the pool party

We had a blast at the twins' 8th birthday party!   Last year, we didn't do a friend party, so this year, we wanted to enjoy some time with special friends from school.  After much talking and brainstorming.... we decided on a pool party at the YWCA.  No matter where you live, swimming in late November is a treat!!

We had 6 little friends join us for swimming, pizza and cupcakes Saturday afternoon.  8 kids at the 8 year olds' party was the perfect number!  

How about a few pictures?????

Lew got in with the kids when we first arrived, but once their buddies showed up, they quickly abandoned Dad! 

my little fish

 Carl is not the only fish!

I never got a posed picture of all the kids, but I did manage to catch all 8 of them in 2 shots..... 

 We were there during family swim time, but as you can see, there weren't many other swimmers there.  After an hour of swimming, we took a break for pizza, grapes and cupcakes.  You can kind of see our awesome theme... Despicable Me Minions & Disney Princesses!   We know how to decorate and compromise well!

We did cupcakes - chocolate ones for Gretchen and I brought lemon ones without frosting for Carl who hates chocolate, but he didn't want one anyway.  (He loved the sausage pizza, though.  Probably should have put a candle in that for him.  Hmmm... next year.)  But, I keep coming back to something my friend Tara said in her recent blog entry about throwing a birthday party for twins.  She mentioned how some mothers of twins are adament about having 2 separate cakes, but she figured they shared a womb for 9 months, they could handle sharing a cake on their birthday.  I love that practical, realistic, yet cake filled view of it.

 Gretchen being sung to!  Lew relit the candles and we sang to them both twice for extra wish opportunities!

 Then, we threw caution to the wind and let them swim without waiting an hour!!!

Carl wanted to open presents so we were able to do that before the families left.  We had 6 friends there, but they were 3 sets of twins or siblings.  We are so lucky to have such great families in our lives.  It was really special to be able to have some fun outside of school to celebrate turning 8 years old!!!!!