Two Halves make a Whole…

Not only do Abby and Zack have to share their birthday, but their birthday is exactly a week after Lila’s, right after Thanksgiving, and exactly three weeks before Christmas. On top of that, this year I hurt my knee and was basically useless for weeks.
Because of all the craziness I couldn’t throw a big party for them but I still wanted their cake to be really special. I had the idea to make two different cakes that looked like one cake. Sort of like the two of them…

Even though their birthday was months ago (December!!) I still can't believe they are already four! It seems like only yesterday they were just tiny little things.

Abby & Zack

They are the best of friends (most of the time). A friend of mine that has twins once said that “every child should be born with a best friend”. I totally agree. It is so fun to watch them play together. Watching the way they can entertain themselves and the way that they make each other laugh definitely makes all the struggles of having two babies worth it! I hope that as they grow up they will continue to be best friends!

In Memorium…

Three years and 8 days ago Lila opened up her piggy bank and used all that cash to buy a fish.

She named him “I Don’t Know” and we have laughed about his name mix ups ever since.

Tonight I Don’t Know passed away. I am actually surprised by how sad I feel.

When we got him. Lila was 3 and Abby and Zack were 15 months old.

(Now Abby & Zack are 3, Lila is 6, and Alex is almost 18 months old. And I can't even find a recent picture with all 4 of them in it...)

We knew I Don’t Know’s time was coming to a close so no one was really surprised when I told them that he had died. Here’s a few of the things the kids said:

Lila: (after examining him) He’s dead. He’s perfectly dead.

Zack: He’ll come alive again & then he won’t die again!

Lila: He’s like part of my family.

Zack: You silly, he IS!!

Lila: I kind of feel bad for him. He’s had a hard time!

Zack: I think his spirit is gone to heaven.

Lila: I tapped the glass and he wasn’t scared, so I think he’s dead!

Emily: Abby (who hasn’t said anything up until this point) do you think anything about I Don’t Know?

Abby: I think he’s dead.

Lila: I KNEW I loved I Don’t Know.

Lila: I BELIEVE he will come alive again. I always knew that Cameron would come alive again, even though he’s gone. I know I Don’t Know will come alive again too.

Lila: I feel like my heart is crying.

Lila: When I’m a grown up and I put my kids to bed I’ll tell them stories about when I was a kid RIGHT NOW and I’ll tell them about when my fish died and they’ll probably be sad for me.

Lila: I said a prayer to Heavenly Father to help me calm down. When I take a deep breath I let all the sadness out of me.

Abby: You let air out of you too!

Zack: I wish you could just call Jesus and he would come down so we could get resurrected right now.

Zack: (After talking about putting a stone on I Don’t Know’s grave) Then he might be rising up and he might hit the stone. OUCH!!

Zack: Yeah, Jesus will move our stone. (when we are resurrected).

Zack: They will write on the stone who it is so we should write "I Don’t Know" on the stone and then they might think we don’t know who is there.

Abby: So we should write “Fishes Grave”.

Lila: Even though we don’t know where Heaven is and where Jesus is, we have faith that Jesus is real!

Lila: I bet now that he is in heaven he feels better because he is happy and he doesn’t hurt anymore.

Lila: I know that if I die I will be happy because I will be with everyone I love.

We had a great talk about the resurrection. (To be honest, I am not sure that fish qualify for resurrected status but still…) As we talked, I was so touched by their simple faith in the plan of salvation and in the resurrection. Lila has dealt with death more than most little kids and I love that she has such a testimony of heaven. Her simple faith is inspiring to me. For her sake, I hope that there ARE fish in heaven!

We will miss you I Don't Know!

It’s Sweet to be Six

Back before my knee incident, (in NOVEMBER!!) we had a super “SWEET” birthday party for Lila. In my usual style I promised myself that I wouldn’t go crazy and then ended up doing way more than I planned…

We had cute invites (the purple “frosting” part of the cake twisted off to the side and the invite info was underneath.)

Fun Games (there were prizes and treats inside the balloons)

The PERFECT Unicorn piñata

TONS of friends

Presents (with great packaging)

And an incredible Kit Kat Cake

But after all that, the highlight of the party was the last minute game I pulled together at the suggestion of my kindergarten teacher sister.

“DON’T EAT PETE!”

It’s especially funny when Daddy plays!!

I had a tough but good parenting moment while I was making the cake. I put the pink and purple ribbon on the cake before I put the M&M’s on. After the M&M’s were on I wanted to change the ribbon because it didn’t match. Lila wanted the ribbon to stay because it was her favorite colors. We had a little battle. I wasn’t going to give in because it was JUST ribbon. Plus, I wanted it to match so I could have some good pictures (which in hindsight is SUCH a lame reason). We tested out the ribbon I wanted and Lila just cried. She tried so hard not to, but it was obvious that she was just devastated. I took one look at her sad little face and realized I was so, so wrong. I quickly comforted her and changed the ribbon back to pink and purple. I told her that what was important wasn’t ribbon, it was her and we could do it her way.

It was a good lesson for me. Sometimes I dig my heels in and try to make things “perfect” and I forget WHY I am actually doing all these things. In the end, it was PERFECT for her, and that is what really mattered.