2nd Birthday Barnyard Bash!

You're probably thinking Birthday?!? Yes, their actual birthday was in February but due to cold weather and it being RSV season we decided to wait to celebrate until Spring. The party happened to fall one day after their due date (May 6th)....so technically speaking it was right on time! If you know us at all or have followed the blog for any amount of time, you most likely know we (they) LOVE animals and have spent countless days at the zoo...in the goat pen in particular ;) The babies (KYLEE) has a HUGE thing for goats! It was a no-brainer to me that this year, their first "real" party, would be a barnyard theme.

Some friends of the family own a super nice party barn and were more than willing to let us host the party there. Everything about it was perfect... the open space, wooden benches, the karaoke/bar, the decor, the stringed lights, everything was just perfect! We added a few balloons, a "Pin the tail on the Goat" game and about 35 kids (mostly 2 and under - YIKES!) and we were good to go! Amy Horton with Amy Horton Photography came out and took care of ALL the pictures allowing Bret and I to actually enjoy the party. This was HUGE and I'm so thankful Amy did this for us, seriously made things so so so much easier on me and I recommend going that route to all of you moms out there! Amy - THANK YOU! Mother nature took it easy on us as well. I was a little nervous about having a party partially outside and in an unairconditioned barn in early May and was afraid we might be baking in the Texas heat. Luckily it was warm but not hot and we had a nice breeze as well!

We had a bounce house set up outside and of course what's a barnyard party without a few animals, right?! Bret and I hired Debra from Anna Acres and her two kids to come set up a small petting zoo with 2 goats, 2 chicks, 2 chickens and 2 guinea pigs! This was by far the hit of the party, the kids LOVED it! Before the party got started we had the big garage doors closed to the barn, when we went to lift them up, it just so happened there was a goat on one side of the door and little miss goat-lover-Kylee was on the other. **Perfect Moment** That door opened, Kylee laid eyes on that goat and it was as if she saw her goat in shining armor! Anymore excited and she would have fallen over no doubt. Her beautiful big blue eyes widened, her hands were shaking with excitement and she shrieked "DOAT! DOAT DOOOAAATTT!!" Bret and I both happened to be standing there and saw it all. It was by far the best moment of the party and that moment alone made all the planning and money spent totally worth it! To see our sweet girl THAT happy was priceless! We provided snack sized baggies filled with animal cookies and strips of bread for the goats and fresh veggies for the guinea pigs so the kids could feed them as well - such a hit and great, easy entertainment! All of the kids loved the animals, but Debra thought it was hilarious that our four never ever left the tent the entire time she was there!

Once we said goodbye to the animals we all enjoyed hot dogs with all the fixings that the men had been working on. Kids were playing, babies crawling, adults visiting, music playing it was everything we hoped it would be. After lunch we gathered what kids we could to play a little game of "Pin the tail on the Goat". Of the 5 who tried to play I think two actually got the point of the game :] Maybe next year! We then opened presents. I was surprised that none of the quads understood the "open presents" concept. We had a few older kids there who were more than willing to give them a hand at unwrapping!

We saved the cake for last, knowing it would be a royal mess. Like last year I ordered each of them their own small cake as well as a BIG cake for all of the guests. Bret and I want to try to make each one of them feel special on their birthday, which is hard to do when you come into the world with 3 others. Getting them each their own cake is one way of "individualizing" them along with singing the Happy Birthday song 4 times, one entire song for each of them. Their individual cakes were simple over sized cupcakes each topped with a barnyard animal that we took off and replaced with two candles when it was time to sing. The big cake was decorated as a field with an adorable barn with the animal figurines around it; a pig in the mud, cow behind the fence etc. that read "Happy 2nd Birthday Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin!" As our guests left we gave each family a custom made CD with the party music we had played throughout the party (Old Mcdonald, The Farmer in the Dell, Mary had a Little Lamb etc.) as a party favor and thank you. Each CD had a picture of the quads along with "Thank you for celebrating with us! -Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin 2011".

I've added just a few pictures from the party, you can see the entire gallery at the Amy Horton Photography website. Simply click here and use the password Quads.

A huge thank you to all who attended our party and had a hand in making it so special for our family. Mom, Dad, Bill, Anita, The Millers, Amy, Bethany and Debra - a huge thank you to you for helping in the ways that you did, it wouldn't have been a success without you! I'm excited to see what we come up with next year...hee hee :]

The Best Birthday Yet: Part 3!

After a fun filled day at the pediatrician's office and the zoo, Nana met us at our last stop - a place called Going Bonkers! It's the biggest jungle-gym I have ever seen, I mean HUGE and it's open to people of ALL ages which means Mommy & Daddy can climb and have fun too! We got there at about 4:30pm and I thought we would be lucky if the babies lasted 2 hours. Boy was I wrong! we finally had to drag them out at 8:30pm! It was 4 hours of straight FUN!

There's a small area blocked off for kids ages 3 and under. Completely padded with no super high areas, the babies are totally safe in there (with parents supervision of course)! While there it was just our 4 plus one other little boy (who towered over our little squirts). His mom and I got to talking and it turns out it was his 2nd Birthday too and he was born just 45 minutes before ours - small world! Below we have the Bro-man peeking around the pole...Brody and Baxlyn at the top of the slide. Look at these faces, seriously, they loved it!
Baxlyn

My handsome Mr. Korbin (their awesome shirts by Designed For Babies of course!)

Sweet Kylee Mae

Lil' Miss B

Kylee & Daddy

My Cheeser Brody!

There was one point I looked towards the back of the toddler play area and saw what looked like my babies FLYING up in the air... I went back to find this...

Scared the heck out of me, but once I saw they loved it I agreed to go grab the camera and snap a few pics. By the way, this area was NOT made for bouncing on, there was hardly any give at all to this weaved tunnel type thing but somehow, Bret got them to soar high...

More beautiful smiles from my beautiful 2 year olds!

Kylee and I after Korbin bit my lip and drew blood - ouch!

After hours of play we lit the candles on the cake Dr. Reyes gave them earlier that morning. THANKS DR. REYES! (The cake was MUCH prettier before we moved all of the candles around so all the babies could see!)

After 4 rounds of "Happy Birthday" we let them dig in!
Our lil' family - after surviving 2 years!

That about sums it up for their 2nd Birthday! I know they'll have a blast at their real party once RSV season is over!

The Best Birthday Yet: Part 2!

Part two of the Quad's 2nd birthday we spent at the ZOO! Big Surprise, huh? I'm teased by everyone all the time on how often I take these kiddos to the zoo, but we LOVE it! Last week was one of the best trips so far. Daddy was with us, the weather was a perfect 68 degrees, and it just happened to be the same day our local moms of multiples group went too so we met up with a couple of triplet friends to spend the afternoon! Below we have the Ballew Triplets, the Tew Triplets, and our lil' clan ready to roll...

Angela and I go to the zoo often together and completely wear ourselves out pulling the choo choos around everywhere and up and down hills, Bret did most of the pulling this time....ahhhh thank you Bret! Pretty funny to walk 20 feet behind him and watch the reactions from others when they see him and his parade of babies!

Another first for Bret was keeping track of a 7 toddlers and a 4 year old while us moms did the diapee changes after lunch. He had an audience watching him from the cafeteria windows!

The babies' favorite stop at the zoo is the goat pen. It's a small area that the kids go into to pet (or in Kylee's case ride, pull on, poke, smell, kiss...etc.) the "Doats". This was our best shot at a group pic...

Baxlyn and Daddy

I would seriously consider getting a goat if I had to... they are SO patient with kids, it amazes me. The first time we let the babies in with them, I was a little nervous I would be with an unfamiliar dog. Now days I swear you could drop em off, go for lunch, come back and they would still be there having a bawl and the poor goats would just be sitting there like they always do. Here's a picture of Korbin playing with this poor guy's ear flinging it back and forth over and over and ovverrr... he thought it was hilarious.

Sweet Kylee is in Heaven when she's around animals and cares nothing about anything else surrounding her. She loves (almost) any animal and doesn't hesitate to touch! Here's my sweet girl getting up close and personal with a "Doat"..."Doat? Doat? Eat? Doat?"

Korbin, Kylee & Brody

Before heading out after a long day at the zoo, we decided to let each one ride the horse. We paid $2 for each baby to walk in a 50 foot circle one time. Really? It's their birthday, nobody else is waiting in line, you have nothing else to do, ya can't take em around twice?! Anyways, Brody was up first and enjoyed every second of it, he would have stayed on all day. The entire time I could hear him yell "Woohooo Woah! WOW!" it was ADORABLE!

Next up was Miss Baxlyn, a little more cautious and still, but had a good time none the less!

After B was Korbin. Love this picture of Baxlyn watching him through the fence!
Poor Kylee, as surprising as it is, wanted NOTHING to do with that horse. Each time we would put one back to grab another she would cry and say Nooooo. Once the other 3 had gone I asked her "Ky Ky, do you want to ride the horse?" to which she quickly replied "Nooo Nooooooooo Buh-bye Buh-Bye NOOO!!!!!". It broke my heart that she was so terrified. Here she is waving and yelling "no". My poor doll!Once we chuggalugged away from the horse Kylee was fine and the rest of our day was nothing but smiles. We packed up and the babies napped on our way to our final destination to end our day of celebrating their 2nd birthday. Stay tuned for Part 3 of The Best Birthday Yet!

The Best Birthday Yet: Part 1!

The quads had a GREAT birthday, seriously nothing but fun for them and us! Bret and I decided to postpone their birthday party until May hoping we will have better weather as well as lessening the chance of sickness and germs. Bret took the day off work so we could all be together on their our special day. We didn't do birthday hats, balloons or even presents. Instead we just had fun and reflected on the past two years and how thankful we are that our sweet babies are here with us today. We thought about the first sonogram when we first saw our little black blobs, our second sonogram when the doctor said the terrifying words "There might be a fifth....", the day I was admitted at 26 weeks, the moment my doctor said he would be back around 5pm to take them, and the exact moments they were born.... their b i r t h d a y .

First thing in the morning we went to see Dr. Reyes for their 2 year check up! This was the first time they could all walk into the office on their own, nobody being held, no strollers... that alone was amazing. We were greeted by all of the nurses who showed us to our room and started taking temps, measuring heights and head circumferences and taking weights!

This was also their first check up that they were able to stand on the big big/girl scale!

Dr. Reyes, being the phenomenal doc he is, even had a 3-tiered birthday cake waiting for them with "Happy Birthday" written with candles! THANKS AGAIN!!

Brody's Stats:

At birth: 3lbs At 2 years: 26lbs 8oz (30th percentile for full-term two year olds)

At birth: 15inches At 2 years: 33inches (15th percentile)

Baxlyn's Stats:

At birth: 2lbs 10oz At 2 years: 23lbs 1oz (7th percentile)

At birth: 15inches At 2 years: 33 1/4inches (33rd percentile)

Kylee's Stats:

At birth: 2lbs 7oz At 2 years: 24lbs 4oz (18th percentile)

At birth: 14 1/2inches At 2 years: 33 3/4inches (47th percentile)

*Kylee's head circumference is looking much better than before. Still not on the charts, but the docs are not as worried now!!!*

Korbin's Stats:

At birth: 2lbs 11oz At 2 years: 26lbs 4oz (27th percentile)

At birth: 14inches At 2 years: 34 3/4inches (59th percentile WOW!)

Our next rounds of tests were hearing and vision. I had a feeling we would need to check these two areas and was a little apprehensive... hearing and vision tests on 4 two year olds can't be fun, or easy. To my surprise it was a breeeeze, SO easy! The pic below shows Brody going first at the eye exams... it was like a camera that flashed a few little lights for a few seconds and that was it!

Kylee was next...Then Korbin, who immediatley flashed a smile thinking it was just another picture being taken!

Then it was Baxlyn's turn. If you know this girl, you KNOW she is different, in a good way, but different. Very independent and always does her own thing, she doesn't follow the crowd, she leads the crowd. At this point in time she was "cuh-lah cuh-lah"ing and didn't want to be disturbed. "Baxlyyyynn... look at the camera Miss Baxlyn....here Baxlyynnn..." the nurse tried and tried to get her to cooperate (and by cooperate I mean look at the camera for like THREE seconds) like the rest of them. Baxlyn would look up for .2 seconds and then go right back to coloring. After a few minutes of begging, we had to give up. This lil' girl didn't get her eye exams done.
Sooo GOOD NEWS - the eyes were easy, quick, and painless. BAD NEWS - they all failed multiple tests on their left eyes, Brody's being the worst. Nothing to be too worried about, but we will be making an appointment with Dr. Leffler in the near future... and that one, Miss B will be attending as well. After the eyes we went for the ears and again they all (even Baxlyn) cooperated and all passed with flying colors!

The Quads at their first year appointment with Dr. Reyes!
Much happier Quads at their 2nd year appointment with Dr. Reyes!

Thanks so much to Dr. Reyes and the staff at Stonebridge Pediatrics for being so good to us. We appreciate everything you have done for us over the past 2 years!

Stay tuned, readers! The Best Birthday Yet: Part 2 is next!