Happy Birthday!

I've been unusually silent for a few days because we decided to bring the party to the relatives this year instead of attempting to get them to all come to us and cross state lines.  Sam and Anna's birthday and subsequent party weekend were a success... although it didn't take much to improve upon last year.  Although- is it bad to say that a birthday with vomit and poor sleep still consists as successful?

We started off Sam and Anna's birthday on Friday with both of us taking the day off of work to spend the entire day with our big 2 year olds.  The night before we littered our living room with blown up balloons and hung streamers from their doorway for a little extra birthday surprise. 

They loved it.  They had a ton of fun running back and forth under the streamers, and were especially enthusiastic about the balloons to play with.  The squeal that Sam made  in excitement when he finally noticed the balloons after running back and forth under the streamers for a bit will be imprinted in my brain for a long time.

(Most of my balloon pictures are a blur of fast moving kids and colorful balloons going everywhere)

They were having such a great time that breaking them away for breakfast caused some minor temper tantrums.  Daddy made pancake smiles out of blueberries and strawberries.  We thought that Anna just wanted to get back to the balloons when she refused to eat much, and so we worked to get a little more into our little peanut.  Then, she started acting really tired... and we thought that maybe the craziness of playing so hard with the balloons  right out of the gate from waking up wore her out.

And then she threw up on our laptop while Daddy was checking his work email. 

And we took her temperature and it was 101.5. 

Poor baby girl was sick on her birthday.  Instead of taking them to the children's museum and for cupcakes as previously planned, we hung around the house and had fun mixed in with extra snuggles while watching to see if she would improve.  The plan had been to leave after nap for our 3 1/2 hour car ride to the grandparent's house (to avoid having to travel right before the party the next day).  Anna'sfever broke after meds, she took a decent nap and she never threw up again, so we continued on with our original plan to leave after nap.

We stopped at a restaurant for dinner en route.  Anna kept her lunch down so we thought she would be okay to eat.  The waitstaff sung them a birthday song, which Sam loved and Anna didn't so much.  She hid in my shoulder and seems relived when they were done.  She also wouldn't try the ice cream sundae they brought for both Sam and Anna.

We arrived at the grandparents a little late, which pushed bedtime later than usual.  Sam and Anna did okay with that though... until Sam woke up at 2 am, and was wide awake until almost 4 am that night.  I ended up sleeping on the floor next to his pack and play until I was sure I could sneak away.  That meant he only got 7 1/2 hours of sleep that night, where as he usually gets 12. 

While Sam and Anna's actual birthday was pretty eventful, the rest of the weekend and their party went much more according to plan!   To be continued!