The twins turned 2!

This is Joel laughing at us trying to get him to sit still

And Jeremy crying because we tried to get him to sit still

I feel terrible about the fact that it took me so long to write up a post about the twins turning 2.  And because it took me so long, I can't really remember what milestones they had reached.  I think I'll just write about their birthday, and then another post about them as two and a half year olds.

They loved the birthday balloons

Joel eating homemade healthified banana chocolate chip doughnuts

Jeremy eating doughnuts and bacon

Their birthday was on a Saturday this year and it was a super busy day.  I made the birthday cake and decorated it on Friday.  On Saturday I made a lemon meringue pie for an auction at church, a big huge pot of chili and two batches of cornbread for the chili/cornbread cook-off also at the church that evening (by the way - I've won the cornbread cookoff for something like 3 years in a row).  I missed Jacob's 1pm soccer game (that we were in charge of snacks for) so I could stay home and cook while the twins napped.

"Choo-Choo!  Joel and Jeremy are 2" Pay no attention to my bad handwriting with frosting

I have to admit I was pretty proud of this cake. :)

I like to invite family over for my kids' first birthdays, but for birthdays after that I don't really have a party.  Once I actually have a child who understands birthdays and wants to have parties then I'll have to decide how often I'm willing to throw birthday parties.  But for now I just make them some kind of cake and if family decides they want to come over and join us then they are more than welcome, but I'm not planning out food or anything for a party.  Makes sense, right?

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

"I don't know why Jeremy is crying like that - I'm just playing with a balloon"

That said, my parents like to visit and celebrate all their grandkids' birthdays and it isn't unusual for Justin's dad to drop by if he is in town for the weekend.  So for the twins' birthday we had my parents, Justin's dad and Justin's grandma come by.

Since I only made one cake for the twins to share, I made a handful of cupcakes with my leftover batter so they could each have a candle on their own cupcake.  Jeremy was not happy when he saw his cupcake.  Like Jacob, Jeremy doesn't like frosting.  But overall Jeremy just isn't a big fan of sweets (is he really my child?).  We weren't sure if he wasn't feeling well, or that he was unhappy to see we were giving him a sweet treat he didn't want, but he just cried and cried when we gave him his cupcake.

We're two!!!

First Jeremy just covered his eyes when we gave him his cupcake

Then the screaming started.  Joel wants to know what Jeremy is so upset about when he has a yummy cupcake sitting in front of him.

We saved an unfrosted cupcake for Jacob and he loved blowing out the candles.

I think we did this at least 3 times

He loves blowing out the candles

After cake, the twins opened presents!  They got lots of great stuff from family and they may have been a little overwhelmed by all the new stuff.  Justin and I decided to get them these cool easels from Ikea - they are super affordable.  Sadly they were all sold out of the easels at the Houston Ikea, but luckily they had some up in the Dallas area so Justin's dad was able to pick a couple up before he headed down our way.

Joel handing a present to Jeremy

Jeremy needs a little help getting his present opened

Joel loved the easel

Joel enjoyed opening presents a little more than Jeremy did

We survived the first 2 years with twins.  Let's just hope we can survive the terrible twos times two!