MicroblogMondays: Kids Are Four Years Old

I know all parents say this.  It is true though.  I blink, and my kids have turned four.

This year I wanted to make it up to the kids for not having a party last year.  The theme for first year was Elmo because the kids didn’t know better.  Second year it was Thomas the Tank Engine.  Last year it was Thomas again for Okra and Excavator for Bunny.  This year guess what Okra wanted?  Trains again.  And interestingly, Bunny wanted trains too. Well that did make it easier for me as I didn’t have to incorporate two different themes like last year.

The kids had school on their actual birthday.  We went in their room to sing them Happy Birthday song when they woke up.  The kids were so excited!  Bunny said, “I am so excited! I can’t wait to see the birthday decorations in the living room!”  Oops… I didn’t decorate the living room this year because we were going to have a birthday party that weekend.  I wasn’t going to do decorations two times in a week.  When Bunny realized that was the case, her face dropped and she almost broke into tears.  The disappointment was so real, and I can understand that.  Last year we had a big photo backdrop on the living room wall with balloons of their names and huge gigantic number 3 and other balloons and tons of presents.  This year there weren’t even presents yet because I didn’t want them to delay going to school.  Poor kids…

That afternoon we brought sugar-free popsicles to school to celebrate with the kids’ friends at school.  They got to wear a birthday hat (which Okra promptly refused) and get a birthday balloon and hear the kids and teachers sing them a birthday song.  It was nice to chat with their teachers and get to see the faces of the kids that Okra and Bunny mention about all the time.  That evening we invited my brother’s family over for the kids’ favorite dinner (ramen for Bunny and unagi donburi for Okra) and had a very yummy birthday cake.  We stuck two number 4 candles on the cake.  Bob joked that he is all set for his 44th birthday next year with candles.

On Saturday that same week, we had a birthday party at a nearby park.  I had booked that picnic area two months prior hoping that the air quality would be good for their party.  I was so relieved on Saturday morning to see that the weather and air were good.  We wanted to keep the party small so we had invited two other sets of twins for a total of 6 kids.  These are kids that we have regular playdates with.  There were more adults because my brother’s family was there as well.  Everyone was masked.  The kids had such a blast!  We rented a bounce house for the party and the kids had the interest and energy to jump almost the whole entire time!  We catered from the kids’ favorite taqueria and had cupcakes.  It was so much fun.  The kids didn’t want to leave.  Bunny was so sad when the jumper company came to pack up the bounce house.  The rest of the day she repeatedly told me that she missed her jumper.  She still says that even to this day, a whole week and some more after her party. Haha.

I am so thankful that we feel safe enough to give them a party.  I hope that next year we can invite more people.  That means that the pandemic will be more under control.

Every year is challenging, but it is also so rewarding to see the kids learn, grow, and develop into their own individual person.  I can’t wait to see what this year brings.