and in conclusion

A few pictures I'll treasure from the actual birthday party...

Em making sure her guests are comfortable and enjoying themselves.


Roo and Em holding each others' balloons.
Lemme esplain...

They desperately wanted to take a balloon with them everywhere. To avoid the meltdown a runaway balloon would induce, Grandpa tied the balloons to the labels on the girls' pants.

It was all cool until they decided they'd be having their sissy's balloon instead.
They pulled and tugged and chased their tails until they were well and properly tangled together. We had to cut the strings off to separate them!

Em taking a break to chew on her big toe. Gross! But hereditary (Aunt Joy).

Roo was behind the camera with Grandpa for quite a few of these shots.
She helped with this one.

She changed the flash settings while Grandpa was preoccupied for a second. Interesting effect.

Roo also made sure everything was operating correctly.
Safety first, you know.
This little apple didn't fall far from the engineering tree (Daddy, Grandpa).

And finally, Daddy and Emme having a chat in the middle of the party.

It was a perfect day.

TWO RULES!
One Drools.

The wonderful thing about Daddies...

... is Daddies are wonderful things...

... their tops are made of rubber...

... and their bottoms are made of springs...

... they're bouncy, bouncy bouncy bouncy ...

... FUN!

We'll be here all week, folks. Be sure to tip your waitress.

Grandpa took around one thousand pictures over the course of the birthday weekend.
You read that right. 1-0-0-0
So, it's taking a while to go through them all.
Nice problem to have!

This is a very shy Em tentatively checking out the moonwalk.
HA! Right.
See how she's running towards it.
"At Last! I've wanted one of these ALL my life!"

Cousin Charlie hammed it up inside the moonwalk. The girls are eating it up!

Then they all sat around and talked about how annoying their parents are and why don't we just let them do what they want to do because they're 2 and 7 already. Gah!

Then, the ring-a-round-the-rosie/peek-a-boo commenced.


Except Aunt Gail crashed the party. But she's pretty funny. So, it was ok.

And beach balls! In the moonwalk! Roo just has to give it a big 'ole hug.

The counterpart to the Rowdy Girls, the dynamic duo, C2, sprang into action.

But, Roo was faster.
"Pinned Ya, Clint! Now give up the beach ball or I'll scream in your ear."

And then... they all fell down. And had to get out. And eat breakfast. And change out of their pajamas.
The End.

Pre Party Party

The day before the party, the girls' Aunt Gail arrived with cousins Charlie and Clint.

The boys came straight in the door, nodded at the girls and went directly to the yard asking for our dogs. Needless to say, the girls followed. And much fun took place.

The boys were SO sweet to Em and Roo. They took the time and effort to play gently with them.


Even when the girls started playing rough first.

*I know, how surprising.*

The girls had animated conversations with the boys and they pretended to understand.

And they all cheesed for pictures together.
*3 out of 4 ain't bad*


We also had cake. Beautifully made cakes chosen with the girls' individual passions in mind. Very fun to watch Em exclaim "BALL!" and Roo proudly recognize and display an "X" from the cake. Delicious, too.

Best Birthday Cake. Ever.

This was the greatest birthday cake ever.

And, bonus.

No one had difficulties finding our house for the party.

They Say It's Your Birthday. It's My Birthday, Too.

Em & Roo
1 month old
(Technically, they're 37 weeks gestation, and still a month shy of their actual due date. If my faulty memory is correct, they're just over 5 lbs in this picture.)


Em & Roo celebrating Numero Uno birthday


and now...

Turning Two.



Happy Birthday Darling Girls!
We are so proud to be your parents and we love you so very much.

Goodnight Maawooonn

The best thing about bedtime these days is the audience participation during the nightly recital of Goodnight Moon.



In the great green room
There was a telephone
And a red balloon
And a picture of

(turn the page and pause)

The cow

(pause)

*Roo usually inserts a "BUMP" here*
Jumping over the

(wait for it... wait for it...)


It's sort of a combination of a cow mooing and the word moon.

"Maawwwoooon"

It's the perfect word.