The past two months have been quite a whirlwind. Just like that we have a one and three year old! Ryan was off for Avelines birthday,  so we celebrated both little ladies that day. For those of you who do not know the story well, Aveline and Novella have back to back birthdays.  May 22 and then May 21, God surely does have a sense of humor, but it is special they each have their own day! My parents came up to celebrate the girls with us again this year, and as always it was a fun and enjoyable time.  Then on Novellas birthday we loaded up the car and headed back to Oklahoma for a couple of weeks…more on that later.

Birthday was a lot of fun, Ryan and I worked together to make the cupcakes again this year. Novella is not a big fan of chocolate, Aveline really likes chocolate, so we made two batches of cupcakes, Vanilla Almond and Chocolate. Novella requested pink frosting for herself and purple frosting for Aveline. I whipped up some cream cheese frosting, and I knew my go to vegetable for pink is beets. So we busted put the juicer and made some pink “dye” to add in and got a beautiful pink. The purple was a little more tricky, my first thought was red cabbage, it was just the purple I wanted, however the taste of cabbage is very distinct and over powering,  and well, you just couldn’t mask it, so that got dumped out in and hurry… cream cheese frosting and red cabbage was a nasty combination! Lol so we went with juiced black berries, I ended up adding a couple of drops of red and blue food coloring  to try to brighten it up a bit, but to no avail. I was discouraged and knew that doing individual cupcakes just one color would be boring looking, also cream cheese frosting is much more dense and not as fluffy as butter cream or whipped cream, so we changed up our plan, played with our piping tips and just had fun. Here are the cupcake results! We might be a bit biased, but we think they came out really fun, pretty and unique.

The entire day was a birthday celebration, pancakes with jimmies in them, homemade whipped cream and minded sugar sprinkles for breakfast. Then some presents, and they got their birthday balloons from their Great Grandmother. Who knew these balloons would bring so much pleasure!  We had pizza  delivered for lunch, naps, then more presents and cupcakes. It was a day of laughter, celebration, WAAAAYYY too much sugar, and memories that will last a lifetime.

The following day, Novellas actual birthday; we started the day out with saying goodbye to Papa, then headed to a well visit for both of the girls. Came back home, packed and loaded up then hit the road. My mom (Gran Jan), rode with the girls, dog and me. We followed my dad (Opa) in his big white truck and so began our trip to Oklahoma. That night we ate at a Cracker Barrel (both girls loved the rocking chairs out front!), then stopped at a hotel with an indoor pool. Novella at and Opa had a blast playing in the water, Aveline liked the idea of the water, but had zero interest in actually going in this time…it was pretty chilly. Then my mom and I surprised Novella with an ice cream treat bought at the guest services at the front desk. So she still got a little something special on her big day of becoming a three year old.

We are so proud of our girls, and still cannot believe how quickly the time passes by. We are blessed beyond measure with each one and their unique personalities. They both balance the family dynamic well and bring so much joy, laughter, and happiness to us.