week ending oct 5, 2008:

Week ending Oct 5, 2008: This week the twins turned 5. On their actual birthday, a Friday, I let them eat doughnuts for breakfast, took them to Chuck-E-Cheese for lunch, brought ice cream cups and pudding cups into school (no cupcakes allowed), then Daddy came home an hour early for work and they opened the presents from us. I wrapped the presents the night before their birthday and left them in the dining room for them to find, but I had explained the night before that we weren’t opening presents until Daddy came home. In the morning Alex lay down next to the pile of presents and just stared at them. When I walked over, Alex said “Mom, I can’t help loving my presents” and he gave the wrapped boxes a hug. Chuck-E-Cheese is quite manageable at lunch time on a school day and the kids really love it. When I paid for the pizza and tokens I mentioned that it was the twins’ birthday and the employee gave each twin a gold medal and a balloon. A little while later Chuck-E-Cheese himself came out they BOTH ran right over. I think this is the first time that Alex has ever volunteered to get his picture taken with a character (he wouldn’t even stand next to Buzz Lightyear at Disney). At school the teacher gave the kids each a birthday crown that they were still wearing when I picked them up. We got the twins a special birthday present this year, a battery powered ATV. It took no time at all for the twins to figure out how to operate it since it steers like a bicycle.
Between running around at Chuck-E-Cheese and an evening of excitement and presents the kids were so exhausted that they didn’t have any trouble getting a good night’s sleep before the party on Saturday. We ended up with 10 kids and 21 adults of the possible 52 people we had invited. Everything went very smoothly and the kids all seemed to have a great time bouncing on the trampoline, riding the ATV, doing a craft project, playing a game, opening a piñata, and eating cake. I can’t think of a single thing that went wrong. Every time I started doing one of my “hostess chores” (handing out cake, etc) 4 or 5 people jumped in to help. After the twins unwrapped all the presents Alex started right into getting the toys out of the packaging and Chloe ignored all the toys and went back to playing with her friends. Very typical. Alex loves tinkering with toys and Chloe loves spending time with people.
I can’t believe how much they’ve grown up this year. They are getting more independent all the time. Except at bed time when Chloe was exhausted from a day of partying hard she started asking a lot of questions about what life will be like for her next year when she goes to kindergarten in a new school and I get a job. She’s worried about who’ll watch her, and as I hugged her she clung to me and said “I don’t want you to go to work!” I hate to see her worry, and I reassured her that she’ll be ready for the changes and that I’d do my best to make sure she was happy next year, but part of me is touched that she still wants me around.