Party Time!!!

I absolutely cannot believe that our boys are turning 3!!! We have officially begun the 12 days of Birthday (not really, but seems like it)! Since it's always more fun to spread out the presents and the cake, we thought we would start out with a birthday party with our family on the Link side. The boys have been requesting Lightning McQueen and Mater cakes for the past 3 months, so that's the theme we went with. This was the first year we decided to do 2 cakes since they both requested different cakes. My family is not huge fans of cake, so we went with ice cream cakes instead. They were definitely a hit! I was a little disappointed with the ability to decorate the cakes as I love to do this, but it was much more relaxing and the boys were thrilled! The word I would use to describe my little birthday boys would be giddy. From the start of decorations going up, to watching the cakes being decorated, to seeing the presents arrive, they were jumping around and giggling! They were SOOO excited to be the center of attention.
I had heard from other twins and done reading on celebrating birthdays with twins and it all pointed me to the importance of celebrating their individuality. This is why we had 2 cakes and then also sang to each of them separately. I'm so glad we did, because the look on each face as they were the center of attention was priceless! Just an idea for all of you parents of twins....
The boys received lots of great presents from Grandpa & Grandma and cousins/aunts/uncles! They have definitely been kept busy today playing with all of it. We are looking forward to a Skype date today with Opa & Oma to open the gifts they sent. Overall day 1 of celebrating was a success!!!






Caleb's face while he is being sang to...
Joel's response to being sang to...
Blowing out their candles


Joel was so excited here...
Joel wearing his Mater costume (I still need to get one of Caleb in his Mater one)

After our party, our church had their annual Christmas program. Caleb & Joel were in it for the first time and I wasn't sure they would come through for us. Turned out they did fine. All we wanted was for them to stand up there (they had sat down the entire practice) and blend in. They certainly fulfilled our expectations and made us proud with their nose-picking abilities as well...makes for some great pictures later on in life! Kiera did fabulous as well and sang and did the actions so well. We are so proud of her and her active participation! She is definitely growing up on us and as you may notice in the pictures we cut 6 inches of her hair! She looks so much older! It was a great evening and the kids had fun!