Am I correct in assuming that many of you only come here to see pictures of my children – your granddaughters/nieces/cousins/better looking members of the family? I would hate to disappoint you. We had a little birthday party to celebrate Lucy and Elise’s birthday, and to celebrate successfully making it through a year of having three children under the age of three (with a couple months of three kids under two). For the party I found pictures of Lucy and Elise for every month of their last year. When we looked at them all together we kind of laughed and decided that they haven’t changed too much since they were three or four months old. Here is a year of Lucy and Elise:

For their birthday, I bought them some vintage fisher price toys on ebay. I decided to stick with that and gave the party a vintage theme. My friend Nancy made the cakes and cupcakes which not only looked amazing but tasted great too. (I really dislike making and decorating cakes; I’m so glad that other people find it enjoyable.) Since the party was as much for us as it was for our girls, we invited people that we love as well as people that love Lucy and Elise. We were able to spend more time with the other Hollands, who are leaving soon and will be missed very much. When it came time to open presents, Annika was happy to open all of her sister’s presents for them, and the other children were happy to play with them. The twins did not mind at all, as long as they had their new gloworm. After watching Jacob joyously destroy his cake a couple of weeks ago, I was looking forward to giving my girls their own sugar rush. However, after just a small taste they were happy to move on. Even when we gave them a second chance that night, they would only go for the cake after they had eaten all of the tomatoes, turkey, cheese, and cucumbers that were on their tray. Silly girls. Don’t they know they are Hollands? We ate their cakes for them.

Happy, happy birthday Lucy and Elise! Our lives are so much better because you are in them.

When Annika ate her first birthday cake she daintily pulled off the frosting and licked it off her fingers. My friend’s little girl insisted on using a fork. This must be another way in which boys and girls differ. It took Jacob a minute, but once he got going there was no stopping him. At one point he tried to pick up the entire cake and when that didn’t work he took some of the biggest bites I have ever seen fit in a baby’s mouth. That’s my kind of kid.

Carla, I hope you enjoy your sneak peek. I had a great time this afternoon; thanks for sharing Jacob with me. Editing the rest of these pictures will be fun because I can’t help but smile when I look at his little grin.

These are the kinds of things I think about while all my kids are sleeping. Sometimes when the day is crazy it is easy to feel frustrated and wish that naptime and/or bedtime would come sooner. Then they all eventually fall asleep, and the house gets quiet, and I kind of miss my girls. I sit down and edit pictures and see their smiles and relive my day and remember why I like being a mom so much.

Elise boycotted her nap the other day. So what do you do when you have one baby awake, but the other two are sleeping? You throw down a blanket on the bathroom floor and start taking pictures. (Isn’t that what everyone would do?)

A picnic lunch on the porch . . .

. . . pedicures for everyone  (including baby sisters) . . .

. . .  dinner outside . . .

. . . and a trip to the “ice cream store.”

Brad, please hurry home. I’m afraid I’ve set a horrible precedent and that from now on everything will just be disappointing. Anybody have great ideas to keep us occupied for the next week or so?

Also, I realized that although the babies were hanging out with us all day, they are almost completely absent from today’s pictures. That really is too bad, because they are very photogenic. To make up for it, here is a picture from two days ago.

P.S. I love the little self-portait in this picture. Don’t say I don’t post pictures of myself.