Show your DisneySide with a Mickey Paintball Party

The boys have wanted to try paintball for some time now.  They've always loved Nerf and laser tag, so I guess paintball is just the next step.  But I've always been hesitant because I've heard lots of stories about paintball being painful.  I've seen photos of bruises from paintball pellets and I've read stories of little boys sitting out birthday parties because they got hurt.

Fortunately, our local paintball place has a gentler option: Splatmaster, which features guns that release the paintball pellets at half the speed of regular paintball guns.  Since 3Po wanted to celebrate his 11th birthday with a paintball party, I figured Splatmaster would give everyone a good first experience while minimizing the bruises.  And since I had recently been selected to host a DisneySide party, I figured I'd combine the two and throw a Mickey Paintball party!  I was a bit nervous that the boys would think Mickey was a bit babyish, but 3Po was delighted with the idea. How could I have doubted?  The party was a big hit.  You're never too old for Mickey Mouse!

Birthday bash at Buca di Beppo

We've lived less than a mile from Bucca di Beppo for almost 20 years, but Alfie and I were always too intimidated by the large crowd (and implied long wait times) to bother taking the kids there. We finally took the plunge and booked a table six months ago, and we had such a great time that I knew I wanted to go back to Buca di Beppo for my birthday dinner.  I've had such a crazy week that it ended up being my day-after-my-birthday dinner, but I can't think of a better way to celebrate my 42nd and start the Memorial Day Weekend.

Happy 10th Birthday 3Po and Jammy!

Ten years ago, two little boys entered my life.  I was nervous, scared, unprepared, unsure.  The year that followed was one of the most difficult of my life.  But I wouldn't trade that year, or my boys, for all the riches on earth.  They were exactly what we needed to make our family complete!

Holiday birthdays often get lost in all the celebrations, and that has certainly been the case for 3Po and Jammy on my blog -- but not this time.  I haven't posted anything since Christmas (I think that's my longest dry spell ever) but I was determined to give their double-digit birthday the acknowledgement it deserves.  So I'm delaying the 2013 Highlights posts, the Ski Trip posts, the Family Game Night posts, the New Year's Resolutions posts and all the other posts I have planned in my head.  Those can wait.  What can't wait is my message for 3Po and Jammy:  

Happy Birthday, Boys.  These last ten years have been a wild, wonderful ride.  I'm not going to dwell on all the twin cliches -- double trouble, twice blessed -- even though they're true.  The chances of having identical twins are about 0.4%, or 1 in 250, but the chances of having both of you were one in a million.  Your daddy and I definitely won the lottery when we had you!

To celebrate 3Po and Jammy's 10th birthday, here are 10 fun facts about their birth:

A sweet party for a sweet 12 year-old

If I'm not mistaken, it has rained almost every year on the day that The Pea has had a birthday party.  This year, we finally wised up and realized that the best way to ensure clear skies would be to hold her party in late April instead of early April -- less showers, more flowers.  Here's how we celebrated:

Celebrating Twelve

Three years ago I wrote a blog post about how sad/scared/sentimental I was about The Pea turning nine.  Ha.  If only I knew how good I had it back then.  Now her younger brothers are nine, and this beautiful creature has turned twelve.  Twelve.

Hangin' with 3Po: How to throw a Rock Climbing Birthday Party

What's harder than climbing a mountain?  How about planning two boys' birthday parties in a single weekend?  Jammy had his 9th birthday party on Friday, and 3Po had his on Sunday, but it wasn't as tiring as it sounds, because I outsourced the location and activities to a trampoline park (for Jammy) and a rock climbing gym (for 3Po).  Just like the twins themselves, the two parties had striking similarities --  the celebrants, most of the guests (and therefore the presents), the birthday cake -- but each one was different, and special in their own way.  Here's how we celebrated 3Po's birthday:

Jumpin' with Jammy: How to throw a trampoline birthday party

Last year I went all out for 3Po's and Jammy's 8th birthday parties.  Each of them had themed parties at home, and I sweated over every detail, from the decor to the games to the cake to the food -- and since they held separate birthday parties for the first time ever, I did it all twice.  This year, for their 9th birthday, 3Po and Jammy once again asked for separate parties, but this year I decided to give myself a break and outsource their parties to a local party place, so all I'd have to do was bring the birthday cake.

Of course, it didn't actually work out out that way.  Jammy decided on a party at a trampoline park, and I couldn't help it -- I had to do everything I could to fit a theme.

How to make your own chocolate chip cookie cake

Over the years, it has become a family tradition to serve ice cream cake at our kids' birthday parties, but this year Jammy wants a party at a science museum and 3Po wants a party at a rock climbing gym.  Alfie and I are going to have our hands full at both parties, herding kids around the museum and belaying them at the gym, so I don't want the added stress of picking up an ice cream cake and keeping it cold.

Both boys decided they wanted a cookie cake like they've seen at the Mrs. Field's kiosks -- but they cost $40 each (that's one expensive cookie!), and we'd probably need 2 per party.  I decided to try making one myself.  Here's what I did:

Whatever happened to my Forty before Forty List

One year ago, I realized that I'd be turning forty, so made up a list of 40 things I wanted to do before I reached that all-important milestone. Here's an update of how I've done:

How to make paper flowers for a spring party

The Pea celebrated her 11th birthday last weekend with a movie night and sleepover for 7 of her school friends. We decided to decorate her birthday table in Easter-themed pink, yellow and green. The table looked gorgeous, but the wall behind it was plain and bare. Usually I put up a "Happy Birthday" banner or poster, but this year I wanted to do something different, so I decorated the ceiling instead, and hung paper lanterns and flowers at various lengths. Here's how I made the paper flowers:

Seven Days of Dinner, April 9-15

The Pea celebrated her 11th birthday last Friday, and we celebrated with a trip to Tahoe for some skiing and poolside fun. Actually, the trip was for Spring Break and her birthday just happened to fall right in the middle of it, but that didn't stop her from commandeering the whole trip as though it was a 3-day birthday celebration. I told her the only person allowed to celebrate their birthday for more than 1 day is me (May is officially My Month since both my birthday and Mother's Day are in May), and our family tradition of letting the birthday celebrant pick the restaurant for birthday dinner was good enough.

Alfie through the years

Today is Alfie's birthday, so I thought it would be fun to feature some photos of him when he was a boy. He looks like he's about two in this photo. Looking at the color of his hair, you can sort of understand why The Pea came out blond, despite my dominant dark-haired gene.

Mario Kart party decor

Every time one of the kids has a birthday, I always decorate our kitchen wall with balloons and a Happy Birthday sign. It makes the birthday child feel really special, and it makes a festive decoration for the child's birthday party. This year, for 3Po's birthday, I decided to make things a bit more unique. Since he had a Mario Kart Wii-themed party, I turned our kitchen wall into a Mario Kart racetrack. It looked amazing, it was a lot more fun that writing "Happy Birthday" onto a posterboard, and best of all, the whole family got into it and helped. Here's how we did it:

Separate kids, separate parties

3Po and Jammy are 8 now, and this year marks a very special first: they'll be holding separate birthday parties, with different themes, different activities, different food and different guests. Having one party per child is practically given when you've got singletons, but when you're a twin, you have to share a birthday, and sharing a party is so much easier. When boy-girl twins get older, it's natural for them to have different interests and friends of their own gender, so splitting up parties is a much easier and more natural progression. 3Po and Jammy, though, are identical twins who happen to have identical interests and almost identical friends, so having separate parties is a Big Deal.

100th birthday

Today I'm paying tribute to a woman who celebrates life with each passing day. Alfie's aunt turned one hundred years old today.

Forty before Forty

Judgement Day has come and gone, and we're all still here, so it looks like there's a good chance I'll live to see my fortieth year, exactly one year from today.

Wow, forty. I've been so busy living that my third decade has just flown by! I'm not too happy with some of the things that have happened to me during this period (like my feet growing a whole size, like they weren't huge enough already, or developing a pesky medical condition that has my internal thermostat constantly going haywire), but on the whole it has been a great decade, and I feel lucky to have done so many things. Here are some that I'm proudest of:

Ten Years of Memories

Wow. The Pea's age is in the double digits now. She has lived a decade. And I've been a mother for a decade.

Ten years is a long time. It's long enough so that we remember events, but not the details.

Don't be Seven

It's difficult to believe that seven years ago today I was lying in a hospital room with two tiny babies lying beside me. At the time, I was numb with pain and exhaustion, and paralyzed with fear at the prospect of taking care of two tiny boys (note: my use of the word tiny is relative, because the boys were 6 lbs. 10 oz. and 7 lbs. 4 oz., and after carrying over 14 pounds of baby, I was much happier to have them out than in). The Pea was 2 years, 9 months old, and as girly as a girl could be. I didn't feel capable of taking care of one boy, let alone two.

I won't lie to you: the second half of the pregnancy and the first year was difficult, both physically, mentally and emotionally. I often joke to people that I erased it from my memory, and the only thing that stood out was how quickly I wanted that first year to be over and done with.

Thirty-eight can be great

You know how it is: the older you get, the less of a deal your birthday becomes. Then you get older, and gradually people start celebrating your birthdays again, and as each birthday becomes more and more of an achievement, the celebrations become ever more of a grand affair.

I think I must have passed that minimum birthday fuss level this year and started climbing back up the slope, because I had a really special 38th birthday celebration. Over the last 4 or 5 years my birthdays have been such non-events that I started declaring month-long celebrations for my birthday (it helps that Mother's Day is also in May) so I could squeeze more attention and good behavior from the kids. But this year I can't complain, because the 22nd was really all about ME:



Last Saturday I woke up to my first-ever birthday banner. Usually I stay up all night before the kids' and Alfie's birthdays, blowing up balloons and taping up streamers to decorate the kitchen wall for their special days. This time The Pea actually remembered to make one for me. It's a good thing we never got around to taking the balloons down from The Pea's birthday banner last month.



Here are my lovely cards and flowers on display. Okay, I had to buy the roses myself, but I did reach into Alfie's wallet to pay for them :) Joking aside, I'm still beyond ecstatic at the mobile broadband card he gave me for my laptop, which is way better than flowers. I also received lots of nice greetings online. Gotta love Facebook!



It seems a Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake has become our family's traditional birthday cake, and my birthday was no exception.



And since my parents were in town, Alfie and I were also able to celebrate with a fun night out. I decided to make "New' the theme of the night and do things I had never, ever done before. First up was the restaurant: I chose one that serves N'awlins-style food and it turned out to be a great decision. Roux Louisiana restaurant had live jazz music, a hip crowd, and great food. How can you not feel Scarlett O'Hara Special when you're surrounded by red walls, velvet curtains, beads and fancy chandeliers?



I wore the brand-new top that I'll be wearing to the American Idol finals. It's ruffly and flirty and fun! (and thanks to all the readers who gave their suggestions on what to wear on BlogHer and on Bonggamom Finds!) You can't see it very well since I'm skulking in the ladies' room to take this photo and the light was low, so you'll have to wait until I post my American Idol trip photos to see it better. Stay tuned!



I ate alligator for the first time. These alligator strips were delicious, not stringy or tough at all (they use the meat in the alligator's tail)! And no, they don't taste like chicken; actually they taste more like calamari, and if I ever get the chance again I'd definitely order these again.



I had some Sex on the Bayou (the drink, not the act).



In fact, the only thing about the night that wasn't "new" were the two grownups who were celebrating. I had fun from the moment I stepped into that restaurant till the moment we collapsed into bed and had some more Sex on the Bayou (not the drink...) I can't think of a better way to Celebrate Thirty-Eight!

(But I'm still keeping my month-long birthday celebration).

Why the Number Nine Scares Me

As I write this, it's almost exactly nine years ago today (she was born at 8:50PM on April 6, 2001 and it's now 8:52PM) that The Pea made her screaming, messy, dramatic entrance into the world. I can't believe she's nine. The other night, when I was looking over at the birthday cards displayed on the mantel, I saw one with a huge, swirly, glittery and exceedingly pink number 9 in front, and I panicked. I thought, with no doubt in my mind, I don't want her to be nine.

I didn't feel this way when she turned six, or seven, or eight. Somehow Nine has become the age where I feel like she's no longer a little girl. She's still young enough to want pink cupcakes and pastel sprinkles, but now she wants iPods and Uggs instead of dolls and stuffies (sad, but inevitable). She wants an allowance (I've been expecting this for a while). She wants to walk to and from school by herself (in your dreams, kid!). I look at her face and I see lines and angles instead of curves and dimples. I think I can see a hint of the woman she will become.

Those nine years seem to have disappeared more quickly than the cupcakes in the photo -- and if the next nine years go by as quickly as the first nine did, I'm going to have to strap a videocamera to her forehead so I can capture every single precious moment.

But I have to hide my sadness and put on my happy face and let her know that there's nothing that excites me more in the world than to have her be nine, wow, nine, almost ten, what a big kid you are now! Only this blog knows how I really feel.

I could really use one of those pink pastel cupcakes right now.