Twins' Happy 3rd Birthday!

Noah and Mike at NICU.

Alyson a few minutes after birth.

Birthday lunch on their birthday. They like McDonald's chicken nuggets, so I treated them.

A birthday cupcake in the afternoon! Sean, Saya and I sang the birthday song to them.

Sean enjoyed the party, too, playing alongside Japanese kids.

Aly said "wow!" when we brought out the Tinkerbell cake!

I hope in the future, Noah won't measure our love based on the size and appearance of their cakes!! Noah, we love you equally!!

The kids were in the zone, opening presents. Sean was "helping" Noah open his presents.

Alyson was very focused on the new treasures she collected!

Noah thought he would let others open presents for now and return when everything is ready to play - a smart move!

So, it's been three years since I started this blog and three jam packed years since my two red faced monkeys were pulled out from the womb by Dr. Graham's secure hands. Mike and I were happy and scared at the same time and felt very alone looking at the hard journey ahead, caring for an active two-year-old boy and newborn twins. At that time, I could not imagine getting out of the fog for a very long time, but we discovered that people can quickly adopt to any new situations! We figured out what works for us and here we are, celebrating the twins' third birthday~! It sure goes by very fast, especially in a large family like ours.

We had a small party on Saturday with Japanese friends from Aly's school. I didn't want to throw a large party this year because I didn't want to overwhelm Noah and myself! I also didn't want to occupy our friends' two weekends in February for two birthday parties since Sean's is on 26th, hence focused on Aly's friends from her school. I felt a little odd for not having our other close friends at the twins' party, but I think it worked out pretty well in the end.

We had a very nice Japanese speaking party with cute little Japanese children. It was kind of funny Sean exclaimed to the guests "This is an English house! No Japanese!" The mothers must have wondered why a little boy was fuming like an old man. We had about eleven children, including two sets of twins. The Moms had a very good time chatting about school, Japan and the kids. I like all the mothers and their kids. The children got along very well and happily played together.

The cake Aly requested was Tinkerbell cake. I ordered it from QFC and had them make as cupcakes. They lined up twelve cupcakes on the bottom and spread icing on the top as if it's a sheet cake. I tasted it and it wasn't too sweet. They did a very good job with it! Noah is on GFCF diet, so I made a special gluten free chocolate cupcake without milk. He ate it very fast, so he must have liked it! Alyson looked very happy when everyone sang her a happy birthday song. Noah looked content but his eyes were fixed on the flame and he really wanted to touch it if he could (and he tried).

I asked the guests not to bring any presents as I felt bad since they are twins. But some of them brought anyways and it was very nice of them! I didn't prepare goody bags and I regretted that. We chatted and chatted, the children played and played until the toys were evenly scattered across the floor in the playroom downstairs. It was a moment of reflection. We do have too many toys!!

I think the twins had a very nice birthday this year. Now that they know what birthday means in a kid kind of way like having a party and it involves presents and a birthday cake, it's going to be a little different from next year. We were very happy to see their big smiles and the fact that we survived another year raising twins!