Birthday Celebrations (and more)

Wow. What a busy week it has been! First off, I did my glucose test and never heard anything back from the doctor, so I'm assuming all went well woohoo! I have my next appointment on Thursday and have been promoted to bi-weekly appointments. I cannot believe how fast time is flying. Tuesday will mark 29 weeks, which only leaves 11 more weeks. Eeeeek! AND, if I really think about it, and add in the factors that Addisyn and alyse were a week and a half and two weeks early, respectively, it really won't be that much longer. Crazy! Plus, add the stress of Christmas to the mix and it's almost more than I can handle lol. I need to start shopping early. I normally don't do belly pics, but here it is at 26 weeks (two weeks ago) in all its glory!

Alyse on her 2nd birthday

Now, to the exciting stuff! Addisyn and Alyse had their birthdays last week. Friday, the 21st, Alyse turned the big two. We spent the day as usual but after dinner made a trip up to Twistee Treat for birthday cake and ice cream. Mom, Dad, and Eric came up and joined us. These girls sure do love their ice cream. We brought a small gift along for Alyse to open, since she wouldn't be opening other things until her party. Sunday, the 23rd, Addisyn turned 4. We also had a joint party for them on Sunday at mom and dad's with almost the whole family. It was nice to have everyone together, but really and truly we should be renting a big hall to have a birthday bash in order to have enough room for everyone.

The kids had a craft table set up outside where they painted and decorated "fairy houses." I think they enjoyed painting and adding all the feathers and glitter to them. They all turned out really cute. We also had lunch. Doug stayed up the night before the party cooking two huge pork roasts on the smoker. They came out really good and there was hardly anything left.

Alyse is STILL not a fan of the camera. Just like her dad.

The girls were showered with tons of cool gifts. It was quite hectic supervising the opening of two kids' gifts and trying to keep track of who belonged to who and from whom it was from. I think I know the majority of where the gifts came from lol. Everyone, just know that the love each and every gift and are very thankful to have had everyone come out to celebrate their special days. We're going to have to have some sort of a system next year ;) Poor Alyse was gifted out and gave up after opening two or three. She still had some left to open the day after the party!

After cake and presents, the kids had to walk the plank to become a pirate. They got a pirate eye patch and pirate hat for not falling into the water. Then, they got their first clue for a treasure hunt. Boy, those kids were fast. They were running all over the place searching for the next clue. They finally made it to the treasure and were so excited to open the treasure chest and find their goodies (I knew holding on to my treasure chest from my classroom would come in handy!!). 

Getting ready to sing "happy birthday"

All in all, it was a success. The girls had fun, and felt really special that so many people would come out for them. Alyse was especially pooped and fell asleep on Grandpa's lap before we even left to go home.

Wendy and Tink!

Then, last night we had one last birthday celebration for them. Doug and I got them tickets to go to the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party out at Magic Kingdom as their birthday gift. They had a blast. Addisyn wore her Wendy dress that Gramma Joiner made her and Alyse wore her tinkerbell costume. I can't even count how many compliments Addisyn got on her dress and several people asked where we got it. So, great job Gramma for doing such an awesome job!! 

LOVE this!

Alyse wasn't too sure about these two rats ;)

The party started at 7, which is when we got there. We were able to trick-or-treat at all the candy stations (woohoo to TONS of candy... the good kind!) as well as rides, fireworks, and the super awesome Boo To You parade. They were in their bags of candy pretty much whenever they were sitting in the stroller. By the time the party was over at midnight, they were tired. We started heading out of the park and the main monorail line was down, leaving just the resort monorail and the ferry. Both lines were ridiculously long and I thought the ferry may be quicker since they had both running and they could hold more people (totally guessing on that). Well, that turned into a HUGE mistake. We waited an hour and half for that dern ferry. The monorail line had completely cleared out. We were on the last ferry ride of the night. Seriously. The girls passed out a few minutes after getting in the line, so luckily we didn't have to deal with their crankiness. But, my feet were so sore and my right ankle was starting to swell (28 weeks pregnant). It was nice to finally make it make to the car. Needless to say, we didn't get home until after 2 am. It was a fun, but long, night!

Too much Disney!