Sam & Max Turn Five!

On November 1st, my baby boys turned five. It goes without saying that I cannot believe Max and Sam are five years old. 

At their request, we decided to celebrate with a Spiderman/Elephant party. 

My Sam loves animals. I made this cake and my sweet parents stayed up late the night before the party (after all of the Halloween festivities, of course) to help me make gray icing and decorate this baby. The eyes are actually 100-year-old buttons from my great aunt's "button jar." How adorable is it that she used to have a "button jar?" Anyhoo...

I have to admit, I was a teensy bit proud of my Martha Stewartishness as I lovingly laid this cake on the island and showed Sam the morning of his birthday. He grinned, ran to the playroom, grabbed fistfuls of animals, and proceeded to smash them into the top of his cake so they looked like they were grazing on top of Babar. My little sis was over helping me, and as she watched him do it and saw me almost pass out, she burst out laughing. Then she reminded me that it was his birthday cake, not mine. Sigh.

My Max loves superheroes. Greg stayed up late after trick-or-treating through the rain with three extremely energetic sugar-saturated kids to frost and decorate this cake for his boy. Spiderman's okay, but some day Max will know that Daddy's the real superhero.

We played "Push the Peanut," "Spiderman Relay," and "Superhero Sleuth."  Then we enjoyed some pizza, fruit, veggies, and of course, birthday cake!

Then, it was time to open presents. The boys were so blessed by the generosity of their friends.

I recently read somewhere that on your child's birthday, you should invite one friend for each year of their life... we exceeded the suggested limit a bit, and I might rethink doing that next year :-). There were a few times when I wanted to lock the boys in the coat closet quietly take them aside and remind them of their manners. There was a moment of hysteria before the Spiderman relay when one birthday boy did not get to go first. Then there was a moment of horrified embarrassment when the other birthday boy opened a superman book and announced in a loud, clear voice: "This is a mistake. I like Spiderman, not Superman." But when each took their turn blowing out five candles, I had to takes a deep breath and stifle a sob or two. There's an old saying about raising children: the days are long but the years are short. If that isn't the truth, I don't know what is.

I am so grateful that my boys have had five healthy, happy years. They have filled Greg and I with countless moments of unspeakable joy. Happy birthday, my precious little identical twins. I love being your mommy.