Are You Thinking of Having a Monster Bash?

Some might not think of Monsters as "cute" for a kids birthday or as my friend said, "I don't think I could do that-my girls need princesses!" Well, when you have a boy and girl that are a year and four days apart, it is difficult to have two separate parties (for now). So, this year we decided to have the party at the lake with just family and a few close friends and Monsters was our theme! I realized fast Monsters are really cute. The invitations were ordered on Tiny Prints-they amazed me and then I had my family jumping in to help. My major stress was making the cakes...

The night before I was stressing and stayed up until 11:30 making four boxes of cake mixes (with the help of my mom and cousin Katy). Some were cupcakes and the other were put into cake forms (one was from the Pampered Chef glass mixing bowl and another was two halves of a circle-baseball). They didn't turn out very pretty! Then the next day we all worked together with my sister-in-law to decorate.

We made 2 double batches of butter cream frosting

Then we used different plastic bags with the frosting. Each bag had a fun tip to get different forms of frosting

Here are the cupcakes I found online. I used sour candy for the tongue, gummy o's wrapped around Dum Dum suckers, M&M's glued with frosting and a red hot for the nose.What is a party without a pinatas? These came from Target.

A close up...

Here is the creator! She did all the cakes!

Here is Avery's cake

Here is Mack's cake

They love the rockers!

Playing in the cooler with Nanny

All the cousins were there! Here is our newest addition Gretta!

I am not sure if Avery was trying to feed hers or beat it with this little shovel...

Fun candy!

Uncle Jack has his baby!

The final product

Avery was so proper about eating hers

Mack...not so much!

They have such an amazing family!

The next day we took it easy and Avery and Daddy fed the fish

Then we had alone time

...and at home their dad put together Avery's kitchen-it is a HUGE hit!

We Survived...With Joy of Course!

On Saturday Avery turned two! It was like Christmas morning for Mark and I-we woke up early and got everything ready for her special day! It was full of family time and opening presents. The excitement didn't stop on Saturday, Mack celebrated his birthday on Wednesday. Again, the day was filled with giving him all the love we could (he had no idea what was happening, but loved every second). This weekend we will celebrate even more at their monster birthday party down at the lake with family and a few friends. I CAN'T WAIT!!!! Just come back to view the 3D cakes we will be creating.

She was so excited

They are starting to get the idea

Can you see the excitement?No better way to get down the stairs...We met up with Heidi, Scott, and Cohan to go to CHUCK-E-CHEESE! I think the adults were more excited than the kids. We had so much fun hanging out and eating pizza

The three of them again, but never can they all be looking

The boysHere is the big two year old

Mack was excited to enjoy his sister's day!Mark's Aunt Molly sent gifts as well-this lion is one thing that Mack just can't get enough of

Avery also got an easel-we made one of daddy's shirts into an art smock and she had a blast!

This is a glimpse of our living room...this doesn't include the chairs from Jane and the kitchen Avery got from my parents. Needless to say, I have been selling furniture upstairs to make room for everything-I can't stand the clutter downstairs!

Nanny and Papa H got Avery and Mack their own chairs...oh my do they love them!

My parents came into town to go out to dinner with us. Jane and Hiram joined us as well! This restaurant is perfect to go with young children because you can get a little room all to yourself-that way we didn't bother anyone

Mack and Papa

How lucky are these kids to have both sets of grandparents around! They were so excited to look everywhere and see a grandparent

Mack could hardly wait for his cupcake...

YEAH!!!!!

Happy Birthday Mack and Avery!

What Happened?

The next week is going to be huge for our family. Avery turns 2 on Saturday and Mack turns 1 on Wednesday! I tear up just writing this. What has happened? They have grown in many ways-not just age, but as a whole child. I didn't know it could be this great!

Yesterday we took them to a local place here in town to "attempt" their one and two year photos. We had fun trying to get some pictures. Below I have included a few of my favorite, but the rest are located on our Shutterfly account. There will be many more photos due to our plans next week: Chuck-E-Cheese with their cousin Cohan, grilling out at home, and their monster birthday party at the lake next weekend. I know there will be many times that I ask myself what has happened and when did they get to be so big, but really how can this be real? I can't wait for all the years to come! Happy birthday beautiful babies!!!!!!

I think they turned out just as good had we gone somewhere to do them!