it, we are blessed.