2 x 2 x 2 [Birthday Edition]

We had TWO celebrations for TWO very special girls who turned TWO years old!

We began this past week with a small family birthday party! And ended the week with a NICU reunion celebration at the hospital for Esther, which coincidentally was held a day after her release date just 2 years ago!

Pink & Purple Party!

The Decorations

The Fun 

The Party Guests!

NICU Reunion Celebration!

Celebrating our little NICU graduate, Esther, with a petting zoo and games at the hospital. We had fun riding a horse, brushing the llama, petting the bunnies, and feeding the goats. We also got to sit and eat our favorite snacks with Mommy and Daddy after taking our measurements and making hand prints in keepsake clay to see how much we have grown.

 Back from where we started...

(Above) Esther's release date to go home, Oct. 4, 2011 / (Below) NICU Reunion Oct. 5, 2013

Animal Fair

Happy 2nd Birthday, Anna & Esther!
We love you and the delight you bring to our lives!

Love Muffin Date

Today, Mommy and Daddy had a lunch and zoo date with our two love muffins. 

 Our Zoo Membership is ending this month and with this beautiful day, we thought we should take advantage of it since new baby brother is coming soon. One of those bittersweet days of just the four of us.

Anna and Esther are such well behaved little ladies at the lunch table. I wouldn't expect this from my little 17 month olds, but their sweet little manners make my heart melt for it. 

Everyone was taking a bite at the same time. Thought it was rather priceless. As you can see Mommy/Baby Boy's plate had more food on it than anyone else's. Ha!

Then it was off to the Zoo!!!

After visiting the lions and tigers, we decided to head over to the Farm Petting Zoo. Esther quickly discovered the ducks!

And then there were two. Haha! I think they both agreed that the swimming ducks were their favorite animals of the zoo. We had to pry them away after a bit of watching.

We even had an awesome Seal encounter while giving pregnant Mommy a sit down break and having a snack. Anna made sure not to miss out on the action.

Esther got a close up too! She was a little hesitant and kept a little more distance between her and the seal.

We had to check out the pretty water fountain before leaving especially since photo Mommy wanted a couple more pics. No toddler cooperation for one though. No loss of expectation there. Ha!
 Esther wanted to play a little too close to the edge. I thought sure we were going to take home a soaked baby. Thankfully, it's only a foot of water and Daddy stayed close to catch her little fearless self.

Sweet day! Sweet memories!

Break for Vacation

We just got back from a week of full Adams Family Vacation in Destin, Florida!

In all honesty, I can say that I was just not looking forward to the trip this year. I'm sure you are shaking your head at such a remark, but we recently took a trip up to Indiana a few weeks prior to visit family. It was the babies first time to meet everyone and they were quite the little hand fulls even with all of the extra help. I wasn't sure how I was going to last through another trip without needing a vacation all to myself when we got back. 

However, the week ended up being a complete success even with all of it's small hiccups! God had plenty in store for the week. He knows how much I long for the romance of His creation, so He knew this was prime time to get my attention plus lots of favoring. :) 

Mrs. Adams Sr. picked out an awesome condo along the beach! We had gorgeous weather! No rain!  We had tummy tickling family laughter around the dinner table while all of the kiddos were asleep in their beds! Yummy food! We had our own personal heated pool. My husband was so wonderful; he got up with Anna and Esther every morning of our vacation. Ahhhh.... true blessings, for sure!  

Kyle and I even got a night out together. We love our romance!

First day of vacation, we learned 2 things: the babies have a sand phobia that will not be tolerated and that I have developed a severe allergy to bee stings. As a child, I was stung by all types of bees...honey bees, wasps, yellow jackets, or as you call them here, the carpenter bee. Then, at the age of 27, a small sweat bee comes along, at least, that's what our hypothesis has concluded, and I was one close trip to the E.R. I have never seen anything happen to my body quite like this in a matter of minutes. Craziness!! So, it was 2 Benedryl tablets for me, a steak dinner in bed with my honey, and off to sleep land. 

The sting was a little bit of a blessing in disguise. Despite it's discomforts, I think, everyone else should have got to have their dinner in bed that night as well. It was actually quite fun! And I got to catch up on all the sleep I haven't had since the girls were born. :)

First Moments on the Beach...

Turned into Unhappy 1st Moments on the Beach. No sand for Babies!

God taught me what it was to rest again and He sure put it on the menu for me for the week. It was incredible. I have never felt so recharged being back at home today. 

During the week, the girls enjoyed playing with their cousins, took record long naps, and enjoyed the beach, but only by lounging in their chairs with no sand! They had one day of severe teething, in which I think we got a whole 20 minutes of actual beach time that day, but Anna has now caught up to Esther so that they both each now have their first tooth poking through the gums. 

Day 2...buckets and shovels with NO SAND.

We all took turns cooking each night so that the week wasn't crazy scheduled with outings, which was super helpful for us especially since the twins are in bed so early. I made my newest recipe addiction from Pinterest one night, Colorado Smothered Burritos with Avocado Salsa. Yummy! We ate lunch out at The Crab Trap one day and ended the week off eating at the Old Bay Steamer. Double Yum. Those, of course, are our traditional places to get our eat on each year. 

Day 4 was certainly my favorite. Kyle and I unexpectedly found that we had a night out to ourselves. Mimi and Papa took the girls out for their first dinner together without Mommy and Daddy while The Brummer clan was out on a dolphin boat extravaganza. We went to The Crab Trap again since Kyle wanted to splurge for another round of raw oysters. It was then followed by a late night walk on the beach, a late night swim, and well, more romance, romance....

What a week of sweet memories! Until next year..... :)